10 ms·

Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are using Amazon’s Lumberyard game engine

116 points by dv35z 10y ago

scrollaway 10y ago
I didn't expect this, but it makes a lot of sense in retrospect. CIG had already hired a bunch of the crytek devs and invested a ton into their engine. They're also already pretty tightly coupled with AWS. I suspect this is the nail in CryEngine's coffin. I massively disagree with the decision, though. I think CIG could have taken CryEngine under their wing and continued developing it, releasing StarEngine (their fork) as another competitor on a field which simply doesn't have enough high quality competition as it is. Maybe they thought about it; maybe they couldn't get the rights, or didn't have enough cash for it. Maybe Amazon made them a massive offer just for the name recognition, too.
- extrapickles 10y ago
  I suspect Lumberyard hasn't diverged from base cryengine much otherwise they wouldn't have been able to as quickly switch. Amazon probably focused on code for autoscaling the backend server pieces and left the front end mostly alone.
  - lykron 10y ago
    That's my assumption as well. They have done massive amounts of custom work in CryEngine, so I'm guessing they are just using some features of Lumberyard.
  - zeeZ 10y ago
    A reddit comment [0]: > StarEngine was based on CryEngine 3.7 (last big integration) with cherry picked changes from CryEngine 3.8 (mainly some Animation/Serialization fixes/improvements). The Lumberyard builds we used had the same CryEngine 3.7 base with the main changes on the Editor/Tools side. We heavily changed or have completely rewritten CPU/GPU side rendering, memory management, multithreading, entity/game object handling + added tons of engine features wich neither CryEngine nor Lumberyard have. Everything else is relatively easy to merge, thanks to the same code base + adding independent Lumberyard only features is straightforward too, especially with the help of Amazon developers. We are pretty good at handling the rest of the old CryEngine codebase, which CryEngine, Lumberyard and StarEngine have in common, ourselves ;) [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/5k06v9/letter_from_the_chairman_26_lumberjack/dbktfe6/ https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/5k06v9/letter_...
- mikhailt 10y ago
  I don't see how fragmenting CryEngine benefits that much considering they're all on the same licensed CryEngine. Amazon paid $50m for the CryEngine and Amazon said Lumberyard is free to use with their AWS services. I think it makes sense for CIG to use Lumberyard's engine with AWS integration, especially it saves them a lot of money not licensing their own CryEngine fork and they're using AWS anyway.
  - scrollaway 10y ago
    CIG probably has more crytek talent than crytek themselves. It wouldn't be fragmenting, at this point.
  - wavefunction 10y ago
    As far as I knew, the plan was to use the various Google Cloud services for the backend, but I wonder if CIG found the offerings from Google too paltry. AWS seems to have better geographical proximity for Australia and South America, along with Asia in general, which was a complaint/concern among backers from Asia and Australia and South America. As far as the license for CryEngine, I believe that wasn't an ongoing cost per se. I know CIG has done a bunch of customization (64-bit floating point precision vs 32-bit floating precision the biggest) but they were originally talking about folding some of those changes back into the general CryTek offering. I wonder if they're instead going to offer that to Amazon for Lumberyard as a cost offset to their use of the services. Star Citizen would be a pretty big feather in the cap for Lumberyard, as well. I'm optimistic about the game's development.
- eximius 10y ago
  As someone who actually wants the game to come out, I'm glad they didn't.
zitterbewegung 10y ago
Does anyone know if there is a comparison or even lumberyard is comparable to Microsoft's azure game services ?
- mynameisvlad 10y ago
  Azure for Gaming [1] is just a collection of Azure services that are related for games, like Notification Hubs, Media Services, etc. Presumably, there's some common SDK for games but I haven't really used it so I can't say. I suspect (although I haven't looked into it) that the backend services that Lumberyard uses are also just standard AWS services packaged up in nice way like Azure. Lumberyard is really just CryEngine with the AWS integration I mentioned above, so it's not really directly comparable. I'd say the two backend services would be a more apt comparison, but as I said above, I haven't used the two myself, so I can't give more details. [1]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/gaming/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/gaming/
Bombthecat 10y ago
When do they start with the "bottom line" and try to finish the game? A month more here, another month more there another switch of engine, concept,plan etc there.
- yborg 10y ago
  It's basically the next installment of Duke Nukem.
  - diimdeep 10y ago
    exactly.
- ComputerGuru 10y ago
  They did the math and found out that they would have the least expenses if they didn't actually release.
- pixelcloud 10y ago
  Amazons engine IS Crytek. They licensed the engine and SC switched. Which really isnt the biggest difference given that its basically the "same" engine.
gulaschadasical 10y ago
Apparently "The most open game development in history" involves briefly mentioning an engine / platform switch at 5pm on a Friday before christmas
- caseysoftware 10y ago
  Did you see their EULA change a while back? If you upgraded to the latest beta, you absolved them of all liability if they never deliver the actual product. This is a sinking ship, they just won't (publicly) admit it yet.. though a bunch of their staff jumped ship, so they realize it.
