Studio King being the popular Candy Crush have #released their development game engine called Defold, for free.
The Defold software package is compatible with Linux 32-bit, Mac and Windows PC. Allowing game #developers and #gamemakers to release on the previous formats, plus mobile platforms Android and iOS, even web-based HTML5.
This is a full-feature version. So both the engine and editor are offered with full functionality and “no hidden costs, fees or royalties.” A promise King will keep and “not start to charge for anything.”
The only ‘catch’, any games developed using the engine must be stored in on Defold servers. King outlines the engine was “Defold was originally designed to be a complete turnkey service, including collaboration tools and storage. There are benefits to using our servers and we will continue to supply value to those who do use it through the dashboard.” As for this being a long-term staple, the company says “we realise that some users prefer other storage providers and we are working on supporting that”.
Defold is currently in beta but continuously auto-updating. The evolution of the software is part of the reason for releasing the engine for free. In fact the FAQ, King says “here’s how we see it: the more people who use Defold, the better the engine will be. By releasing Defold to the community, everyone can help making Defold better, by creating tutorials, by finding bugs, improving the documentation, and much more.”
The engine is mainly optimised for 2D games, but does have support for 3D as well — even though the creators warn “the toolset is made for 2D so you will have to do a lot of heavy lifting yourself”. So improved support for 3D game development is planned, with a comprehensive feature set available here.
This latest game engine release for Defold‘s follows a few others that have been made freely available. Unity and Unreal Engine 4 have offered free versions for years, and now more recently Amazon launched their new Lumberyard engine (Linux support on the way) for free and the same for CryEngine V, who launched with a “pay what you want” model.
