Smaller game development companies wanting to make their development cycles shorter and easier now have another tool in their arsenal: Stingray, the new game engine designed by Autodesk.

Using the Bitsquid engine, purchased by Autodesk last year, Stingray is a piece of 3D animation software that helps simplify game development. Although most AAA game developers already use Unity or Unreal 4 engines, Autodesk hopes that Stingray will help smaller developers get their games through their development cycles faster and more efficiently.

Stingray simplifies the animation process with features that allow game developers to render animation without requiring access to code with a drag-and-drop interface that still allows for advanced visual imagery and rendering. Even developers without a lot of experience can benefit from Stingray, but those wanting to delve deeper can still get access (for an additional price) to C++ source code.

"Between augmented reality, virtual reality and the proliferation of mobile platforms, the games industry is undergoing a major transition, which poses new complexities for both AAA and indie game developers," said Chris Bradshaw, Autodesk's senior vice president of media and entertainment, in a press statement. "Stingray makes it easy and intuitive for artists with varying skill sets and programming expertise to create the next generation of 3D blockbuster games, entertainment and even architecture."

Stingray also supports a variety of systems and allows developers to see their changes in gameplay quickly on iOS, Android, Windows 7, Windows 8, Oculus Rift DevKit2, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

"We never know what kind of games we're going to create, and the engine is good for that. It really allows us to just make anything," said Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt. "We can make an FPS or an RTS, or a top-down shooter, or a role-playing game, or whatever. It's not tied to a specific genre."

Most importantly, though, Stingray is affordable: a subscription to the software only runs $30 per month. Compared with Unity and Unreal 4, which are free, that might not seem like much of a deal, but Unity's pro version costs $75 per month, with Unreal requiring 5 percent of game sales over $3,000 in return for the use of its software.

Developers wishing to subscribe to Stingray can do so starting on Aug. 19. Those users already subscribed to Autodesk's Maya LT desktop subscription will also get access to Stingray.

Via: Engadget