Star Citizen & Squadron 42 ditch CRYENGINE over Amazon's Lumberyard Engine

Cloud Imperium Games announced today the company is using the Amazon Lumberyard game engine to create its ground-breaking space sim games, Star Citizen and Squadron 42. Both games are currently in development and are backed by a record-breaking $139 million crowd funded effort.

[crazychris4124]

Not surprised since Lumberyard is based on Cryengine and who knows how much longer Crytek lasts as a company.

[Mr Pumblechook]

I believe they switched engines once before. It's really not good to be doing this TWICE in the development of the game. It indicates that the management of the project is not running smoothly. It further protracts the development and I doubt it will release before 2018.

[cartoonx1]

actually its not a different engine, they ha ve to modified some net code related stuff, that title is misleading

[morlen]

No? they've never switched engines before

[morganfell]

Although their motives seem well based, they are falling into the trap where "perfect" becomes the enemy of "good enough."

[akiraburn]

Just for point of reference on the situation, Amazon's Lumberyard engine is actually based on the entire architecture of Crytek's CryEngine. Earlier last year, Crytek was in a bad position financially (similar to what they are again going through), so Amazon offered them a substantial stipend of money to acquire what was essentially a copy of the source code for their engine. Amazon's software department added/changed some features and adjusted the UI a bit, decided on a structure where developers using it have no-royalties or fees (just asking that you use their servers for your game's online functionality and online compute purposes), and then launched it as their own free engine called Lumberyard.

Many of the assets and contents created in CryEngine tend to work directly in Lumberyard without too much hassle because the core of both these engines is designed nearly identically. So considering the serious financial problems that Crytek is going through again, I think that this was a logical and preventative measure that Chris Roberts and the folks developing Star Citizen had to make in order to avoid developing on a dead (unsupported) engine, in the event that Crytek goes under. The move likely required minimal effort/time, especially compared to moving the game to any other engine. And Amazon almost assuredly is involved directly with them because the change of engine for Star Citizen now means they have a AAA title on their engine (and from the way it sounds in the article, this assessment would be correct).

So overall, I believe that Lumberyard is actually the best move they could make at this juncture. And long-run, Amazon is a much more stable company than Crytek ever was, meaning they don't have to worry about losing engine support unless Amazon discontinues the engine for some reason. But it sounds like they've already been working with Amazon over the past year, so this may have been a move a long time in the making.

[Errorist76]

Inform yourself on the topic first please. The whole conversion was done in two days since Lumberyard is a fully licensed and extended CryEngine version. It has enhanced capabilities especially for networking which will greatly benefit the game. Also support for CryEngine is questionable already due to Crytek's financial situation. It's a smart move and not concerning.

[bluefox755]

Anything to keep that gravy train rolling.

[bmf7364]

It honestly isn't. The first switch was from Cryengine 3 to Cryengine (4th gen). My guess is to save themselves on licensing for Lumberyard since its more open-source than CryEngine.

[Nathan_Hale53]

You have no idea what you are talking about, they never switched engines.

[MagicBeanz]

One step closer to Amazons new world order and complete take over. You will be assimilated.

[The 10th Rider]

Either that or Disney's. If Amazon buys Disney or Disney buys Amazon, we're screwed. You could probably throw Google in the mix as well . . .

[Kreisen]

...

[Errorist76]

This engine is a modified and fully licensed CryEngine. At least know what you're talking about.

[Lamboomington]

It's basically Cryengine.

A very small and easy change for CIG. They get whatever benefits from Lumberyard and AWS, while keeping all their custom stuff

[Kreisen]

Yup it seems i was completely wrong, lumberyard is mostly based on Cryengine. I removed my comment so people dont get confused :D

[notachance]

LOL, The Witcher 3 costs way less and only needs 3.5 years to develop, and in terms of development cost this game is about to surpass destiny ($140 mil.) to be the 2nd most expensive development cost.

People might've given this game a pass because of No Man's Sky failure but I'm not touching Scam Citizen until it delivers what it promised to be, right now they're just like a bunch of college students scrambling to make a presentable demo at the end of each assignment deadline.

[sullynathan]

2020, just wait on it.

[Seafort]

Fallout 4 took 6-7 years to be developed. Star Citizen is on year 4+ so we have 2-3 years before you can start bitching about how long the game takes to develop.

Unless you want to start complaining to Bethesda because their games are taking too long as well. I mean shouldn't we be on Elder Scrolls 6 and 7 by now considering game development only takes 1-2 years according to you and many others :)

[Kreisen]

@Seafort
Except Fallout 4 was not in full development for 7 years, it was closer to 4. And the team behind it was comprised of just over 100 people compared to Star Citizen which is being worked on by well over 400.

The truth is they shouldve had so much more to offer by now then a few empty Space Stations and some ships.

