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RimWorld switches engine from Unity to the devs' own, faster Waylith Engine, all apparently without breaking mods somehow
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this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2026
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Probably because there's no details and it probably won't be out for years.
I was hoping for a new DLC announcement at least.
There are rumors it's based on the engine that Kitten Space Agency's (spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program) devs develop. So it would be that other game.
Dean confirmed on the KSA discord that they licensed BRUTAL (the framework that KSA's engine is built upon) to Ludeon for Waylith.
Those are two games with extremely different needs...
From what I understand, BRUTAL (the thing that KSA devs made) is not a typical game engine. It's very low level and more of a set of tools and libraries to make a game and its engine with, without completely reinventing the wheel. It doesn't restrict game devs in any way and aims to give them maximum freedom (e.g. it doesn't even have a concept of a "scene" that all engines like Unity or Unreal have). Obviously this also makes it very complicated to use compared to Unity, but makes it possible to custom-tailor it to any game and use case.
This is especially important for a game like KSA that doesn't fit into Unity's model at all, but I guess it also provides some benefits for RimWorld.
Yeah, imo the term "game engine" itself has kinda evolved over the years from "framework that contains common game/renderer code" to "platform to handle the entire process of implementing a game".
It's just code in the end, so even the "full platform" option can be used as if it's just a framework, which it sounds like RimWorld was doing if it could switch engines without breaking mod support (another comment guessed LLMs were involved but IMO this goes way beyond what an LLM would handle well, as it would involve pretty much reimplementing unity's framework). Though I don't have any direct experience with Rimworld mods and how exactly they interact with the game; if they used a data-driven approach, then it could be possible to redo just that interface and keep mods working (though it would also depend on what exactly was running the mod code itself, as that part would also need to remain functional).
They're both projects moving away from Unity and to something more tailorable to their needs at a lower level, so it's not all that strange, really.
Don't do that to me. Don't give me hope.
Not a single of their dlc has spoken to me or my play style. So a new game sounds great to me.
I've dodged a couple (Royalty and Anomaly) but all appreciate they put the effort in.
Playing without Ideology is crazy, you're missing out on so much RP
I have it. I didn't finish a single playthrough since.
I personally don't finish Rimworld playthroughs, I go until Randy decides I'm done with the colony.
I think this is how a lot of people play the game. I have 650+ hours in Rimworld and haven't beaten it a single time. I usually don't even start the quest lines.
900+ for me, I have beaten the game exactly once, just to say that I have. Even after qualifying for endgame, I keep the colony going!
If you finish, you didn't up the difficulty enough
It's so funny to be that Rimworld is basically copied straight from Dwarf Fortress all the way up to Ideology. Then they start coming up with their own content and everyone hates it.
I have liked all the DLCs. Probably royalty the least. Biotech and ideology tied for top and they go together really well. The most recent 2 are also pretty fun.
Ideology is my favorite, I couldn't imagine playing without it