Ahwoo's own framework for direct API access. It removes the abstractions between C# game code and the machine underneath.
- WINDOWS
- LINUX
- MACOS
Every package, the same three targets.
An engine built for every game is optimal for none.
General-purpose engines are built to make almost any game adequately.
BRUTAL is built to make a demanding game exactly right.
An engine that has to offer generalized solutions is rewarded for breadth, not depth. Every system in it is a compromise tuned for the average game, and the further your game sits from average, the more of the engine you end up fighting.
Fighting it works for a while. Replacing the layer that hurts most buys real headroom, and so does the next one, but every replacement still sits on a foundation someone else designed. Keep going and the last thing left to replace is the engine itself.
BRUTAL is where that path led: a framework Ahwoo built from scratch. In an engine, the game is a passenger. BRUTAL puts the developers back in the pilot seat.
Built for scale and precision
Custom double-precision mathematics and context-based simulation handle large distances and demanding physics reliably.
Kitten Space Agency currently operates within the frame of a full-scale solar system, and stays stable there. Vessels keep operating at time warp beyond one million times. Planets load without pauses. Players move between vessels with no loading screen.
A framework, not an engine
A traditional engine wraps the machine in abstractions that make the common case easier and cap what a game can reach. BRUTAL removes them: it is a direct API access framework that exposes what the machine can do straight to game code.
With graphics, that means BRUTAL gives you Vulkan itself, the full API surface rather than a curated subset, plus the tooling around it. The renderer is yours to write. Nothing sits between your game and the GPU because there is nothing in between.
The bindings stay faithful to each API as it is, not as we would have redesigned it. If you know Vulkan, you already know this. The spec is the manual.
Control where it matters
Because the framework is Ahwoo's own, the team that builds a game on it can investigate and fix problems at any depth of the stack, rather than waiting on an external engine's roadmap. You can always drop a level, and the level below is always the real one.
That control carries responsibility. BRUTAL is not easy to use, and it does not hide complexity or provide guardrails. It hands experienced teams powerful systems and expects them to be used carefully.
The interop layer at the core
At BRUTAL's core is an interop layer that lets the languages in a project talk to each other with almost no overhead. C# game code works alongside native libraries, each doing what it does best, and most of the standards behind BRUTAL exist to avoid allocation, because in C# allocation is what stops a game from scaling.
Where a best-in-class library exists, BRUTAL binds it. Where none fits, the team writes it: job scheduling, string localization, process monitoring and logging. The last two matter after launch, not before it. Coverage is not limited by what one team can hand-maintain; a library BRUTAL does not bind yet is a question of scheduling, not a dead end.
BRUTAL runs on current .NET, .NET 10 today, and keeping pace with the platform is a deliberate priority.
Open to mods
Games built on BRUTAL are ordinary .NET applications, so mods can be written in the same language as the game and loaded the same way. An engine has to grant you modding, because the vendor owns the runtime. A framework only has to stay out of the way.
BRUTAL does not provide a modding system, and it does not stand in the way of one either. How far mods can reach is the game's decision.
Kitten Space Agency is the first game made from scratch using BRUTAL alone.
A full-scale solar system, time warp beyond one million times, planets loading without pauses, and no loading screens between vessels, running live in a game you can download today.
The name is a warning.
BRUTAL is not designed to be easy, and it is not the answer for every game. It is a focused framework for projects where performance, precision and control matter more than convenience.
Building a game that is hard to make?
BRUTAL is not a public download, and it is not for every team. For studios building at this kind of scale, licensing is available by arrangement. See it working in Kitten Space Agency, then come and talk to us.