#leadwerks

[pinkprogram]

My host has started trying to make a game concept ^_^ We're going to do a lot more on it before submitting it to steam for greenlight or kickstarting it.  Especially since last time we tried kickstarting we made 0$

[linuxgamenews]

Leadwerks Game Engine now on Ubuntu Software Center

Following completion of a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring Leadwerks’ game development software to Linux, Leadwerks and Canonical have joined forces to make Leadwerks Game Engine available in the Ubuntu Software Center. This provides Ubuntu users with a powerful gaming tool for rapid development. In an industry first, Leadwerks has chosen to focus on Ubuntu as the company’s primary supported platform. For many users, Leadwerks provides the last missing application they need to move entirely over to Ubuntu. With Leadwerks now available in the Ubuntu Software Center, developers can build and play games without ever leaving the Ubuntu operating system.

Leadwerks CEO Josh Klint explains his reasoning for the move. “The PC platform plays to the company’s strengths in graphics and development tools. Linux is where the really exciting developments are happening, on the desktop and in the living room. Leadwerks for Linux is designed to bring user-friendly game development to desktop Linux, and Ubuntu is the leader in this space, so it makes sense to focus our efforts there. Growing a community of Ubuntu game developers is our primary goal over the next 12 months.” Bringing Leadwerks Game Engine to Ubuntu also means that existing games can be more easily deployed for Ubuntu. The lineup of featured games on the Leadwerks website covers a diverse range of genres including strategy, action, and simulations. Michael Juliano, developer of the space combat simulation game Rogue System, says that he is now planning on Ubuntu support in his upcoming title due to the ease of deployment Leadwerks provides. “One of the reasons we chose Leadwerks was due to its strong support for Linux”, said Michael. “We’re definitely interested in bringing Rogue System to Ubuntu.” Jono Bacon, community manager for Ubuntu, said that ”Canonical is delighted to be working with Josh at Leadwerks to help further Ubuntu and Linux and in general as a next generation platform not just for consuming games, but building a powerful community of games developersand content creators”. With 25 million users, Ubuntu is widely used by game developers and players alike who enjoy it’s open nature and long term vision of convergence. Leadwerks Game Engine is a powerful and easy to use development tool for building 3D games. The software has recently grown in popularity due to its rapid development capabilities, royalty-free license, and strong support for C++ and Lua programming. Thanks to the quality of modern Linux graphics drivers from ATI and Nvidia, Leadwerks is able to deliver high-end 3D visuals on Ubuntu. An advanced deferred renderer provides realistic light and shadows on any machine supporting OpenGL 4.

About Leadwerks Software!

Leadwerks Software was founded in 2006 to build powerful game development tools that are easy to use. The company launched Leadwerks 3, their first multi-platform product, in April 2013 at the GDC expo. Last summer, the company conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring Leadwerks to the Linux operating system, reaching over 200% of their goal in just six weeks. A concurrent Greenlight campaign for Steam was also successful, making Leadwerks the first 3D game engine approved for distribution on Steam.

About Canonical

Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu and the leading provider of services for Ubuntu deployments in the enterprise. With global teams of developers, support staff and engineering centres, Canonical is uniquely positioned to help partners and customers make the most of Ubuntu. Canonical is a privately held company. Ubuntu is a free, open-source platform for client, server and cloud computing. It is the most widely used Linux on the top 1000 websites by traffic, the reference platform for OpenStack deployments, the most popular guest OS on public clouds, and ships on PCs from Dell, Lenovo, HP and other brands. Since its launch in 2004, it has become the preferred choice for open desktop and scale-out computing, from Fortune 500 companies to hardware makers, content providers, software developers and consumers.

[linuxgamenews]