  - quantumpotato_ 10y ago
    So if you don't update, then you can still hold them accountable? Do you know of people who are watching (maybe you didn't update?)
  - tjalex 10y ago
    Are you serious? Have you actually even tried the game?
  - scrollaway 10y ago
    "A bunch of their staff" jumped ship? What are we talking there? 5 people? 10? 50? Unless you're talking about a mass exodus, more high ranking employees left Blizzard Entertainment the past couple of years than that. Is Blizzard a sinking ship as well?
    - ssully 10y ago
      Blizzard actually puts on new games, content for their games, and turns an enormous profit. So no they are not. I am really curious if you are either an employee at CIG or just a really passionate backer of the project based on your unrelenting defense here. I am not sure why you are surprised by the candor of the comments here - CIG is seen as a running train on fire and is quite literally a joke in the gaming industry. It's unfortunate for those who work there and the people who want the game to succeed, but CIG has earned this reputation.
Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
Still waiting on that Linux support. I only backed because it was promised.
AlphaWeaver 10y ago
Is there a reason why this links to the AMP page as opposed to the actual VentureBeat article?
- Jabbles 10y ago
  HN Feature Request: calculate the domain by stripping the "google.com/amp" prefix if present.
  - tlrobinson 10y ago
    I'd rather shame people who do this to break the habit, and shame Google into fixing the problem.
- dv35z 10y ago
  My fault - submitted this on a mobile device and pasted in the wrong URL. -J
- the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
  Most likely because there is no user interface to get a non AMP link when you follow a link from Google. It's nuts.
  - jacquesc 10y ago
    Yep, this drives me crazy. Finally found a solution (Request Desktop Site) but it's incredibly buried. Shocked that content providers arent suing over this. Google removes all ads (which as a user I like), and any links to the content they are serving. If I were a provider I would be pissed.
acemarke 10y ago
Given their comments about having rewritten over half of the original CryEngine codebase (including things like 64-bit map sizes, local physics grids, physically based rendering, and more), my guess is that this engine switch is primarily about licensing, networking, and use of AWS. They'd also stopped taking updates from CryEngine a while back, so at most they've swapped out some of their networking code.
1_2__3 10y ago
To abuse a phrase: it is difficult to make a dev finish a project when his livelihood depends on him not finishing it.
- indy 10y ago
  I think the devs deserve slightly more respect. Nobody wants to spend years of their lives on an unfinished product.
  - scrollaway 10y ago
    CIG deserves a lot more respect than that. I'm appalled at the quality of the comments here. They are one of the best studios in the industry right now when it comes to consumer and dev friendliness. Their blog is a treasure trove of interesting posts on the internal development of the game, far more often and rigorously updated than anything else. Seriously, keep the unsourced/unresearched flames to Reddit. You'd think that HN of all communities would be more appreciative of what CIG brings to the table.
    - 1_2__3 10y ago
      You're praising them for being developers, rather than actually making anything finished. I'm glad you respect their effort so highly but that doesn't mean anyone else is "flaming" them for pointing out the constantly pushed-out schedules and the convenient fact that they're making plenty of cash without ever releasing anything... and the betas they have released shows an ever-more-ambitious vision when even 3-5 vision-elevations back it was doubtful they could do what they're trying.
      - scrollaway 10y ago
        > You're praising them for being developers, rather than actually making anything finished This is a developer forum more than a gaming forum, so I think it's appropriate, don't you? > plenty of cash without ever releasing anything Come on now. I haven't at all kept up with the game for the past year and half and I can still tell you that they are regularly pushing out content simply because my inbox gets spammed with their content update newsletters. In fact, the latest email is from 17 hours ago, announcing Lumberyard alongside "Alpha 2.6 with Star Marine", their big FPS patch. Saying they "aren't releasing anything" is disingenuous. If you're saying they're not releasing anything you want to play, then sure - they haven't released anything I want to play either. It doesn't change anything.
euyyn 10y ago
Can we get the redirect link changed to the target of the redirect? http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-42-are-using-amazons-lumberyard-game-engine/ http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-...
- dang 10y ago
  Sure thing.
MatthiasP 10y ago
This sounds more dramatic than what it actually is, a merge of two CryEngine forks.
TheAceOfHearts 10y ago
The link should probably be updated to point directly to Venturebeat [0] instead of the AMP version. I think submitting the AMP version might break the guidelines, which ask you to submit the original source. I preordered Star Citizen a few years ago, but I stopped keeping track of all updates after a while. To be honest, I kinda assumed it'd just become vaporware. Although I'd heard about Amazon Lumberyard before, I hadn't considered this before: I wonder if Amazon will start a game studio at some point, since they seem to have a hand in pretty much every other tech scene. Are there any big avenues open for disruption in the videogame scene? [0] http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-42-are-using-amazons-lumberyard-game-engine/ http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-...
