CryTek For Free: CryEngine 3 SDK and Editor

Samfer writes with this excerpt from Operation Reality Gaming: "[...] sometime this summer, likely around August, we will see the appearance online of both a Crysis 2 editor and a CryEngine 3 SDK (software development kit). This not only means that people will be able to make full blown new levels for Crysis 2 but that the CryEngine 3 will also be made publicly available for the development of non-commercial projects to the community at large. To quote, 'This will be a complete version of our engine, including C++ code access, our content exporters (including our LiveCreate real-time pipeline), shader code, game sample code from Crysis 2, script samples, new improved Flowgraph and a whole host of great asset examples, which will allow teams to build complete games from scratch for PC.'"

Bravo

[Nihn]

Giving the engine for free is a massive swing to what I believe is the future of gaming. Gamers are too far gone now to be "enchanted" by games and want to know how it all works, and how they can change it to suit them better. Fallout 3 is the first game I came across that was fully supported by the community with mods, skins, and improved game play with patches to fix bugs. Having 12 people working on a game and patches is weak compared to having hundreds of intelligent and willing contributors all working for a common goal. Let the players have the keys to the car, you will be amazed at the way we can drive.