Free CryEngine 3 mod and SDK due this summer
Crysis 2 developer offers "low cost" licensing for commercial publishing
Developer Crytek have announced that a free editor for the PC version of Crysis 2 will be released in the "early summer", prior to a full SDK in August.
"Here at Crytek we value our community, and we love what you do with our engine. In recent times our focus has been heavily on the development of Crysis 2, however our modding community has been, and remains, very important to us," wrote CEO and president Cevat Yerli on the official CryMod website.
The basic editor for the engine will be launched first, allowing enthusiasts to create new maps, items and other custom content for the game. Then in August a free CryEngine SDK (software development kit) will be released.
According to Yerli, "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."
Crytek plans to share documentation and to issue free updates to the SDK on a regular basis. The company has also promised to help developers wishing to publish their games commercially.
A "low cost" licensing model will be introduced for releasing games digitally, with a separate "per-seat" business model for using the game for non-game applications.