- dualarte 10y ago
  Amazon actually already runs a game studio: https://games.amazon.com https://games.amazon.com
  - TheAceOfHearts 10y ago
    Well, that doesn't surprise me, but still... I'm absolutely amazed at how many things they seem to be doing over at Amazon. I wonder if Amazon will follow Google's route and start splitting up into smaller companies at some point?
    - spullara 10y ago
      I think it is already split into a lot of sub-companies. https://www.quora.com/List-of-all-Amazon-properties-subsidiaries https://www.quora.com/List-of-all-Amazon-properties-subsidia...
    - RijilV 10y ago
      https://www.google.com/amp/www.geekwire.com/2016/amazon-now-three-ceos-online-retailer-promotes-andy-jassy-jeff-wilke/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/www.geekwire.com/2016/amazon-now-... Amazon recently reorganized itself into three gorups, with Andy Jassy becoming CEO of AWS, Jeff Wilke CEO of retail, and Bezos keeping digital. Not sure how much still goes all the way to the top but the impression from an investment perspective is the three main arms of the company can operate more independently.
rasz_pl 10y ago
Dont get your hopes up, this game is shaping to be something between Theranos and No Mans Sky (aka No Mans Gameplay[1]) Here is a critique of FPS portion from seasoned FPS player (Beagle - former ShackTac etc) https://www.twitch.tv/beagsandjam/v/109477776 https://www.twitch.tv/beagsandjam/v/109477776 TLDR: devs dont have any idea how FPS games work and what makes them fun. [1] I used that sentence during the hype train and got downvoted to hell and back ;-) People are blind when they go fanboy mode.
- scrollaway 10y ago
  There is a big difference between a game that was developed entirely in secret that does not live up to its hype once released, and a game in early alpha that has disappointing gameplay. Of course, I have no fucking idea why this has to be explained on hacker news, to people who most likely are familiar with the differences between an alpha-quality product and a release-quality product, so I'd love your input on that.
mungoid 10y ago
Soo, how different is this new game engine since it a offshoot of the crytek engine? Is it going to add another x years to the development? Because it took my company almost a whole year to switch engines for a game that is a tiny fraction of the size of SC
bm3719 10y ago
After getting my refund, I've been watching the SC narrative unfold from the sidelines with interest. There's enough things that've gone awry in this project to write a book about (and I guess if you were to collect all of Derek Smart's writings, that's what you'd have). For me, the main deal breakers and why I got out were that I felt substantively bait-and-switched when you compare the current "game" to what was originally promised, and a complete lack of any confidence whatsoever in this game actually coming out. The latter is mainly due to things like this, where core technologies are forever iterated on at a fundamental level even this far (5 years) into development.
- IshKebab 10y ago
  They were already using CryEngine, and Lumberyard is based on CryEngine (I assume the changes are mostly licensing rather than technical), so I doubt this was actually hard at all. In fact if you'd read the article: > Because we share a common technical vision, it has been a very smooth and easy transition to Lumberyard. In fact, we are excited to announce that our upcoming 2.6 Alpha release for Star Citizen is running on Lumberyard and AWS. All the bait & switch over-promising, over-ambitious probably-never-finished criticisms are true, but it's silly to say that this is one of those Duke Nukem Forever style start from scratch again mistakes.
- sandworm101 10y ago
  >> compare the current "game" to what was originally promised That's a real issue with crowdfunding. More often than not, the devs truly have no idea what the final game will look like. Much of the early funding goes into what are essentially extended market research projects. Alphas are released, feedback taken, and changes made. Everyone expects that devs have some final version of "done" in their heads, but the truth is that such pictures constantly change in response to user/market feedback. There are only a handful of indi games that ever developed towards a finite picture (Prison Architect). Most bounce around trying to please all the fans until some financial tipping point causes them to slap "1.0" on the latest build and push it out the door (KSP). That crowdfunding and traditional funding result in very different game development should be no surprise to anyone. StarCitizen will release when they need to release. Until then the cycle of feedback and iteration will continue.
ebbv 10y ago
This isn't nearly as big of a deal as the headline sounds since Lumberyard is just a free version of CryTek with extra bells and whistles. Why would any dev that was using CryTek not switch to Lumberyard?
- Netbeing 10y ago
  Because they could never again use any 3rd party cloud services for their game except AWS?
  - ebbv 10y ago
    Yeah I didn't check the agreement before, I had assumed the integration with AWS was there to make it attractive, but you're right it locks you out of any other third party service. That does make it a real choice.
JohnHaugeland 10y ago
I was gonna be like "that's gonna be so expensive when they hit a large playerbase" Then I thought about it
frik 10y ago
Amazon Lumberyard game engine = fork of CryEngine maintained by Amazon. So they just changed from were they get Engine support, the engine is the same. CryEngine got forked and improved from Ubisoft before and is used in FarCry 2-4 series (now called Dunia engine). The original FarCry 1 was from Crytek.

