There is no requirement to use the Turbulenz Engine to publish a game on ga.me. You can use whatever engine you want.
(Obviously you would need to use the relevant API hooks if you wanted to use any of the ga.me web services, for example, IAP, userdata, multiplayer, play information. But this is all modular.)
This is a classic problem of trying to be helpful and it's confusing people until they understand the details.
The engine uses HTML5 and WebGL. When the required APIs aren't present it falls back onto a plugin. This is supposed to be helpful for developers because it means the games will work on pretty much all browsers include IE.
But it confuses people because some people think a plugin is required.
So what's better -
1. Not providing the fall back and telling users they need to switch browsers? Good for helping people to understand it doesn't require a plugin, but not great for developers who want everyone to be able to play their game, or
2. Providing the fallback.
Additionally, it's worth noting that the games and engine don't have to provide any plugin support. It is actually the game site application code that is doing the detection and trying to be helpful.
The Turbulenz Engine is an HTML5 / WebGL framework.
The site offers to install a plugin as a fallback for browsers that don't appear to offer the required HTML5 APIs (mainly WebGL). This allows the JavaScript/WebGL games to run on a wider range of browsers (particularly IE and when required APIs are locked behind a developer switch.)
Make sure you're playing "Score Rush MP" which is the multiplayer version. You might have accidentally started the original single player version. Select the game from the "Games" dropbox in the top right of the website.
You can use the technology for free and publish the game outside of Turbulenz. You can use other payment options and Turbulenz is not asking for anything from these revenues. This is the free part.
But Turbulenz wants the option to publish the game on turbulenz.com and take a share from the revenues on the site.
The comparison with the Unreal UDK and Unreal Engine was simply to help people understand how different parts of the Turbulenz platform compared to things they already knew about.
As a collection of tools and technology that we've worked on for the past 3 years we obviously don't have as wider range of features when compared to everything Epic has included in Unreal.
Different developers need different tools, and we will be adding more features as needs arise.
But I appreciate your feedback and will work it into the white paper when we next update it.
All the games are free to play, supported by in game payments. There are no plans for ads on the site. We want to allow developers to make a game that is compatible with the payment models that are being used successfully on other platforms on the web.
4. Release your game on any web destination of your choice, including your
own website or established online platforms such as Facebook. There are no
royalty or license payments due to Turbulenz.
You can release your game anywhere by yourself and it would be free.
Alternatively, you can also release it on turbulenz.com and we will get 30%
from all the payments we process.