Idea Fabrik Announces HeroCloud Middleware Bundle

HeroEngine developer Idea Fabrik announced its HeroCloud bundle, a proprietary development platform that includes middleware from five additional tool providers. The HeroCloud platform includes Idea Fabrik's own HeroEngine (originally created by Simutronics), as well as modeling and animation technology from RAD Game Tools, the FMOD audio suite, SpeedTree, Singular Inversions' FaceGen, and the performance optimization tool Umbra. Idea Fabrik says the HeroCloud license is available to developers for no up-front cost, though it uses a revenue sharing model in which Idea Fabrik receives a 30 percent cut of net revenue for providing the bundle. "Our goal has always been to help game developers find ways to make better looking, better sounding, better playing games, and with the addition of these critical technologies, we continue to advance our mission -- to remove the barriers that stand in the way of creative game development," says Idea Fabrik COO Neil Harris. Farhad Taherazer of Umbra Software adds, “We know that many of the indie and smaller game developers don’t have the initial funds to license our technology, so we’re very excited that HeroCloud is including our middleware for free to that market segment.” Earlier this year, Idea Fabrik established its own game development studio in northern Virginia, and introduced Idea System, a development and business package for 3D social games.