116 points by dv35z 10y ago

I didn't expect this, but it makes a lot of sense in retrospect. CIG had already hired a bunch of the crytek devs and invested a ton into their engine. They're also already pretty tightly coupled with AWS. I suspect this is the nail in CryEngine's coffin. I massively disagree with the decision, though. I think CIG could have taken CryEngine under their wing and continued developing it, releasing StarEngine (their fork) as another competitor on a field which simply doesn't have enough high quality competition as it is. Maybe they thought about it; maybe they couldn't get the rights, or didn't have enough cash for it. Maybe Amazon made them a massive offer just for the name recognition, too.

extrapickles 10y ago
I suspect Lumberyard hasn't diverged from base cryengine much otherwise they wouldn't have been able to as quickly switch. Amazon probably focused on code for autoscaling the backend server pieces and left the front end mostly alone.
- lykron 10y ago
  That's my assumption as well. They have done massive amounts of custom work in CryEngine, so I'm guessing they are just using some features of Lumberyard.
- zeeZ 10y ago
  A reddit comment [0]: > StarEngine was based on CryEngine 3.7 (last big integration) with cherry picked changes from CryEngine 3.8 (mainly some Animation/Serialization fixes/improvements). The Lumberyard builds we used had the same CryEngine 3.7 base with the main changes on the Editor/Tools side. We heavily changed or have completely rewritten CPU/GPU side rendering, memory management, multithreading, entity/game object handling + added tons of engine features wich neither CryEngine nor Lumberyard have. Everything else is relatively easy to merge, thanks to the same code base + adding independent Lumberyard only features is straightforward too, especially with the help of Amazon developers. We are pretty good at handling the rest of the old CryEngine codebase, which CryEngine, Lumberyard and StarEngine have in common, ourselves ;) [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/5k06v9/letter_from_the_chairman_26_lumberjack/dbktfe6/ https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/5k06v9/letter_...
mikhailt 10y ago
I don't see how fragmenting CryEngine benefits that much considering they're all on the same licensed CryEngine. Amazon paid $50m for the CryEngine and Amazon said Lumberyard is free to use with their AWS services. I think it makes sense for CIG to use Lumberyard's engine with AWS integration, especially it saves them a lot of money not licensing their own CryEngine fork and they're using AWS anyway.
- scrollaway 10y ago
  CIG probably has more crytek talent than crytek themselves. It wouldn't be fragmenting, at this point.
- wavefunction 10y ago
  As far as I knew, the plan was to use the various Google Cloud services for the backend, but I wonder if CIG found the offerings from Google too paltry. AWS seems to have better geographical proximity for Australia and South America, along with Asia in general, which was a complaint/concern among backers from Asia and Australia and South America. As far as the license for CryEngine, I believe that wasn't an ongoing cost per se. I know CIG has done a bunch of customization (64-bit floating point precision vs 32-bit floating precision the biggest) but they were originally talking about folding some of those changes back into the general CryTek offering. I wonder if they're instead going to offer that to Amazon for Lumberyard as a cost offset to their use of the services. Star Citizen would be a pretty big feather in the cap for Lumberyard, as well. I'm optimistic about the game's development.
eximius 10y ago
As someone who actually wants the game to come out, I'm glad they didn't.

