Sony dropped a bombshell at their Game Developers Conference panel yesterday, revealing the Project Morpheus VR headset. However, the platform holder has a number of other developer-oriented announcements for the show.

Most importantly, middleware solution GameMaker Studio will be available natively for PS4, and it will be free for SCE-licensed developers. A popular solution amongst indie devs, games like Hyper Light Drifter and Home, and Nuclear Throne have all used the engine. With today's announcement, these studios are able to "more efficiently convert their titles."

MonoGame will also be natively supported on PS4, and is being used in Towerfall: Ascension, Transistor, and Fez.

Sony is also releasing an additional game development tool, Authoring Tools Framework (ATF), as a free open-source download. ATF has been a first-party tool used in the development of games like The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls. The company has now made it available open for all.

"SCE is an immense supporter of the indie movement within the game industry and is constantly collecting feedback on how to make things easier for developers. It became abundantly clear within the development community that these broad sets of tools and specific middleware solutions are in high-demand," SCE president Andrew House said in the announcement. "We are pleased to provide these powerful tools to developers and add even more flexibility and development options for game developers around the world, and we know that PlayStation gamers will be thrilled to play the games that will come to our platforms as a result of these partnerships."