Amazon Lumberyard is a now-superseded

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...

cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software ...

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term " software engine" used in the softwar ...

developed by

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

and based on CryEngine (initially released in 2002), which was licensed from Crytek in 2015. In July 2021, Amazon and the

Linux Foundation The Linux Foundation (LF) is a non-profit technology consortium founded in 2000 as a merger between Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group to standardize Linux, support its growth, and promote its commercial adoption. Addi ...

announced that parts of the engine would be used to create a new open source game engine called Open 3D Engine, which would replace it. A new Open 3D Foundation, run by the

, will manage the new engine, which will be licensed under the open source Apache 2.0 license. The new engine is reportedly partially based on Lumberyard but with many parts rewritten, and is considered a new engine. The Lumberyard engine features integration with

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to allow developers to build or host their games on Amazon's servers, as well as support for livestreaming via Twitch. Additionally, the engine includes Twitch ChatPlay, allowing viewers of the Twitch stream to influence the game through the associated chat, a method of play inspired by the '' Twitch Plays Pokémon'' phenomenon. The source code is available to end users with limitations: Users may not publicly release the Lumberyard engine source code or use it to release their own game engine. Lumberyard launched on February 9, 2016 alongside GameLift, a fee-based managed service for deploying and hosting multiplayer games, intended to allow developers the easy development of games that attract "large and vibrant communities of fans." , the software is currently in beta status and can be used to build games for Microsoft Windows,

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, and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

, with limited support for iOS and

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and support for macOS being planned for future releases.

Virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

integration was added in Beta 1.3, allowing developers to build games supporting devices like Oculus Rift and

HTC Vive VIVE, sometimes referred to as HTC Vive, is a virtual reality brand of HTC Corporation. It consists of hardware like its titular virtual reality headsets and accessories, virtual reality software and services, and initiatives that promote ...

. Despite being based on the architecture of Crytek's CryEngine, the engine has been developed to use many of its own custom-developed systems, some of which are in a preview mode. A few of these systems include the Component Entity System, Fur

Shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene - a process known as '' shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of spec ...

, Modular Gems (which allows developers to either create their own assets or add existing assets to their games), and the Script Canvas. The audio solution

Audiokinetic Wwise Wwise (Wave Works Interactive Sound Engine) is Audiokinetic's software for interactive media and video games, available for free to non-commercial users and under license for commercial video game developers. It features an audio authoring tool and ...

, which is used in many popular games, was added in Beta 1.0, released in February 2016. On March 14, 2016, Lumberyard received its first update, which included support for mobile devices such as A8-powered iOS devices and Nvidia Shield, an FBX importer, and integration with Allegorithmic's texturing software Substance. On August 16, 2017, the engine's

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

was released under a source-available arrangement on

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, but remained under a proprietary license. On July 6, 2021, Amazon announced it was partnering with the

to form the Open 3D Foundation and would be releasing a new version of Lumberyard, rebranded as Open 3D Engine (O3DE), under the Apache-2.0 open source license.

Games using Amazon Lumberyard

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* {{Crytek 2016 software 3D graphics software Video game engines Freeware game engines Software development kits Video game development Virtual reality Amazon Web Services

Games using Amazon Lumberyard

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