zitterbewegung 10y ago

Does anyone know if there is a comparison or even lumberyard is comparable to Microsoft's azure game services ?

mynameisvlad 10y ago
Azure for Gaming [1] is just a collection of Azure services that are related for games, like Notification Hubs, Media Services, etc. Presumably, there's some common SDK for games but I haven't really used it so I can't say. I suspect (although I haven't looked into it) that the backend services that Lumberyard uses are also just standard AWS services packaged up in nice way like Azure. Lumberyard is really just CryEngine with the AWS integration I mentioned above, so it's not really directly comparable. I'd say the two backend services would be a more apt comparison, but as I said above, I haven't used the two myself, so I can't give more details. [1]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/gaming/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/gaming/

Bombthecat 10y ago

When do they start with the "bottom line" and try to finish the game? A month more here, another month more there another switch of engine, concept,plan etc there.

yborg 10y ago
It's basically the next installment of Duke Nukem.
- diimdeep 10y ago
  exactly.
ComputerGuru 10y ago
They did the math and found out that they would have the least expenses if they didn't actually release.
pixelcloud 10y ago
Amazons engine IS Crytek. They licensed the engine and SC switched. Which really isnt the biggest difference given that its basically the "same" engine.

gulaschadasical 10y ago

Apparently "The most open game development in history" involves briefly mentioning an engine / platform switch at 5pm on a Friday before christmas

caseysoftware 10y ago
Did you see their EULA change a while back? If you upgraded to the latest beta, you absolved them of all liability if they never deliver the actual product. This is a sinking ship, they just won't (publicly) admit it yet.. though a bunch of their staff jumped ship, so they realize it.
- quantumpotato_ 10y ago
  So if you don't update, then you can still hold them accountable? Do you know of people who are watching (maybe you didn't update?)
- tjalex 10y ago
  Are you serious? Have you actually even tried the game?
- scrollaway 10y ago
  "A bunch of their staff" jumped ship? What are we talking there? 5 people? 10? 50? Unless you're talking about a mass exodus, more high ranking employees left Blizzard Entertainment the past couple of years than that. Is Blizzard a sinking ship as well?
  - ssully 10y ago
    Blizzard actually puts on new games, content for their games, and turns an enormous profit. So no they are not. I am really curious if you are either an employee at CIG or just a really passionate backer of the project based on your unrelenting defense here. I am not sure why you are surprised by the candor of the comments here - CIG is seen as a running train on fire and is quite literally a joke in the gaming industry. It's unfortunate for those who work there and the people who want the game to succeed, but CIG has earned this reputation.

Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago

Still waiting on that Linux support. I only backed because it was promised.

AlphaWeaver 10y ago

Is there a reason why this links to the AMP page as opposed to the actual VentureBeat article?

