Leadwerks Game Engine News

I'm proud to announce the release of the first Leadwerks Games Bundle. Start building your own games with Leadwerks Engine and discover indie titles created by developers just like you. This bundle includes Leadwerks Game Engine, along with three games created with Leadwerks, and a generous discount.

Unleash your creativity and embark on an exciting journey into game development with Leadwerks Engine! This bundle includes the full-featured Leadwerks Game Engine alongside three exceptional games created using Leadwerks by fellow developers just like you. Dive into this world of imagination and innovation—build, play, and inspire others in the thriving community of indie game creators. Your adventure starts here!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/43610/Leadwerks_Games_Bundle/

Built to power a new generation of game development tools, Ultra App Kit provides an easy-to-use C++ programming SDK for creating desktop GUI applications.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1512210/Ultra_App_Kit/

Unlike other alternatives like Dear ImGui, the Ultra App Kit GUI renders in retained mode rather than immediate mode, and is specifically designed for desktop GUI applications. This makes applications snappy and responsive when resizing or refreshing a window.

DPI scaling is baked into the design for resolution-independent graphics on any screen.

The GUI can be combined with an embedded OpenGL viewport, or combined with a 3D game engine to make custom editors and game development tools.



[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Developer HorrorTheory has released their Leadwerks-powered game Concealment.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1541690/Concealment/

[h2]Your life is in your hands[/h2]
Go to an abandoned village to find your missing brother. Explore the objects that come in your way. Solve the terrible mystery of this mysterious place.

Concealment is a first-person psychological horror game. A game in which you need to solve the mystery of an abandoned ancient village.

[h2]Story[/h2]
You receive a strange letter from your brother. He asks that you urgently come to an abandoned village where something strange is happening. Your goal is to find your brother and find out what caused the strange events.

[h2]Features[/h2]

• Open for research location - Go wherever you want, explore the territory to your heart's content.
  
• Interactive items - You can pick up and examine items.
  
• Non-linear plot - Change the plot with your actions.
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Get the game now for some horror fun built with Leadwerks!

Native user interfaces like Win32 and Cocoa are limited and dated. Web-based technologies like Electron look nice, but the final product runs slow and feels sluggish. These problems caused me to rethink user interface design and come up with a new paradigm to deliver the best possible experience for desktop applications on the PC.

Check it out on Kickstarter now!



Purchases will also be available through IndieGoGo, Steam, and direct through our website before the product release.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Background[/h2]
A few years ago I launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring Leadwerks Game Engine to the Linux operating system. The software went on to become a success, with over $1 million in sales and more than 30,000 customers, including NASA, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin. I learned a lot from that experience and as I began a new software application, I wanted to revisit the user interface and see if there was any way to deliver a better user experience.

[h2]Close-to-the-Metal Design[/h2]
Ultra App Kit provides a fast and customizable user interface for building game development tools and other desktop programs. The SDK is built around the same low-level APIs as the native user interface, with a customizable easy-to-use core updated for desktop applications in the 2020s.



[h2]Usage[/h2]


[h2]Supported Widgets[/h2]

• Label
  
• Button (push, checkbox, radio, and toggle styles)
  
• ProgressBar
  
• TextField
  
• TextArea
  
• ComboBox
  
• ListBox
  
• Slider (scrollbar, trackbar, and stepper styles)
  
• Draggable multi-select TreeView
  
• Create your own!
  

[h2]API Design[/h2]

• C++ shared pointers everywhere
  
• Extensible widgets system
  
• Extensive documentation with examples for each command
  
• Can be made to interface with C# and Lua
  

[h2]UI Features[/h2]

• Resolution independent for any DPI (16K+)
  
• Load SVG vector images
  
• Filter and sort widget items by name
  
• Set widget and item image
  
• Change mouse cursor
  
• Custom color schemes stored in JSON files
  

[h2]Other Features[/h2]

• File I/O
  
• File system watcher
  
• Memory allocation and management
  
• Image loading, saving, processing
  
• Package system for loading files from compressed / encrypted archives
  
• Plugin system
  
• Thread management
  
• String manipulation (split, match, conversion, etc.)
  
• Message boxes and file / folder requester
  

[h2]Stretch Goals[/h2]

• $20,000: C# and Lua programming support
  
• $50,000: Linux and Mac support
  
• $80.000: Visual UI Designer
  

[h2]Other Ways You Can Help[/h2]
Some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean you can't help. Get the word out and make some noise about this campaign!

Thank you for your support!

[h2]About Leadwerks 5[/h2]
Leadwerks Game Engine 5 is in development, with an initial release scheduled for spring 2021, with Vulkan graphics and 64-bit floating point support, Join our community and help shape the final design of our most advanced technology yet.

Leadwerks Game Engine 5 will be backwards-compatible with asset file formats used in version 4. In addition, we are adding support for glTF 2.0 (GL Transmission Format), a new open-spec model format from Khronos with support for skinned animation and PBR materials.

What's so great about the glTF file format?

[h2]Documented and Human-Readable[/h2]
Unlike the "black box" FBX file format, which can only be read using Autodesk's proprietary SDK, glTF is an open specification based on JSON. This makes it easier for us to reliably support import and export of glTF files without worrying about future changes or different versions. Your data remains easily accessible and the files can even be edited in notepad! (For faster-loading files, vertex and indice data can be packed into a second binary file, while the main .gltf file is encoded in text).



[h2]Widely Supported[/h2]
glTF aims to be "the JPEG of 3D" and most of your favorites programs already support it! Blender includes import and export capabilities by default, and there are plugins available for 3ds max suppot. Even Windows Explorer includes a glTF previewer so you can just click on a file to view it.



[h2]PBR Materials[/h2]
glTF includes a well-defined specification for materials using physically-based rendering techniques, and includes options for transparency, emission, and alpha masking. That means when you load a model from glTF format, you never have to worry about creating new material files. It just works. (A Blinn-Phong material definition is still available for older models.)



[h2]Vast Libraries of Game-Ready Content[/h2]
SketchFab, Turbosquid StemCell, and other 3D model stores are adopting glTF as the standard file format for 3D game content. This means you can choose from thousands of game-ready models that will load up in Leadwerks Game Engine 5 without any touch-up or adjustment.



[h2]Making Game Development Easier[/h2]
For years, game developers have had to convert their editable source model formats into final proprietary game-ready formats. If the original files were ever lost, or if you forget which version you last saved, you were pretty much out of luck. glTF models, on the other hand, can be easily re-imported into a variety of 3D modeling programs, so saving a 3D model for games is now as simple as exporting a bitmap from Photoshop. This will make game development in Leadwerks Game Engine 5 easier than ever before.

[h3]About Leadwerks 5[/h3]
Leadwerks Game Engine 5 is in development, with an initial release scheduled for the second half of 2020, with Vulkan graphics and 64-bit floating point support. Join our mailing list for updates and special offers.