Autodesk Announces Stingray Game Engine

Nowadays, it seems like everyone and their brother has a game engine.

Nowadays, it seems like everyone and their brother has a game engine. Valve is releasing their new Source 2 engine for free, Epic made the latest iteration of their Unreal Engine available to everyone, and even Unity is throwing open the doors to free development (provided you model and texture the doors yourself).

Amidst the chaos of GDC Europe in Cologne, Germany, Autodesk has announced they are releasing a game engine of their own. Autodesk, known for their Maya and 3DS Max software in particular, are moving into the game engine ring with the introduction of Stingray. Stingray has been built on the Bitsquid engine, which Autodesk purchased last year for the purpose of making their own game-making tool.

The key niches that Autodesk is trying to fill with Stingray are, according to them, the new Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mobile development markets. There is also, of course, the benefit of going from Maya — one of the most popular 3D modeling tools — straight to another Autodesk program. This should mean a greater ease of use, or, to use the buzzwords, a much more streamlined workflow. Autodesk has already announced that there will be a “live link” between Stingray and other Autodesk software, meaning users can move quickly between their game and the tools they use to make the game.

Stingray is scheduled to release on August 19 for Windows PCs at a cost of $30 USD per month. Autodesk has also said that Maya LT Desktop Subscribers will have access to the engine. Those interested can check out Stingray’s website, which has a bunch of in-depth information, as well as videos describing some of the engine’s features.