Jabbles 10y ago
HN Feature Request: calculate the domain by stripping the "google.com/amp" prefix if present.
- tlrobinson 10y ago
  I'd rather shame people who do this to break the habit, and shame Google into fixing the problem.
dv35z 10y ago
My fault - submitted this on a mobile device and pasted in the wrong URL. -J
the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
Most likely because there is no user interface to get a non AMP link when you follow a link from Google. It's nuts.
- jacquesc 10y ago
  Yep, this drives me crazy. Finally found a solution (Request Desktop Site) but it's incredibly buried. Shocked that content providers arent suing over this. Google removes all ads (which as a user I like), and any links to the content they are serving. If I were a provider I would be pissed.

acemarke 10y ago

Given their comments about having rewritten over half of the original CryEngine codebase (including things like 64-bit map sizes, local physics grids, physically based rendering, and more), my guess is that this engine switch is primarily about licensing, networking, and use of AWS. They'd also stopped taking updates from CryEngine a while back, so at most they've swapped out some of their networking code.

1_2__3 10y ago

To abuse a phrase: it is difficult to make a dev finish a project when his livelihood depends on him not finishing it.

indy 10y ago
I think the devs deserve slightly more respect. Nobody wants to spend years of their lives on an unfinished product.
- scrollaway 10y ago
  CIG deserves a lot more respect than that. I'm appalled at the quality of the comments here. They are one of the best studios in the industry right now when it comes to consumer and dev friendliness. Their blog is a treasure trove of interesting posts on the internal development of the game, far more often and rigorously updated than anything else. Seriously, keep the unsourced/unresearched flames to Reddit. You'd think that HN of all communities would be more appreciative of what CIG brings to the table.
  - 1_2__3 10y ago
    You're praising them for being developers, rather than actually making anything finished. I'm glad you respect their effort so highly but that doesn't mean anyone else is "flaming" them for pointing out the constantly pushed-out schedules and the convenient fact that they're making plenty of cash without ever releasing anything... and the betas they have released shows an ever-more-ambitious vision when even 3-5 vision-elevations back it was doubtful they could do what they're trying.
    - scrollaway 10y ago
      > You're praising them for being developers, rather than actually making anything finished This is a developer forum more than a gaming forum, so I think it's appropriate, don't you? > plenty of cash without ever releasing anything Come on now. I haven't at all kept up with the game for the past year and half and I can still tell you that they are regularly pushing out content simply because my inbox gets spammed with their content update newsletters. In fact, the latest email is from 17 hours ago, announcing Lumberyard alongside "Alpha 2.6 with Star Marine", their big FPS patch. Saying they "aren't releasing anything" is disingenuous. If you're saying they're not releasing anything you want to play, then sure - they haven't released anything I want to play either. It doesn't change anything.

euyyn 10y ago

Can we get the redirect link changed to the target of the redirect? http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-42-are-using-amazons-lumberyard-game-engine/ http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-...

dang 10y ago
Sure thing.

MatthiasP 10y ago

This sounds more dramatic than what it actually is, a merge of two CryEngine forks.

TheAceOfHearts 10y ago

The link should probably be updated to point directly to Venturebeat [0] instead of the AMP version. I think submitting the AMP version might break the guidelines, which ask you to submit the original source. I preordered Star Citizen a few years ago, but I stopped keeping track of all updates after a while. To be honest, I kinda assumed it'd just become vaporware. Although I'd heard about Amazon Lumberyard before, I hadn't considered this before: I wonder if Amazon will start a game studio at some point, since they seem to have a hand in pretty much every other tech scene. Are there any big avenues open for disruption in the videogame scene? [0] http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-42-are-using-amazons-lumberyard-game-engine/ http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-...

dualarte 10y ago
Amazon actually already runs a game studio: https://games.amazon.com https://games.amazon.com
- TheAceOfHearts 10y ago
  Well, that doesn't surprise me, but still... I'm absolutely amazed at how many things they seem to be doing over at Amazon. I wonder if Amazon will follow Google's route and start splitting up into smaller companies at some point?
  - spullara 10y ago
    I think it is already split into a lot of sub-companies. https://www.quora.com/List-of-all-Amazon-properties-subsidiaries https://www.quora.com/List-of-all-Amazon-properties-subsidia...
  - RijilV 10y ago
    https://www.google.com/amp/www.geekwire.com/2016/amazon-now-three-ceos-online-retailer-promotes-andy-jassy-jeff-wilke/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/www.geekwire.com/2016/amazon-now-... Amazon recently reorganized itself into three gorups, with Andy Jassy becoming CEO of AWS, Jeff Wilke CEO of retail, and Bezos keeping digital. Not sure how much still goes all the way to the top but the impression from an investment perspective is the three main arms of the company can operate more independently.

