Sony gives indie games some love, makes more dev tools available

Unity
Unity unifying with the PlayStation 4

Sony is continuing its support of independent game developers more than ever with its latest addition of dev tools and middleware.

PhyreEngine was announced during last year's GDC and has proven a big hit among the dev community thanks to the easy integration with PSN, PS3 and PS4.

This year, Sony plans on providing extra support for the various PlayStation platforms - including the PS Vita - through GameMaker: Studio and MonoGame development tools.

Fourteen PS4 games have already been self-published and over 100 games are in development at the moment with more interested parties signing up.

PS hearts devs

So much dev love

A 'painless process' - if you've got enough dough

Signing up to become a developer for Sony is apparently easy and extremely helpful if creating games has always been a dream of yours.

The three panelists at a Sony session touted the various engines they used in creating their games - Unity, PhyreEngine and MonoGame - as a difficult process made much easier with help from Sony's indie outreach programs.

MonoGame

Showing 2D some love too

Along with marketing, which includes games possibly being displayed as a banner on the PlayStation Network's front page, and support from Sony's engineers, indie devs are given a wide array of support.

A few requirements remain however; Brian Silva, manager of developer relations at Sony, notes that incorporation is required "for your protection [and] the rights of your game" along with a static IP address to make sure devs don't just sell SDKs.

The program seems to have a lot of support from current devs, and with indie gaming on the rise on consoles, you'll definitely see more titles on sale.