CryEngine 3 free for non-commercial use

Crytek is releasing a free version of CryEngine 3 for non-commercial use, effective today.

The SDK includes the CryEngine 3 Sandbox level editor, and the "What you see is what you play" tool, "designed by and for professional developers."

"With the release of our SDK we encourage creators to try out CryEngine 3 and hope it will lead to new companies being formed and using our engine," said director of global business development Carl Jones.

"More importantly we expect to increase the talent pool for CryEngine developers, as well as boosting our online community of users. This SDK contains more toys than we've ever released before – it empowers people to create whole new games from scratch, not just mod Crytek's own games, so we encourage all aspiring and indie developers to try it out."

Crytek is also offering a licensing model for developers wishing to release their game commerically, which will give the company 20 percent of all revenue generated

The SDK will be updated regularly. It can be downloaded at crydev.net.