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!”
So, if I want to try and develop my own game for vita/PSN, then this will also help the development process go faster?
What sort of programming language does this support? What language do i need to learn to begin using this software? Is this easy to use, or time consuming, like how I perceive game development to lasat 2+ years on 40+ hours/week?
So hypothetically speaking, if someone wanted this “PhyreEngine” but they were kind of like a random kid who wants to work on making games for the PSvita, how would they acquire this?
@3: you can’t, you need to fulfill some requirements to be a playstation developer. Still this is good news for indie developers, I’d like to see how this game engine looks, it would be amazing if it has an UI like UDK
So I would like to preface this by saying I haven’t coded in years. This article pretty much hints that porting to the other systems should be a breeze with no need for even changing code. I wish we could see more ps3 and psn games porting to vita. I’d love to have Scott Pilgrim handheld, that is a perfect vita game.
This is a massively big deal! PhyreEngine is one of the state of the art Deferred Rendering Engines available. With Titles like Journey, Demon’s Souls and Darks Souls, to name but a few. IMHO this engine is a better cross-platform game engine than Unity3D, which only looks good on PC. PhyreEngine looks good on PC, PS3, XBox and presumably PS4 and PSVita.
I’ve asked for this to happen since I first saw the very first PhyreEngine. Now it has happened. Now for many sleepless nights :).
Thanks Sony, if indie gamedevs don’t jump on this and make the most of it, they really won’t know what they’ve lost next gen.
Its stated that with PhyreEngine, changes can be done easily on the fly to games. Does that mean easier patches and updates? Or getting rid of charging devs an arm and a leg just to patch their games?
I was hoping that PhyreEngine would turn out to be a “open” engine. It would make sense since Unity Engine is now a “major” engine between small developers and supports a great variety of consoles and handhelds.
As a small developer, I was planning to release my game later this year or next year, but this big bureaucratic process is a problem to small developers like me.
You should make smart moves, Sony. Open your doors and you’ll get more exclusives than multiplats that use Unity. ;)
Could this mean we’ll see native versions of the TGC or Souls games on PS4? How easy would it be to re-compile those games for the new console? (I don’t want to wait for a Gaikai solution to play many of those “legacy” titles!) Thanks!
Sounds great
So, if I want to try and develop my own game for vita/PSN, then this will also help the development process go faster?
What sort of programming language does this support? What language do i need to learn to begin using this software? Is this easy to use, or time consuming, like how I perceive game development to lasat 2+ years on 40+ hours/week?
Great news for us, small game developers, who want to get more in touch with Sony hardware! Thanks!
So hypothetically speaking, if someone wanted this “PhyreEngine” but they were kind of like a random kid who wants to work on making games for the PSvita, how would they acquire this?
cool!
@3: you can’t, you need to fulfill some requirements to be a playstation developer. Still this is good news for indie developers, I’d like to see how this game engine looks, it would be amazing if it has an UI like UDK
@3
You can’t. There is a process in order to become a “certified” developer for Sony. It guarantees that you are not going to share inside stuff.
It sucks for small developers from other parts of the world (aka: latin america) that cannot publish awesome (and most likely cheap) games. :(
Indie games are finally making big strides with this Phyre Engine.
How did you leave out some of the best games made with PhyreEngine?
-Demon’s Souls
-Dark Souls
-Gravity Rush
So I would like to preface this by saying I haven’t coded in years. This article pretty much hints that porting to the other systems should be a breeze with no need for even changing code. I wish we could see more ps3 and psn games porting to vita. I’d love to have Scott Pilgrim handheld, that is a perfect vita game.
This is a massively big deal! PhyreEngine is one of the state of the art Deferred Rendering Engines available. With Titles like Journey, Demon’s Souls and Darks Souls, to name but a few. IMHO this engine is a better cross-platform game engine than Unity3D, which only looks good on PC. PhyreEngine looks good on PC, PS3, XBox and presumably PS4 and PSVita.
I’ve asked for this to happen since I first saw the very first PhyreEngine. Now it has happened. Now for many sleepless nights :).
Thanks Sony, if indie gamedevs don’t jump on this and make the most of it, they really won’t know what they’ve lost next gen.
Its stated that with PhyreEngine, changes can be done easily on the fly to games. Does that mean easier patches and updates? Or getting rid of charging devs an arm and a leg just to patch their games?
I was hoping that PhyreEngine would turn out to be a “open” engine. It would make sense since Unity Engine is now a “major” engine between small developers and supports a great variety of consoles and handhelds.
As a small developer, I was planning to release my game later this year or next year, but this big bureaucratic process is a problem to small developers like me.
You should make smart moves, Sony. Open your doors and you’ll get more exclusives than multiplats that use Unity. ;)
So if PhyreEngine is multi-platform…. and Journey was made with PhyreEngine… then does that mean we’ll see a version of Journey on PS4?!?!
Please make PhyreEngine available for anyone to download and try! Thanks! C/C++ is ok, Scala would be amazing :)
Keep these golden guns blazing, Sony, and you’ll have a victory on your hands. Bravo.
Could this mean we’ll see native versions of the TGC or Souls games on PS4? How easy would it be to re-compile those games for the new console? (I don’t want to wait for a Gaikai solution to play many of those “legacy” titles!) Thanks!
I’m excited to see all of the different ideas to create games at much more seamless process.
Woohoo!! This is awesome news for me! Time to save some money for that DevKit!!
Nice to see there’s an engine that does it all.
The cablebox will burn, ps4 is going to rule all!