A new alternative is presented for game developers to develop commercial products without having to pay royalties to the big boys. DayZ's developer Dean Hall is offering up a new toolset in Brutal, which is a free open source framework that's intended to diminish dependence on the industry's power players. This change in dynamics is important because it's providing developers an alternative to the current market approach of revenue sharing.
Dean Hall releases Brutal framework to help developers avoid engine royalties
The Brutal framework isn't really a game engine per se. What it offers is more like a modular technology set. It allows developers to mix and match these pieces and parts into other systems to match their needs.
Hall's company RocketWerkz uses the system for their own game, Kitten Space Agency. Hall also says that Ludeon is using the Brutal framework along with their Waylith game engine to power the game RimWorld.
What makes Brutal unique is its commercial license that doesn't involve royalties. The only thing developers have to do to use the system in their own projects is give credit to Brutal. Dean Hall believes that greed and the influence of Unreal Engine and other platforms are causing the industry to go in a problematic direction. Performance issues, stability issues and having to pay 5% in royalties are his main reasons for branching out on his own.
Hall says that as a developer's tools aren't independent, they aren't independent. This is what's driving him to make the Brutal framework available for free to the public. What this does is give developers a tangible option for going away from the financial and technical limitations of closed-off game engines.
Source: IXBT
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