Lumberyard 1.8 introduces toolset to simplify cloud-based features

Newsbrief: The latest update for Amazon's free game engine includes a toolset aimed a simplifying how developers bring cloud-based features to games.

Among other fixes and tweaks, Lumberyard's 1.8 update includes a modular toolset that could help developers tackle online features that would otherwise require significant time or manpower to create. 

That toolset, dubbed the Cloud Gems Framework, is designed to cut down on the work that would usually be required to manage and create cloud-based features. It is composed of several individual feature packages called cloud gems and a web-based portal used to manage those features.

So far, Amazon has released three gems that are individually set up to simplify the process of pushing game updates, sending messages to players, or creating online leaderboards. Each can be used as-is tackle those tasks in a handful of steps or can be individually altered to meet specific needs through editable source code.

Though the 1.8 update only includes those three gems, Amazon is looking to expand on the framework and introduce new gems in the future. As such, the company has encouraged developers to chime in and share what cloud-based features they'd like to see in later updates via the Amazon GameDev forums.