[sullynathan]

@Seafort fallout 4 is pretty shitty and took about 4 years to develop. Bethesda started development after skyrim released after all.

This game has more people and more money for development and isn't even showing anywhere close to being complete.

[TheOptimist]

@Seafort

Let's not forget that Fallout 4 and any of the Bethesda's major games have been nothing more than glitchfests which are not even technically impressive titles- Skyrim, Fallout 4, Dishonored 2 (Dishonored 1 was an exception)
And they had a bigger team for it as well.

@arkard
Dishonored 2 has a couple of bugs? Ummm.... K

@nitus10
You do know that it is being funded by the PC gamers, so it doesn't need a profit

[arkard]

@optimist

Dishonored 1 and 2 are only published by Bethesda, not made. Also, playing both titles, I would not go anywhere near as to say they are glitch fests. They have a couple of bugs here and there but that is it.

[nitus10]

Fallout 4 is what is called an "Action Role Playing Game" and as such is popular with people who like RPG's as well as Action/Adventure and First Person Shooters. In other words, a "mixed bag" that can appeal to people across a range of genres which means allot more sales than if the game was one type of genres.

Fallout 4 also runs on consoles and PC's which means the target audience is pretty large as shown by the fact that it has shipped well over 12 million (approx $750 USD) https://gamerant.com/fallou... (a year ago) or you could try VGChatz http://www.vgchartz.com/ which also confirms that number. Basically a nice profit for all parties concerned.

The following is a statistical diagram of Game Genres Across the World http://www.bigfishgames.com...

Star Citizen is planned to consist of four main components: first-person space combat, mining, exploration, and trading (from Wikipedia). This game is limited to Microsoft Windows and Linux and will only run on high-end PC hardware which effectively cuts out consoles, mobiles, tablets and PC's that are less powerful than the current generation console. In other words "a niche game" in more ways than one.

Whether Star Citizen will turn a profit remains to be seen.

[Mr Pumblechook]

I love the college students metaphor.

[sourav93]

Scam Citizen? Lol how long did it take for you to come up with that?

But as a backer myself, I agree that development has taken a lot longer than expected, and deadlines getting pushed back isn't a good sign. However, they have released and shown new stuff (areas, gameplay elements, game modes, etc) that shows that progress is definitely being made.

Right now in the alpha, you can party up with friends and do missions in the persistent universe (multiple locations and numerous missions). There is a battle royal pvp mode. There's a coop mode. There's also a horde mode. And they've just added the fps game mode call star marine.

So calling the game Scam Citizen is a tad premature. Perhaps Slow Citizen is more appropriate.

[notachance]

well tbh I'm interested in this game, it's one of the reason I upgraded my rig to high-end stuff some months back BECAUSE they said the full game will be a 2016 release... soo I'm still waiting, but without any hype.

[Errorist76]

I definitely understand the scepticism. The game is soooo far from being complete and essentially fun. Sometimes wanting too much isn't a good move.

[Kapella]

As a backer you know damn well what it will be when its complete. I dont know about you, but Im willing to wait.

[Eiffel]

You do realize how massive this game and the scope they're aiming for is right? We're not talking about a general sandbox here. Quite literally a graphically intensive universe with planets and all they'll expand several years post-release. Five years is nothing compared to games we've seen take a decade or more and have less to show at release than what this game is aiming for. It's only realistic to expect something unorthodox like this to take some time. At least they actually keep people updated on progress with gameplay videos almost on a weekly basis with playable POC modules.

[Lamboomington]

The Witcher 3 is also no where near as ambitious as this is. This is an MMO, possibly the most complex one ever, being developed along side a very ambitious SP campaign.

The fact of the matter is that this game is probably the most ambitious thing in a long time. Comparing it with other games is pointless.

[Ravenor]

You're in a community where people largely don't know what Wing Commander is, they don't understand all the myriad reasons most people are excited and threw millions at the funding of it.

[Nathan_Hale53]

They don't have a deadline nor have shown any signs of rushing their game. Plus, although Witcher was massive, this game is even bigger in scale for many reasons. If you believe this game to be a scam, then you are rather dumb. They wouldn't have put this much time and effort into a scam.

[Gecksta]

So; this game is never coming out

[Errorist76]

Luckily there is no reason to panic. It's a simple switch to an enhanced version of CryEngine with better netcode and Twitch integration.

[sullynathan]

So after all these years of development and working on cry engine they switch to another engine that is still in beta? Is anyone else naive enough to believe this game is going to be what was promised?

[UCForce]

This is what I want to see a release date of this game.

Edit : @Erroriest76 I agree. Just hope it doesn't take too long.

[Errorist76]

At least it's based on Cryengine so it should be doable. (Edit they did the whole conversion in two days...piece of cake.)

