Today I learned that Amazon’s game engine can be used to aid humanity in a zombie apocalypse

Amazon’s in-house game engine, Lumberyard, can’t normally be used for life-critical or safety-critical circumstances, as stated in the terms of service agreement for Amazon Web Services. Things like medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, crewed spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat are all off-limits.

Almost all software and hardware come with extensive mandatory agreements that you need to comply with to use them, so these rules are understandable and probably for the best. At the same time, you should also know that some of those rules will go totally out the window in the event of a zombie apocalypse, should it (hopefully not) ever happen.

Some of us were recently reminded with this TikTok of that big caveat in the terms that will let users do more with Lumberyard. While the terms stop just shy of calling it an actual “zombie apocalypse,” it’s not leaving much to the imagination in its thorough and very creative description.

In section 42.10, about halfway down this page, it says that these restrictions will lift if the CDC (or a successor body with similar authority) certifies a “widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.” In other words, a real zombie apocalypse.

Good to know. Keep this in mind, developers. Amazon’s Lumberyard may be your go-to option in the event of a pandemic that is, thankfully, totally different than the one we’re currently living through.