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Middleware maker Havok is putting flexibility first in its bid to give small teams the means to make high-end 3D games for mobiles.
It’s recently announced engine, Project Anarchy, is intended to be a development solution for small and independent developers, taking on the likes of Unity and UDK.
Speaking to Develop, Havok’s managing director David Coghlan said flexibility is one of the primarily reason he believes developers should use its new technology.
“There’s a few clear reasons to chose Project Anarchy,” he said. “One is that it is a very flexible C++ development environment, so that will have a huge appeal.”
Coghlan’s colleague, Ross O’Dwyer (pictured), Havok’s worldwide head of developer support, also sees value in Project Anarchy’s C++ foundation.
“[C++] is the language that triple-A games are developed in,” said O’Dwyer. “It’s also the language that allows you to get low level hardware access and really tap the performance of the devices you’re running your games on.”
Recently, there have been several announcements from game technology firms looking to attract developer to 3D tech for smartphones, with many of them using HTML5. Epic Games, Ludei and Turbulenz are all releasing HTML5-ready game engines and tools.
Havok’s own offering faces challenges, but O’Dwyer believes such competition will only help benefit developers.
“We think [the availability of existing accessible games development tools is] great to see, and the market has responded really well to having these kinds of choices more readily available,” he said.
“We’re seeing though, that the market is looking for broader, more flexible tools where the ramp up time might be a little higher, but the payoff such tools offer in terms of new and uncharted gamer experienced is huge.”
Read more about Project Anarchy in Develop’s cover story.
