Shipping Godot VR and Porting to PSVR2: A Partial Post Mortem

By Claire Blackshaw
Originally presented at Develop Brighton 2026

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📌 Executive Summary (TL;DR)

Can Godot be used to ship commercial VR titles? Yes. However, our journey involved an "early adopter tax" of approximately £80,000.

This account covers the "war stories" associated with:

• Overhauling Godot's core architecture.
• Collaborating with André Ewald and George Marques on the community-led PS5/PSVR2 port.
• The necessity of developing a brand-new render server for version 4.7.
• A plea for better cooperation between render programmers and platform holders.

[!NOTE] This written version is a companion to the live talk, offering a more relaxed pace for those who prefer reading over watching. No PlayStation NDAs were breached in the making of this post.

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👤 About the Author: Claire Blackshaw

I have been operating in the game industry since the era of the PlayStation 2. My current focus involves contributing to Godot—specifically regarding OpenXR and various rendering components.

Career Highlights:

• VR Veteran: Active in the space since 2013.
• Sony Tenure: Worked on PSVR networking and "metaverse" foundations (social VR, gesture recognition).
• Recent Ships: Dreams and Substance 3D Modeler.
• Current Project: Augmental Puzzles.

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🛠️ The State of Godot: An Honest Assessment

I want to be clear: Godot works. However, the "right" engine depends entirely on your project's scope.

Engine Comparison Matrix

The "Tax" Explained: While we spent $\approx £80\text{k}$ on engine-level work, this doesn't mean every developer will face the same cost. This figure represents the "community port" gap—work we would have avoided in Unity.

$\text{Total Cost} = \text{Early Adopter Tax} + \text{Platform Specific Work (PSVR2)}$

(Note: The £80k figure excludes the specific PlayStation/PSVR2 costs. See my GodotCon write-up for the itemized breakdown.)

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📉 The Road to Augmental Puzzles

Our success wasn't immediate. We navigated several failures before finding the right path.

• Project 1: Render-blocked
• Project 2: Physics-blocked
• Augmental Puzzles: Born from a desire to play Sudoku in VR.

The "Godot Speed" Advantage

The primary strength of Godot is the velocity of iteration.

• Core Sudoku gameplay: 2 Days
• Full menu flow & components: 1 Week

Initially, we utilized composition layers to achieve high-quality 2D overlays efficiently. While we eventually shifted our art style and abandoned them, they provided essential scaffolding.

Current Status: Nonograms are live, and the PSVR2 version is officially announced!

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🕯️ Personal Reflections & Industry Critique

The "Monkey Paw" Effect

On a personal note, this period was marked by significant hardship—serious illnesses among friends and the loss of my cat. We joke about it now, but the timing was brutal.

The Engine Duopoly Problem

In previous console generations, programmers grew by fixing in-house engines or adapting licensed ones. However, the last decade saw the rise of the Unity/Unreal Duopoly.

"The way to know if someone is actually using a thing is that they're complaining about it."

Because most developers relied on two monolithic engines, very few engaged directly with VR standards. This led to a stagnation in those standards. Informed complaining is the engine of progress; without it, the tools don't improve.

def industry_progress(engagement):
    if engagement == "informed_complaining":
        return "Improvement"
    elif engagement == "silent_acceptance":
        return "Stagnation"
    else:
        return "Status Quo"

# Current state of VR standards during the duopoly:
print(industry_progress("silent_acceptance")) 
# Output: Stagnation

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Further Reading:

• Develop North: Professional perspectives on Godot.
• GodotCon: Detailed technical deep-dive (available on YouTube).
• PlayStation Partner Spaces: Exclusive technical details for partners.