Modding has become vastly more accessible over the years. Some games can require a little hacking, while others have modding tools included by the developers. Modding is one of the best ways to learn the ropes of game development and start building your chops, but options are more limited when it comes time to start a project from scratch.

Valve's Source engine was the software of choice for many years, due to its accessibility and supportive community, but working with Source requires a little extra... patience. You could almost hear cheering when Epic Games announced that the Unreal Development Kit was free to all for non-commercial projects. Crytek might be looking to get in on the action as well.

Speaking to Develop about the possible release of a development toolset, Crytek co-founder Avni Yerli said, "The barriers for entry will be very low, and perhaps even for free. Of course this will be compared to UDK and Unity and so on, but we think this sort of competition is very good for the community."

Although Crytek does not seem to be struggling in any form, Yerli expressed some disappointment that usage of CryEngine is nowhere near as prevalent as the Unreal Engine. As other companies have already proven, free access is the best way to attract developers and create lasting relationships.