Flatten the curve, stay indoors, and make some games. Check out a range of free resources and advice for game development at home.

Countries around the world are implementing procedures designed to limit the spread of COVID-19. At Crytek, we are prioritizing the health and safety of our employees and the entire Frankfurt studio will be able to work remotely going forward to ensure that we do our part to stop the spread of the virus.

Many people are going to be spending more down time at home too, and game development is a fun and challenging activity to keep yourself occupied and be creative. For some of us it's our bread-and-butter, too, so we have even more reason to stay home, stay safe, and keep developing right now. Whether you’re a newbie to CRYENGINE and interested in learning about what you can do with our engine, or an experienced dev, we’ve rounded up a few resources for all of our community members. 

First up, our social channels. We’re super-proud of our friendly community, so stay connected with other devs using CRYENGINE and our team on our official CRYENGINE Discord channel, and our forum is also a great place to ask questions and interact with members of the community. Naturally, our social channels, like Facebook and Twitter, will also continue to be active. 

Are you getting started with CRYENGINE?

If you are completely new to CRYENGINE, we recommend that you download our beginner’s course or watch the tutorial on our YouTube channel.

ICYMI check out our latest sample level

GalaxSys is a sample project that we released on CRYENGINE Marketplace towards the end of last year. It’s a high-energy, all-action twin-stick shooter developed in a small amount of time by just a few people at Crytek. You can play it yourself and check out the code to see how it was created, expand on it, or re-imagine the project as you wish. You can also check out an interview with the people in our team who made it and get their advice and insight here.

60 free asset packs from Crytek to explore on the CRYENGINE Marketplace

Head to the CRYENGINE Marketplace, and you can find a whole host of free and paid assets, from audio to props and more, to get a project up and running quickly.

We’ve also collected a range of our own provided asset packs, which you can access here.

The selection includes Crysis Animation assets, props that feature in our VR games The Climb and Robinson: The Journey, scenes like our Chinese Garden, our Homebound Project for Global Game Jam, our Audio Showcase Level and much more. There is a vast range of content to browse and explore at your leisure, so head over there, stock up, and find some inspiration.

ICYMI brush up your skills with our latest tutorials

Our YouTube channel is host to all of our tutorials, and tutorials will continue to be added. Covering a full range of game design disciplines, you’ll find beginner friendly videos that will show you how to create full games, to in-depth exploration of advanced techniques and topics for established game developers.

If you’ve picked up a few art assets from our selection above, why not check out our Art Pipeline tutorial series covering physical collision proxies, hosted by Technical Support Specialist Alin Alexa.

Art Pipeline Tutorial Series

Part 1 - Demonstrates how to create physical collision proxies for your assets in 3DS Max and then get them into the engine using the CryExporter tools, in this case focusing on the CryMax plugin. The same process is also shown using an FBX pipeline so you can pick your favored workflow.

Part 2: This video demonstrates how to set up the CryMaya tools and how to create physical collision proxies in Autodesk Maya using a CryTools pipeline, in addition to an FBX pipeline. The tutorial also includes a basic explanation of Maya’s material and shader functionality, with regards to Maya’s Hypershade function, in comparison to CRYENGINE’s material system.

Part 3: Shows you the recommended way to set up and import Collision Proxies using the FBX pipeline in CRYENGINE using Blender. In this tutorial, we explain a brief overview of the Collision Proxies used and give some detail surrounding the material and object hierarchy in Blender itself necessary to successfully import these assets into the engine using the FBX Importer.

Hunt: Showdown

Ok, staying in all the time ain’t all that fun. So take out some frustration by hunting down monsters, and rival bounty hunters, in our very own Hunt: Showdown. Available now on Steam for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, sending a few demons back to hell is a perfect way to spend some enforced time at home. And once you’ve headed into the swamps, maybe it’s not so scary indoors after all...

And last but not least...

If you want make your next career move, we’re still looking for new colleagues.  At Crytek, we value diversity, and we actively encourage people from all kinds of backgrounds and experience levels to apply to our open positions, so join us over at LinkedIn and check out our careers page.