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Autodesk Stingray, formerly known as Bitsquid, is a discontinued 3D game engine with support for Linux, Windows, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox 360, Android and iOS. It uses the Lua scripting language.[1]

Bitsquid
Developer(s)
  • Bitsquid
Written in C++, Lua
PlatformLinux, Windows, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox 360, Android, iOS
LicenseProprietary

History

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Bitsquid

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Bitsquid AB, the company that created the Bitsquid game engine, was founded in 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden, Niklas Frykholm and Tobias Persson, two engineers who had previously worked at game studio Grin, and by the owners of game developer Fatshark.[2][3]

The game engine was built to be flexible and scalable, with support for visual scripting, Lua, and C++ for advanced users.[4] The use of Lua allowed Bitsquid to be smaller and lighter than other game engines thanks to its lean code base.[1][5]

In April 2010, Bitsquid and Fatshark released a demo highlighting the Bitsquid engine's capabilities. Support for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 was made available that fall.[6] In 2011, Fatshark released Hamilton's Great Adventure, the first game to run on Bitsquid.[4] In 2013, Bitsquid was made available for development in PlayStation 4 games.[5]

Bitsquid was acquired by Autodesk in June 2014.[7][8] The money from the sale helped Fatshark develop Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, the studio's first self-published AAA game.[9] Frykholm and Persson went on to develop a short-lived "modular" game engine called The Machinery.[10]

Autodesk Stingray

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In 2015, Bitsquid was retooled into Autodesk Stingray, which integrated with the company's game development toolchain, including 3ds Max, Maya, Mudbox, and Maya LT.[11][12] Autodesk hoped to compete with other low-cost-to-enter game engines like Unreal Engine, Unity, and CryEngine. Stingray was offered on a monthly subscription basis and even packaged with some of the company's other offerings.[13]

In June 2017, Autodesk introduced Stingray as a 3ds Max plugin called 3ds Max Interactive. This feature allowed 3ds Max users to create virtual reality experiences.[14] In December 2017, citing its inability to compete with Unreal Engine and Unity, Autodesk announced Stingray's end of sale and development as a standalone product, effective as of January 7, 2018.[15][16] 3DS Max Interactive was discontinued on March 30, 2022.[17]

On February 8, 2024, Arrowhead Game Studios released Helldivers 2, a third-person co-op shooter built in Stingray, six years after official support ended.[18] CEO Johan Pilestedt confirmed that the game had entered production before the shutdown in 2018.[3]

Games using Bitsquid and Stingray

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Bitsquid and Stingray were primarily used by Sweden-based developers, such as Fatshark and Arrowhead Game Studios.[3][18] Each have used the engine in a number of their games. Games built with the engine include:[19][20]

Title Release Date Developer(s)
A Game of Dwarves 2012-10-23 Zeal Game Studio
Bloodsports.TV 2015-03-30 Fatshark,

Toadman Interactive

Cobalt
Dreadlands
Escape Dead Island 2014-11-18 Fatshark
Hamilton's Great Adventure 2011-05-31 Fatshark
Immortal: Unchained 2018-09-07 Toadman Interactive
#KILLALLZOMBIES
Krater 2012-06-12 Fatshark
Gauntlet 2014-09-23 Arrowhead Game Studios
Helldivers 2015-03-03 Arrowhead Game Studios
Helldivers 2[3] 2024-02-08 Arrowhead Game Studios
Magicka: Wizard Wars 2014-05-27
Magicka 2 2015-05-26 Pieces Interactive
The Showdown Effect 2013-03-05 Arrowhead Game Studios,

Pixeldiet Entertainment

War of the Vikings 2014-04-15 Fatshark
War of the Roses 2012-10-02 Fatshark
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide[4] 2015-10-23 Fatshark
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 2018-03-08 Fatshark
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide 2022-11-30 Fatshark

References

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  1. ^ a b Niklas (2013-02-19). "bitsquid: development blog: Why Lua?". bitsquid. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
  2. ^ James Pember (May 9, 2013). "Bitsquid: a high-end game engine focusing on performance, flexibility and productivity". Swedish Startup Space. Archived from the original on April 1, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d Park, Morgan (2024-02-21). "Helldivers 2 was built on an obscure Swedish engine discontinued in 2018: 'Our crazy engineers had to do everything with no support'". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  4. ^ a b c Wahlund, Mark (2015-08-20). "Building Warhammer Vermintide with Stingray". 80.lv. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  5. ^ a b Falcon, Jonah A. (13 March 2013). "Bitsquid bringing its proprietary game engine to PlayStation 4". Gamewatcher.
  6. ^ "Stone Giant". GamesIndustry.biz. 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  7. ^ "Autodesk Acquires Bitsquid". Autodesk, Inc. June 9, 2014. Archived from the original on June 12, 2014.
  8. ^ Rachel Weber (9 June 2014). "Autodesk acquires Bitsquid and its engine". Gamesindustry.Biz.
  9. ^ "Meet Fatshark". Fatshark. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  10. ^ Takahashi, Dean (2021-07-07). "Our Machinery launches hackable lightweight game engine". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  11. ^ "Autodesk Launches Stingray Game Engine at GDC Europe 2015". Autodesk. August 3, 2015.
  12. ^ Stephen Kleckner (3 August 2015). "Autodesk's Stingray may be a big threat to Unity and Unreal in the game-engine wars". VentureBeat.
  13. ^ Steve Dent (15 August 2015). "Autodesk targets small studios with its Stingray game engine". Engaget.
  14. ^ Dubey, Parul (June 12, 2017). "Autodesk 3ds Max 2018.1 Now Includes 3ds Max Interactive, a Real-Time Engine Based on Autodesk Stingray". Informed Infrastructure. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  15. ^ "Changes to Autodesk Stingray FAQ | Stingray | Autodesk Knowledge Network". knowledge.autodesk.com. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  16. ^ McAloon, Alissa (December 14, 2017). "Autodesk is discontinuing its Stingray game dev engine". www.gamedeveloper.com. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  17. ^ "Is 3ds Max Interactive available for 3ds Max 2022 and above?". knowledge.autodesk.com.
  18. ^ a b McKenzie, Theodore (2024-02-21). "Helldivers II Was Built on an Archaic Engine That You Can't Access". 80.lv. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  19. ^ "3D Engine: Bitsquid". MobyGames. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  20. ^ "3D Engine: Stingray". MobyGames. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
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