Amazon launches 3D game engine with Twitch integration

Amazon’s cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has launched a free, cross-platform, 3D game engine called Amazon Lumberyard.

The new platform is designed to let developers create games, connect their games to the AWS Cloud, and engage fans on Twitch – the video platform and community for videogame enthusiasts that Amazon acquired for US$970 million (€870 million) in 2014.

Amazon said that Lumberyard is integrated with Twitch so that developers can build gameplay features that engage the service’s 1.7 million monthly broadcasters, and 100 million monthly viewers.

This includes the ability to let Twitch viewers use chat to directly impact the game they are watching in real-time, or instantly join in a game by clicking.

Amazon Lumberyard is available today in beta for developers building PC and console games, with mobile and virtual reality (VR) platforms “coming soon”.

“Many of the world’s most popular games are powered by AWS’s technology infrastructure platform. When we’ve talked to game developers, they’ve asked for a game engine with the power and capability of leading commercial engines, but that’s significantly less expensive, and deeply integrated with AWS for the back-end and Twitch for the gamer community,” said Mike Frazzini, vice president of Amazon Games.