Skip to main content

Introduction to PlayCanvas

· 2 min read
Dave Evans
Dave Evans
CTO

What is PlayCanvas?​

PlayCanvas is a toolset for creating the next-generation of browser games. It's a professional 3D game engine, a toolset that takes real-time collaboration seriously and a publishing system for getting your game out to the world.

You can see more details about exactly what we're offering on our Technology Overview page.

Why are you making PlayCanvas?​

We think that the web is awesome, and that the browser is the future of the OS. So what is the first thing you want to do in a new platform? Write games of course! Tools for making games in the browser have so far been limited to 2 dimensions, and we want people to make next-generation games with hardware accelerated 3D graphics.

Why is PlayCanvas exciting?​

First off, PlayCanvas provides a professional standard 3D game engine, written by people with years of PC and console game engine experience. This means that people who want to make the browser games of the future don't need to re-invent all the low-level stuff and worry about cross-browser compatibility. Exciting because now anyone who can program JavaScript can make really high quality graphics render straight into the browser.

Secondly, tools. As anyone who has done any serious game development knows, tools are the most important part of your game technology. A fancy engine means nothing if no one can get artwork into it, or your designers have to manually edit XML files to change behaviors. The PlayCanvas Designer is a our key tool which allows you to build your game visually with a WYSIWYG interface.

However, most exciting is the real-time collaboration features. It is truly revolutionary to be able to work with a colleague on the other side of world and edit 3D worlds in real-time as if you were drawing on the same sheet of paper. Seriously, you have to try it.

When is it going to be ready?​

We're building games with PlayCanvas right now, so in some senses, it's good to go. But scaling up to let the entire world use the platform is a big task and we're not quite there yet. We're operating a beta test, so if you're mega-keen you should sign up for the newsletter and contact us to let us know how you plan to use PlayCanvas for your next project.

Team PlayCanvas