Rust developer is tired of paying Unity "$500k per year" to fix its engine, and promises that the successor to Garry's Mod won't trick devs by charging fees

If you think back to last year around this time, you may remember Garry Newman, the founder of Facepunch Studios and a member of Garry's Mod. He announced that "Unity could get fucked", in response to a series of poorly thought out changes made to the engine's price scheme. The changes would have required developers to pay per install fees once certain "fee thresholds were met."

Unity eventually rolled back the most egregious changes. But it's not surprising that Newman has been working on his Garry's Mod sequel/brand-new engine s&box for years. Newman has spoken a little about his vision for s&box in a recent developer blog.

Newman writes, "I don't think I want to pay Unity $500k a year to optimize and fix its engine." This is a reasonable request. Facepunch's othergame Rust has been based entirely on Unity for its entire life. However, Newman has said that Rust 2 will be based on another engine.

He says that Unity has been good to them, so bygones will be bygones in terms of those fee changes. "But I regret not having our own engine developed in the backround... The long-term goal is to make all of our games for s&box and to have the engine expanded so it works on mobile/console/etc."

Newman would like to stop paying Unity to fix its engine. This is a good idea, but he regrets that the "Garry's mod community" has to leave Garry’s Mod to make money with the things they have created.

Newman writes later that "In Garry’s Mod, if your game was popular, the next step would be to abandon the community, and make a brand new version in Unity, or Unreal." That fucking stinks."

This means that a key feature of s&box is "A Garry’s Mod-type platform, where you can jump from one game to another." But this time, providing a way for game developers to monetise."

This could open the floodgates for all sorts of horrible shovelware. "Everything that you download from the iOS/Android App Store requires a subscription. Roblox games are all pay-to-win. Newman says, "We need to do better. Let people make money but don't allow it to get predatory."

Newman wants to set an example. It sounds like a difficult task to me. I think it would require a stricter moderation. "We need games that keep people coming back. We're creating games that will do that and we'll also be making an official Sandbox mode. There will be s&box jams to get developers' creative juices flowing.

Newman also promises that he's not just trying to lure devs who are dissatisfied into his own financial trap. "We don't wish to be burdened with collecting license fees or royalties. Platform and our own games should generate revenue. This should be our motivation." In what I can only read as a jab against Unity, he writes: "I would like to offer some legal assurance that we cannot change the rules in the future, when we become jealous of how much money everyone makes."

Newman's plan sounds idyllic so I hope he succeeds. In the last few decades, it seems like the games industry has converged around UE5 and Unity. Other engines have been left out.

It would be great if Garry's Mod 2's engine, which is, for all intents and purpose, Garry's Mod 2, was able to diversify a bit and treat developers better than Unity. Facepunch needs Valve's approval before it can allow developers to "create games using the s&box Engine, export them and give them away free of charge or put them on Steam."

"We need Valve to officially say yes to this but Valve is cool, they understand it, and I don't believe they're going to say no." They need to know exactly what they are saying yes to, so our goal is to create a demo and see what we're capable of. Keep an eye out for it, and if s&box is something you're interested in, you can try its developer preview by visiting its website.