Until Then: Porting a Landmark Indie to PlayStation 5

Until Then, a narrative indie game by Polychroma Games, ported to PS5 by Sickhead Games

Title: Until Then
Original Release: 2024
Developer: Polychroma Games
Publisher: Maximum Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 5
Engine: Godot

Until Then is a narrative adventure from Manila-based Polychroma Games: a side-scrolling pixel-art story set in the Philippines, following a teenager navigating high school life in the aftermath of a national catastrophe. It released to widespread critical acclaim and was praised for its emotional storytelling, stunning pixel animation, and authentic Filipino representation.

The game was built in Godot 4.1, and it was Sickhead’s first Godot port. At the time, Godot had no native console support, so we built the PlayStation 5 foundation ourselves: the new OS layer, input devices, the rendering device, and the audio driver among other systems. PlayStation also requires all shaders to be compiled ahead of time, and Godot had no way to do this, so we designed and built a shader precompilation system from scratch.

The game shipped simultaneously on PC, Linux, and PlayStation 5 in 2024, making it the very first Godot title released on PS5. Others followed over a year later. This is the kind of work we do: helping clients ship on their target platforms, whatever technology they’ve built on.


Sickhead Games is the leading game porting studio, bringing Unity, Unreal, Godot, and custom engine titles to console and handheld including PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS. From codebase assessment to post-launch support, we're trusted by solo indies and major publishers alike, including Humble Games, Sony Interactive, Nintendo, Annapurna, Good Games, ConcernedApe, MegaCrit, 17-Bit, Maddy Makes Games, Zachtronics, Keen Software House, Thomas Happ, Pocketwatch Games, EXOK, Young Horses, Taito, Jaleco, and Microsoft. We've shipped over 100 releases, among them Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire, Axiom Verge, Space Engineers, and Celeste. We specialize in bringing retro masterpieces, indie darlings, and PC classics to modern audiences like Grandia, Enclave, and Jaleco Sports titles.