phyreengine
Latest
Sony's free PhyreEngine expands to PSP
In what's becoming a GDC tradition, Sony today announced an update concerning the PhyreEngine, a free, cross-platform middleware tool offered to developers interested in creating PS3 games. First introduced in 2008, the PhyreEngine has since been utilized in games like Critter Crunch, Shatter and Flower. Today, SCEA has announced the expansion of PhyreEngine compatibility to the PSP. "We're very happy to see the continued popularity of PhyreEngine with the global game developer community," SCEI senior VP of technology Teiji Yutaka said. "PhyreEngine for PSP was developed in response to requests from the game developer community, and we hope that the release of the PSP version demonstrates our commitment and support for game developers on all our platforms." The engine will be demoed at GDC this week. The PS3 version of PhyreEngine has been praised by studios like Capybara and Sidhe. Perhaps the PSP iteration will be met with an equal amount of enthusiasm and help bolster the portable development community.
Critter Crunch dev praises Sony's support of indie games
"They support the living sh*t out of it, and they support it really well," Capybara's Nathan Vella told Gamasutra when talking about Sony's free PhyreEngine. "Any of the parts that are inside Phyre that we didn't know how to fix or we had an issue with, they would fix it for us in a day. Overall, I think Sony's doing a lot of right stuff for small independent developers." Vella's praise echoes similar sentiments from other PSN developers, like Shatter's Mario Wynands. In addition to free development tools, Vella noted other benefits by partnering with Sony. Critter Crunch was promoted heavily on the PlayStation Network via the PlayStation.Blog, Pulse and banners on the PlayStation Store. Most importantly, though, Sony "treated us like we weren't a small nobody developer from Toronto." In spite of Sony's best intentions, though, Vella notes that sales aren't quite where they should be on the PSN. "It's still a fraction of what XBLA is doing, and we know that," he admitted. "But that's okay for us because they let us do what we wanted to do." Apparently what they want to do now is work on a zombie game.
Shatter developer talks up benefits of PhyreEngine
Just because Sony's cross-platform PhyreEngine -- which powered games such as Flower, Critter Crunch and Catan -- is free to use, doesn't mean it's not beefy. At least, that's how GripShift and Shatter developer Sidhe feels -- both of their PSN releases used the engine, and they've got nothing but rave reviews for the technology.Sidhe managing director Mario Wynands called the PhyreEngine a "great solution for download products where budgets are lower and every dollar counts." So, if you're having difficulties getting your next-gen Rock Paper Scissors sim off the ground, Sidhe's just supplied a ringing endorsement for an extremely cost efficient solution.
Spiders' PS3 RPG 'Mars' creeps onto Xbox 360
Formerly announced as a PS3/PC exclusive, Spiders' upcoming action RPG is also releasing on Xbox 360. Mars is now one of the few multiplatform games to take advantage of Sony's free first-party PhyreEngine. In Mars, players will assume the role of two heroes: Seth, an elite soldier, and Pandora, a "technomancer." The two will have to survive a disaster on a post-apocalyptic colonial Mars. You know, that old chestnut.This action RPG looks to follow the mold of other traditional hack 'n' slash games. This first footage is very rough (to say the least), but with a planned late 2010 release, there's a lot of time to make improvements to the game.%Gallery-47404%
GDC09: SCE offering cheaper tools to PS3 devs, PhyreEngine 2.40 announced
Sony Computer Entertainment is enhancing its support to PS3 developers by offering price incentives on its development hardware. The new Reference Tool PS3 models, which were introduced this month, are being sold at discounted rates. The DECR-1400A for North American and European/PAL regions is going for $2,000/€1,700 respectively, while the DECR-1400J in Japan is priced at ¥200,000. Of course, all this is only available to registered developers, much like the free PhysX SDK that was announced a few days back. In addition to cheaper tools, Sony is also announcing a new version of its PhyreEngine -- an upgrade to 2.40. The graphics engine is getting a new "foliage rendering" system which gives more realistic rendering of trees and plants in games. PhyreEngine has been around since early 2008 and has been implemented in games such as Flower and Savage Moon. It will also be used in future titles Under Siege, Mars, and in these newly discovered games: Brooklyn Stories (working title), VectorCell's The 7th Seal (working title) and Ivent Games' third-person action game Strength of the Sword.
GDC08: PhyreEngine, Sony's new (free!) cross-platform engine
Quietly unveiled at yesterday's PSN session was PhyreEngine, a new "free to use graphics engine" from Sony Computer Entertainment. According to the presentation, the package includes full documentation, "70+ samples" and "full source code and artwork" of sample game templates. Working on both OpenGL and Direct3D, this engine will allow developers to more easily develop for the PS3 by using PC environments they're more familiar with. A "simple recompile" is supposedly all that's needed to make the game run on the PS3. Sony is promising "ongoing development and support" for the PhyreEngine.The ramifications of this subdued announcement are actually quite significant. Three titles have been revealed to have used the PhyreEngine for development: flOw, GripShift and DiRT. Of those three, only one is exclusive to PlayStation. It appears that the PhyreEngine is truly cross platform -- Sony is indirectly contributing to the development of PC and Xbox 360 games.But why make it easier to make games on a competing console? Well, it's undeniable that developers are increasingly focused on multiplatform development. It's been rather commonplace for developers to neglect PS3 with inferior and oftentimes delayed versions of multiplatform games. With PhyreEngine, Sony is making a much more attractive plea: make games on PS3 first, guaranteeing high quality games that will not only match their 360 counterparts, but in many cases can exceed them. Sony's message is clear: start games on the PS3, and they will be better for both PS3 and 360 owners. It appears to us that PhyreEngine is a crucial part of that plan.