[Lamboomington]

It's already done. No one even noticed it. It took them a few days.

[Seafort]

Yeah they are going from Cryengine to Cryengine. Such a change in engines. How ever will they do it? :P

From what I've read they are combining Lumberyard and StarEngine and creating a "super" engine which will cater to both Amazon and CIG going forwards.

Lumberyard has the technologies for creating massive multiplayer titles with support from Amazon's massive Cloud computing servers (AWS) and Twitch streaming. Starengine has the graphical tech to future proof game development going forwards.

This is 5 steps forward not 10 steps backwards for both companies. I can't wait to see the combined results for Star Citizen and whatever games Amazon releases in the future.

[Nivekki]

It's still the same engine sully, but you're an idiot who jumps to conclusions so it's not a surprise to see you come out with a load of shit again.

[Lamboomington]

It's the same engine, but your tone is uncalled for.

[Lamboomington]

No, Lumberyard is Cryengine base, so no, it's not like they're switching engines. IT's like taking a different fork of cryengine, that's it.

The game might fail spectacularly, but this will have nothing to do with it. It's NOT an 'engine change' in the normal sense.

[KTF26]

Lumberyard engine = CryEngine 3.8.1 + AWS integration + few tweaks

[watchem]

It is still the same engine so this title is just clickbait.

[jagstar44]

I remember them talking about all the problems the engine has caused them in the past, and for years they were always modifing and patching it, and now a new engine shift, we should be in the homestrech to the finish line by now It feels like this game is never going to be completed.

[morlen]

You do realise that lumberyard is also cry engine? its not such a major shift

[Errorist76]

Switching took them two days...what's two days for a million light years game?!

[KTF26]

it's almost the same engine + AWS integration

[Matology]

Another setback and another delay for the world's costliest development hell game.

[Lamboomington]

No, the engine is still Cryengine base. A very small and quick change that took them very little time and effort.

[Errorist76]

2 f'in days!

[Rob_Ko]

wtf Star Citizen? another delay,really?

[Lamboomington]

No. They switched from Cryengine to Cryengine, essentially. No delay, no setbacks because of this. This changes nothing. They've got enough actual problems to worry about but that's not the point.

[Errorist76]

No, not really. It's more likely this step even shortens development.

[Rivitur]

Do you know what a seemless transition is?

[Emme]

Elite Dangerous actually shipped, NMS shipped while Star Citizen still is in development. Daikatana all over again ? Who needs that FPS deathmatch BS they just showed, when people payed for a spacesim ? Looks like very unfocused development.

[sullynathan]

Feature creep has hurt this game before it even released. Chris Robert's wants your money to add everything possible into a game no matter the quality.

[Ravenor]

Because being boarded is an aspect of naval warfare? Why not blow it out to the extreme?

[Lamboomington]

Star Citizen has it's problems. This engine change is not one of them. It's Cryengine to Cryengine. The title is a little clickbait. Please read before commenting...

[CrystalFantasy]

Release date just got pushed another year. GG Robert you con-man

[bangoskank]

They switched do late in development. That's not a good sign.

[Lamboomington]

except it's still basically cryengine, so it's not a proper engine change. It was a change that took a couple of days or so.

[Kapella]

This was indeed an interesting move but it for sure has paid off. The game looks, runs, feels, and plays a lot better. Especially when it was the end of the PTU. I can see how it receives a lot of criticism from people on the outside, but my god it will be the most technically advanced game ever released. What they are accomplishing is amazing. And with every release, it gets better and better. Where does all the money go? Into the ridiculously detailed ship design and implementation. Go buy an expensive ship thats flight ready. Youll see.

[jznrpg]

They ever going to finish Star Citizen, or just keep asking for $$

[Garethvk]

Millions of dollars collected, fancy offices opened, and the game is still in Alpha with no release date. Amazing how people still keep forking over cash to fund it.

[Enigma_2099]

... is that Jean Reno?

[Bolts]

Lumberyard is probably the most boring name you can brand an engine.WTF were they thinking.

[SuperLupe]

Absolutely horrible.

[Eiffel]

I could be wrong but my own interpretation of it for the name was that it's a reference to lumber, which of course is found in Amazon rainforests. It's a stretch but yeah.

Edit: Actually after looking at the logo for the engine it seems to suit.

[Ulf]

So... $99/year to play Star Citizen, via Amazon Prime now? Serving it up via Amazon services is pretty much the only reason to switch engines. It's not because they had a desperate desire to rewrite the game...

[Nathan_Hale53]

They aren't switching engines, they are using Lumberyard for Netcode reasons.

[ASSASSYN]

They did not switch engines.

[MrMoe]

This game will never come out, and if it does it will be a big disappointment like every other game that tuck to long to develop and release. Mark may words.
I almost feel sory for people that backed them up, almost..... laugh at those fools.