Dean Hall, known as the creator of the zombie survival game *DayZ*, announced that he has released the game development framework “BRUTAL”—developed by RocketWerkz, the studio he leads—to the public, along with its source code.
“Brutal” Framework Released to Help Developers Stand on Their Own
BRUTAL was developed as a technical foundation for game development and the creation of custom game engines. In addition to being used directly in RocketWerkz’s new title, “Kitten Space Agency,” it reportedly served as the foundation for “Waylith,” a custom game engine developed for Ludeon Studios’ sci-fi colony sim “RimWorld.”It is said to have been named “BRUTAL” because it is a “raw” system created as a template designed for specialized uses, rather than a multifunctional tool accessible to everyone for game development.
BRUTAL was originally developed in secret within the studio as a custom framework. However, the team decided to release it for free after concluding that existing game engines—widely used as game development environments—could not guarantee developers’ independence, and to address this issue.Citing engines like Unity and Unreal Engine as examples—and highlighting issues ranging from contractual aspects such as royalties, terms of service, and account restrictions to technical challenges like having to deliberately work around the engine’s intended specifications just to implement certain features—they commented that they hope BRUTAL will help developers work more independently compared to those platforms.
This framework is open source under the MIT License and is available completely free of charge, even for commercial projects. The only requirements are that you credit the content you create, display BRUTAL’s copyright and logo on the startup screen, and include the NOTICE file. The source code and terms of use are available on GitHub.
