Nocturnal: Insomniac sets up console tech sharing initiative for developers

It’s better to give than to receive – this was the point of the new initiative set up by Ratchet & Clank developers Insomniac Games as it introduced a new technology sharing program entitled “Nocturnal” for other video game developers in the industry. Its aim is basically to create a central information hub which different devs can share with one another. You can find out more about the Nocturnal initiative by reading our full article after the jump.

Insomniac Games has been recently advocating a new slogan in the recent technology war between consoles. Its statement: make peace, not war.

The developers behind Ratchet & Clank and Resistance: Fall of Man have set up a new technology sharing scheme for others who want to expand their knowledge in the workings of today’s next-gen consoles.

Entitled the Nocturnal initiative, this program is aimed at sharing knowledge on today’s console development with other video game developers and basically create a central information hub which they can all share with one another.

The information shared using Nocturnal has been sanctioned by Sony, with a couple of terms included. Details on the deeper levels of the PlayStation 3’s won’t be discussed, although the more general details of the Sony SDK will be revealed. This is mostly in line with the non-disclosure agreement Insomniac made with Sony.

Insomniac’s engine director Mike Action mentioned that their biggest reason for setting up this program was to contribute back to the industry for everything that they’ve built on up until this point. While this may seem like a way for the company to take advantage of the technology war situation, Action explained that devs should “compete with content, not tech” instead.

Included in the Nocturnal offer are several helper utilities like smart pointers and an event system. Other tools such as a non-blocking inter-process communication API, a console logging manager, debugging helpers and Perforce API wrapper will be set to go online soon.

In addition, Insomniac has set up an R&D section on its website talking about the different things the developers have learned about the PS3’s development. With the development of Resistance 2 well underway, this project may hopefully shed more light into the notoriously difficult platform.