Amazon won’t stop you from using its Lumberyard for military or medical purposes in the event, and only in the event, of a zombie apocalypse.
That is high on the list of sentences I never planned to write. Let me explain. As The Guardian reports, in a recent update to the terms of service for Lumberyard, Amazon’s freeware game engine, the company added a clause to clear up some red tape for those who survive the undead end of the world.
Under normal circumstances, Lumberyard may not be used to power “life-critical” or “safety-critical” systems such as medical, transportation, military or nuclear machinery or equipment. That being said, under clause 57.10 of the engine’s terms, there is one exception to this cardinal rule:
“However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.”
This is excellent news, all things considered. The last thing you want in a zombie apocalypse is legal trouble. You don’t want to christen your underground bunker with a Lumberyard-powered nuclear reactor or medical bay only to have Amazon send its suits after you. Because what could be worse than undead lawyers?
Fiery undead lawyers, correct, but let’s not get crazy here.
Well, with the zombie apocalypse sorted, just one question remains: What even is Lumberyard? As previously mentioned, Lumberyard is Amazon’s proprietary game engine — a “free, cross-platform, 3D game engine,” to be exact — with all the bells and whistles modern game developers require. It is based on the longstanding and royalty-free CryEngine, developed by studio CryTek, best known for their Crysis series, as well as the original Far Cry and upcoming co-op adventure "Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age."
Lumberyard was built — rather, is being built, as it is still in beta — with online play in mind and features native Twitch integration to allow for easy live streaming. In addition, the engine’s official site reads, Amazon Web Services provides Lumberyard users with the servers and network strength necessary “for deploying, operating, and scaling session-based multiplayer games.” Think of "League of Legends" and "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive." Notably, only the engine itself is free; all network services are normally priced.
Of course, Lumberyard is more than a valuable tool for game developers. It is now also a must-have for every proper zombie apocalypse survival kit. I know I’ll be keeping it handy. After playing quite a few zombie games myself, my expectation for the zombie apocalypse has always been to die a horrible death, either of the chomping variety a la "The Last of Us" or of the evisceration brand frequently seen in "Resident Evil." Now I can use Lumberyard to try and program a death-bot first.