rasz_pl 10y ago

Dont get your hopes up, this game is shaping to be something between Theranos and No Mans Sky (aka No Mans Gameplay[1]) Here is a critique of FPS portion from seasoned FPS player (Beagle - former ShackTac etc) https://www.twitch.tv/beagsandjam/v/109477776 https://www.twitch.tv/beagsandjam/v/109477776 TLDR: devs dont have any idea how FPS games work and what makes them fun. [1] I used that sentence during the hype train and got downvoted to hell and back ;-) People are blind when they go fanboy mode.

scrollaway 10y ago
There is a big difference between a game that was developed entirely in secret that does not live up to its hype once released, and a game in early alpha that has disappointing gameplay. Of course, I have no fucking idea why this has to be explained on hacker news, to people who most likely are familiar with the differences between an alpha-quality product and a release-quality product, so I'd love your input on that.

mungoid 10y ago

Soo, how different is this new game engine since it a offshoot of the crytek engine? Is it going to add another x years to the development? Because it took my company almost a whole year to switch engines for a game that is a tiny fraction of the size of SC

bm3719 10y ago

After getting my refund, I've been watching the SC narrative unfold from the sidelines with interest. There's enough things that've gone awry in this project to write a book about (and I guess if you were to collect all of Derek Smart's writings, that's what you'd have). For me, the main deal breakers and why I got out were that I felt substantively bait-and-switched when you compare the current "game" to what was originally promised, and a complete lack of any confidence whatsoever in this game actually coming out. The latter is mainly due to things like this, where core technologies are forever iterated on at a fundamental level even this far (5 years) into development.

IshKebab 10y ago
They were already using CryEngine, and Lumberyard is based on CryEngine (I assume the changes are mostly licensing rather than technical), so I doubt this was actually hard at all. In fact if you'd read the article: > Because we share a common technical vision, it has been a very smooth and easy transition to Lumberyard. In fact, we are excited to announce that our upcoming 2.6 Alpha release for Star Citizen is running on Lumberyard and AWS. All the bait & switch over-promising, over-ambitious probably-never-finished criticisms are true, but it's silly to say that this is one of those Duke Nukem Forever style start from scratch again mistakes.
sandworm101 10y ago
>> compare the current "game" to what was originally promised That's a real issue with crowdfunding. More often than not, the devs truly have no idea what the final game will look like. Much of the early funding goes into what are essentially extended market research projects. Alphas are released, feedback taken, and changes made. Everyone expects that devs have some final version of "done" in their heads, but the truth is that such pictures constantly change in response to user/market feedback. There are only a handful of indi games that ever developed towards a finite picture (Prison Architect). Most bounce around trying to please all the fans until some financial tipping point causes them to slap "1.0" on the latest build and push it out the door (KSP). That crowdfunding and traditional funding result in very different game development should be no surprise to anyone. StarCitizen will release when they need to release. Until then the cycle of feedback and iteration will continue.

ebbv 10y ago

This isn't nearly as big of a deal as the headline sounds since Lumberyard is just a free version of CryTek with extra bells and whistles. Why would any dev that was using CryTek not switch to Lumberyard?

Netbeing 10y ago
Because they could never again use any 3rd party cloud services for their game except AWS?
- ebbv 10y ago
  Yeah I didn't check the agreement before, I had assumed the integration with AWS was there to make it attractive, but you're right it locks you out of any other third party service. That does make it a real choice.

JohnHaugeland 10y ago

I was gonna be like "that's gonna be so expensive when they hit a large playerbase" Then I thought about it

frik 10y ago

Amazon Lumberyard game engine = fork of CryEngine maintained by Amazon. So they just changed from were they get Engine support, the engine is the same. CryEngine got forked and improved from Ubisoft before and is used in FarCry 2-4 series (now called Dunia engine). The original FarCry 1 was from Crytek.