[Argorak]

I don't see the reason for downvotes. The parent's sentiment is pointed, but has merit. It's initially doesn't cost anything, but if you want to charge for a game, it costs you. You also don't get many freedoms along with it, you gain no rights on the code and are bound to whatever Epic comes up with later.

[morganvachon]

> It's initially doesn't cost anything, but if you want to charge for a game, it costs you.

That's just it though; if you wanted to use this to make a completely free GNU/Linux game, you could, without ever paying a cent to Epic. If you do decide to make a game for profit, it's only when you "make it" that you have to pay for your tools. I see it as a fair and equitable arrangement, where both sides profit if and only if the developer is successful.

[bumblebeard]

Is the source code actually free though? For example, could I redistribute the source code myself and not take any revenue from the people I distributed it to? Could I make some changes to the engine and redistribute it? How would the revenue sharing work if I did something like that and someone using my version of the engine started making money using it?

I'm glad there's another no-cost video game engine available, but I don't think it qualifies as free software in the Free Software Foundation sense of the word free. I haven't seen the actual license though, so maybe it is actually free. It would be awesome if it was.

[morganvachon]

Sorry, I should have clarified; I didn't use the capital-F "Free" because I was speaking strictly in terms of money. I honestly don't have a clue what the redistribution rights are either, I just think it's cool there's a professional level, tried and tested, modern game engine available to build games that target GNU/Linux. I'm excited to see what comes of it over the next few years.

[robotresearcher]

Could you reasonably expect a more favourable deal on a world-class game engine?

[krick]

I probably couldn't, but he's still right: link says "available to everyone for free", which isn't exactly what it happens to be. It's not about being greedy or something, it just about fair headlines.