The incredibly interesting C++ powered game engine Hazel Engine just suffered a serious blow today. The creator of the engine, popular YouTube game developer The Cherno (real name – Yan Chernikov) just released a video entitled Goodbye (kind of) and for those interested in the Hazel Engine, the announcement was not a good one.
In a nutshell he is joining an AI startup company called Lucky Robots which is basing their in-house game engine on the Hazel Engine. This means his primary focus will be on creating this product and not on the YouTube channel or development of the Hazel Game Engine. Worse, he also announced two of the key contributors to the Hazel Engine project, Jim Waite and Emile Banerjee are also going to be joining Lucky Robots.
On the bright side the announced upcoming free release of Hazel Engine is still supposed to happen. But with the lead developer(s) all having vastly different priorities, it does not bode well for the future of the game engine. Additionally expect the Cherno channel activity to become much lower as it transitions from being a full-time profession to a pure hobby effort.
You can learn more about the changes at The Cherno and the impact on the Hazel Engine in the video below.