Leadwerks 3.1 Enters Beta; Coming to Steam Dev Days

Leadwerks 3.1 has entered the beta testing phase on schedule according to our development plan laid out in the Leadwerks for #Linux #Kickstarter campaign.  Supporters who chose the SUPER BACKER reward have been granted access to try the early builds of Leadwerks for Linux. We chose to use the excellent Code::Blocks IDE for Linux #development.  Beta testers can access the full Leadwerks API to program graphics, physics, and gameplay, along with a few new functions like Camera::SetMultisampleMode(), which sets the render antialiasing level. Although the beta is not a complete finished product, we've already learned a lot about building high-end graphics for Linux.  First of all, the Linux OpenGL drivers for ATI and Nvidia hardware are fine. We've encountered no graphics drivers bugs (so far).  This may be due to the streamlined nature of OpenGL 4, as it removes a lot of legacy functionality.  Whatever the cause, OpenGL drivers for Linux work great, much better than Windows drivers did a few years ago in the dark days between OpenGL 2 and 3. The biggest remaining challenge is to get the editor running in Linux.  We anticipate two difficult parts to this.  First, although we have a GUI abstraction layer that uses GTK on Linux, we expect some amount of fiddling to be necessary to make it work right.  Second, the case-sensitive nature of the Linux file system will cause issues that need to be dealt with since there are many placed where our editor stores file names in lower-case format.  This will require a lot of effort to resolve, but it's not any harder than some of the other issues we have dealt with so far in the development of Leadwerks for Linux.  The benefits of having a Linux game editor with a native look and feel will make it worth the extra effort it takes.

Steam Dev Days

Leadwerks founder Josh Klint has been invited and will be attending Steam Dev Days in Seattle, Washington.  Steam Dev Days is a two-day game developer’s conference where professionals can meet in a relaxed, off the record environment. Developers will share their design and industry expertise, participate in roundtable discussions and attend lectures by industry veterans on topics ranging from game economies to VR, Linux/OpenGL, user-generated content and more. Developers will also have direct access to Valve’s Steam Team, and will be given a chance to test-drive and provide feedback on Steam OS, prototype Steam Machines and Steam Controllers.

[linuxgamenews]

Looking forward to Leadwerks Game Development on Linux

There’s an ongoing Kickstarter drive for a small game engine company named Leadwerks to port its development environment to the Linux platform. According to the company, the market for native Linux games is set to increase exponentially over the next few years. With Valve’s digital distribution platform, Steam, Linux gaming finally has some legs under it. More to the point though, the company cites recent listings for Linux developers at major game studios like Crytek as evidence that the Linux platform’s importance is growing. To capitalize on the current momentum behind Linux gaming this Kickstarter campaign aims to provide Leadwerks with enough capital to port its game development environment. Thus enabling would-be game developers to design, build, and test their creations entirely inside of the Linux environment without the use of Virtual Machines or Windows-based workstations. This is a big change from the current state of affairs in which game developers build their game with Windows-based tools and then port the finished product over to GNU/Linux environments. The most basic goal for this Kickstarter project has already been met, and the Leadwerks 3 environment will be ported to Linux. With a little over a day left on the clock the company is trying to attract funding for the long list of stretch goals that they set out a few weeks ago. Items like Oculus Rift support, Blender integration, and even support for the OUYA gaming console are listed as goals. Stepping back from this specific company for a moment, I think it’s important to take a broader view of the Linux-based gaming market. Right now, gaming on Linux is the strongest it’s ever been. This is largely due to Microsoft’s missteps and occasional outright antagonism toward PC gamers, and PC game developers. If Microsoft were to change its tune today, and move away from its Xbox first, PC whenever strategy the company could easily crush the toehold that Linux has gained in the PC gaming market by embracing one of the Windows platform’s greatest strengths. Alas, with the introduction of the Windows store and the announcement of the upcoming Xbox One it seems that Microsoft is dead set on neglecting PC gaming in favor of more directly profitable opportunities. Moving back to Linux itself, Valve’s support for Linux through the launch of Steam and the ongoing process of porting its library of first-party titles to the platform has no doubt put a strong set of legs under the rather wobbly Linux-gaming table. If more developers like Valve and Crytek begin to embrace the platform then gamers are sure to follow. One important, if anecdotal, point to keep in mind is that gamers by-and-large don’t care what platform their videogames run on. Rather what they care about is having a platform that allows them to play the games that they want to play. For now that platform is Windows; but much like the field of dreams, if you build it they will come. This is the promise that Linux holds, a growing environment for those developers that are disenchanted with the Windows ecosystem or too small to make a notable offering in more traditional places. Leadwerks integration with Steam and the project to bring its tools to Linux will no doubt bolster the prospects of the Linux gaming ecosystem as a whole. Of course a few developers and a native game engine does not a good platform make, but it’s clear that there’s some momentum and that at least a few of the barriers to entry have been removed. Any way you slice it, what Leadwerks is doing is an interesting addition to the Linux platform. Here’s to hoping that next year, will finally be the year of Linux (on the desktop)