We’ve made it easy for game developers to make their games available on PlayStation. In addition to a great set of development tools, PlayStation developers gain access to a Software Development Kit that includes a free multi-platform game engine called PhyreEngine.
The latest version of this popular games development framework, PhyreEngine 3.5, is releasing to game developers and publishers worldwide right now! Today’s update builds upon the PS4 support introduced in previous versions. With PhyreEngine 3.5, PS4 developers will finally be able to leverage the platform’s advanced compute functionality, in addition to a host of other development-related features. Another convenient addition to PhyreEngine 3.5 is the ability for developers to make in-game edits on the fly and see their results immediately, without a lengthy wait for the changes to be recompiled.
Even if you’ve never heard of PhyreEngine, you’re probably familiar with some of the games that use its technology: Journey and RocketBirds: Hardboiled Chicken, just to name a few. PhyreEngine was initiated by Sony Computer Entertainment to streamline cross-platform game development between PS3, PS4, and PS Vita. We’ve designed and evolved the framework based on feedback from our energetic developer community, which comprises dozens of studios across more than 90 games in all.
In honor of Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, we wanted to share thoughts from some studios that have integrated PhyreEngine. And if you’re a developer and you’re interested in using PhyreEngine, click here for full details.
“At thatgamecompany, we used PhyreEngine on all of our games. For a small studio like us, it was helpful to start working from day one with a full-featured codebase specifically optimized for our target platform. Even more important was the well documented source and friendly support team. This allowed us to cleanly and easily add our own custom features on top as we grew more ambitious and specialized with our games.”
— John Edwards, Lead Engineer at thatgamecompany
“Creat has used PhyreEngine successfully for both Pinballistik and Germinator, and we’ve started up two exciting new projects for PS3 and PS Vita using the latest version of PhyreEngine. We particularly like the fact that key features are constantly being added by the PhyreEngine team, along with the tremendous technical support provided free-of-charge… a rare thing these days!”
— Jason Benham, Technical Director of Creat Studios.
“As a small company, PhyreEngine allowed us to not only quickly develop the PlayStation Vita version of escapeVektor it also allows us to prototype content on PlayStation platforms concurrently with the other platforms we support. We are looking forward to continuing our support for PlayStation platforms with PhyreEngine as a core component of our tool chain.”
— Nic Watt, Creative Director, Nnooo.
“We used PhyreEngine for “Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken” for the PS3, which enabled us to release a great looking stereoscopic 3D game @ 60 fps per eye (120 fps) last year. We continued using PhyreEngine to bring Rocketbirds to the PS Vita this year where it counter-tilts at full res without having to compromise on visual quality. Its flexible (and free) licensing has allowed us to expand the game to other platforms, such as Steam. We are currently working on “Rocketbirds 2 Evolution” and our work and experience with PhyreEngine puts us in a pretty good position to try and get this onto the PS4.”
— Sian Yue Tan, Founder, Ratloop Asia
“PhyreEngine gave us the tools to develop Knytt Underground for PS3 and PS Vita at the same time, within months. It’s not just the engine itself, but also the extensive support and tools from the PhyreEngine-team throughout development that made our lives much easier.”
— Maarten de Koning, Managing Director & Founder, Green Hill Studios
When we were asked to port Hotline Miami from PC on GameMaker tech to PS3 and PS Vita, there was no arguing what kind of tech to use for our rendering pipeline. PhyreEngine promises to deliver a unified engine across PS3, PS Vita and PC and it kept its promise. Our team was able to focus on creating a reverse-engineered GameMaker simulation on PC that also works flawlessly on PS3 and PS Vita without writing a single piece of custom code or specialised code paths to cater those other platforms. It’s quite remarkable really. The PhyreEngine team is a bunch of very clever people that have a common goal which is to help other people build better products, asking nothing in return. It’s insane almost!”
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