14 DAY TRIAL // When talking about game engines the first name that pops in everyone head is the Unreal engine. It doesn't really matter if it's the Unreal Tournament Engine, Unreal II or the Unreal III engine that makes an appearance in our cerebral cortex, what matters is that this is the name that always pops up. Epic Game's engines have proved to be the most versatile and widely used foundation for games. So every time a new one enters development the question will always rise as to whether it can prove to be a challenge.
The latest engine to be announced is the one that game developer Ready at Dawn is currently working on. It will be meant for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable and hasn't received a flashy or in any way personal name; it has been entitled Ready at Dawn Engine, but still, a RaD Engine sounds pretty good. As past accomplishments, the company can pride itself with the fact that it has put together the best-looking game so far on the PSP. God of War: Chains of Olympus is the tip of their spear, but they've also given birth to Daxter for the PSP and the Wii version of Okami.
Though Ready at Dawn president Didier Malenfan didn't really specify any in his statement, he did express discontent with the current game engines. "We are building something for developers who are tired of the challenges of PC engines shoe-horned into consoles, or trying to stitch together layers upon layers of middleware from multiple vendors. Our solution will be a complete game development platform that simply works."
With this goal in mind, they've described the application as "the only comprehensive and fully integrated console game development platform designed for the creation of cutting-edge AAA interactive entertainment." The engine hasn't received an official date regarding when it will become available for use, but Manelfan told Gamasutra that a beta would become available in the "next few weeks." With competitors like Unreal Engine, CryEngine or even Dunia and Havok out there it seems like Ready at Dawn has its work cut out for it.