- Leadwerks Halloween Screamfest 2026 - 3 October 2026
As the days get shorter and a ghostly chill fills the air, the Leadwerks community is igniting a new season of creativity and cooperation with our Halloween Screamfest Games Tournament! This is your chance to showcase your skills, develop exciting new projects, and participate in a lively celebration of game design. Let’s make this Autumn a season of innovation, collaboration, and unforgettable gaming moments!🏆 The ChallengeCreate a simple, playable game using Leadwerks within the tournament timeframe. When you're done, upload your masterpiece on our website before the deadline hits! 🛠 How to PlayBuild your simple playable game with Leadwerks.Submit it before November 2nd, 2026 (GMT).At the end of the tournament, a scary playthough video will showcase all the community's creations. 👻 Free Spooky Assets If you are looking for ideas, here's a few horror-themed props to help get you sta…
- Steam Frame support with OpenXR in Leadwerks 5.2 - 16 September 2026
Leadwerks Software has released Leadwerks Game Engine 5.2, bringing a major upgrade to its virtual reality capabilities with a new backend powered by the OpenXR standard.By leveraging Khronos Group’s royalty-free open standard, Leadwerks now supports virtually all VR hardware on the market today, including the new Steam Frame headset, and opens up broader hardware compatibility for developers building games and simulations.Realistic Hand and Finger MovementThe VR player template has been updated with realistic hand movements that respond naturally to your controller input.High-Fidelity Physics for VRPowered by Newton Dynamics (also used in the physics-heavy Amnesia franchise), Leadwerks now automatically detects when a game is running in VR and switches to a higher-precision physics mode for both C++ and Lua projects.Low-latency Hand Attachments with CollisionObjects attached to VR cont…
- Better Graphics and Lower System Requirements in Leadwerks 5.1 - 27 July 2026
Leadwerks Game Engine 5.1 is a major update of our game development technology that delivers improved compatibility, faster performance, and new features.New Deferred RendererAlthough Leadwerks 5.0 launched with a clustered forward+ renderer, after extensive testing we felt the deferred lighting approach we've used since 2008 offers better support for large numbers of lights and decals. 5.1 introduces an all-new MSAA-enabled deferred renderer with stencil-based optimizations and advanced support for transparency.Improved TerrainTerrain rendering is improved, with a new clipmap rendering system that eliminates the need for bindless textures. Terrain-mesh blending is implemented as a deferred effect that can be controlled with a simple checkbox with some adjustable settings. A new fluvial erosion tool has been added to help you easily turn simple hills into realistic rugged terrain.Better…
- Leadwerks Summer Games Tournament - 27 June 2026
As the summer days heat up, the Leadwerks community is igniting a new season of creativity and cooperation with our Summer Games Tournament! This is your chance to showcase your skills, develop exciting new projects, and participate in a lively celebration of game design. Let’s make this summer a season of innovation, collaboration, and unforgettable gaming moments!🏆 The ChallengeCreate a simple, playable game using Leadwerks within the tournament timeframe. When you're done, upload your masterpiece on our website before the deadline hits!🛠️ How to PlayBuild your simple playable game with Leadwerks.Submit it before July 27th, 2026 (GMT).Make sure your mailing address is up-to-date in your user profile to claim your prize! 🎁 Prizes for Everyone!Rather than a competition; this tournament is a co-opetition; a collaborative challenge where everyone wins! Every participant gets a prize. (…
- Leadwerks 5.1 Beta is Now Available, with Support for Potato PCs - 25 May 2026
I'm excited to announce that after several months of work, the beta of Leadwerks 5.1 is now available on Steam. Version 5.1 is a significant update that brings a wealth of new features, enhancements, and optimizations designed to empower developers and elevate your 3D projects. What’s New in the 5.1 beta? Efficient New Deferred RendererThe clustered forward+ renderer has been replaced with a new deferred renderer, to provide better performance and easier shader development. Many new optimizations have been implemented, such as the use of the stencil buffer for controlling decal visibility. The transparency system in 5.1 is insanely good, with screen-space reflections, probe volumes, refraction, and rough transparency (frosted glass) all integrated into an efficient rendering pipeline that gives you gorgeous visuals with minimal effort.Support for Potato PCsGiven the inflated costs of PC…
- Leadwerks Game Engine 5.0.2 Released - 23 February 2026
Leadwerks Game Engine 5.0.2 is now available with new fixes and features for you to enjoy.Enhanced TimingNew enhanced timing features provide smooth stutter-free movement and make Leadwerks a great choice for use in twitch shooters and other fast-paced games. Before you we begin, let me point out that you don't have to do any of this. 75% of players use a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz, and if you don't specify any optional parameters in the world Update and Render methods, the engine will choose settings for you. This is only for people who want extra control over their game timing.You can run the world update loop and the rendering loop at the same speed, perfectly synchronized, or you can render multiple frames for each world update, using interpolation on every object to smoothly display motion at high framerates, without overloading the main thread.For example, if your game runs at 6…
- Winter Games Roundup - 18 January 2026
As the new year begins, we reflect on this year’s Winter Games Tournament, a vibrant showcase of talent, innovation, and collaborative spirit from the Leadwerks community. Over the course of 30 days, developers of all skill levels poured their ideas into a variety of creative, fun, and impressive games built using Leadwerks. From charming strategy games to fast-paced challenges, each entry demonstrated the passion and ingenuity of our participants. Below we will review a diverse lineup of games, celebrating the creativity that made this tournament a memorable and inspiring event for everyone involved.INGENUITY LEGACY: Echoes Beyond the Red DustThis first-time entry from "Yue" offers a slow-paced journey across the Martian surface, inviting the player to engage in observation, environmental awareness, and quiet discovery. Rather than focusing on action or challenge, the experience emphas…
- Leadwerks Winter Games 2025 - 18 December 2025
As the days grow shorter, fireplaces crackle, and winter chill fills the air, the Leadwerks community is heating things up with the return of our annual Winter Games Tournament! It’s your chance to unleash your creativity, bring your wildest ideas to life, and take part in the fun with your fellow developers. 🏆 The ChallengeCreate a simple, playable game using Leadwerks within the tournament timeframe. When you're done, upload your masterpiece on our website before the deadline hits! 🛠️ How to PlayBuild your simple playable game with Leadwerks.Submit it before January 19, 2026 (GMT).Make sure your mailing address is up-to-date in your user profile to claim your prize! 🎁 Prizes for Everyone!Rather than a competition; this tournament is a co-opetition; a collaborative challenge where everyone wins! Every participant gets a prize. (See details below.) 🎉 Tier 1 Prize: The Leadwerks Stic…
- Leadwerks Game Engine 5 Released - 24 November 2025
Leadwerks Game Engine 5 is an all-new update that makes game development easier than ever. Dive into our video tutorials and learn everything you need to bring your ideas to life. Create with ease using our intuitive visual editor and Lua script. When you're ready to publish, you keep 100% of your profits with our royalty-free license.Optimized by DefaultOur new multithreaded architecture prevents CPU bottlenecks, to provide order-of-magnitude faster performance under heavy rendering loads. Build with the confidence of having an optimized game engine that keeps up with your game as it grows.Advanced Graphics CapabilitiesAchieve AAA-quality visuals with PBR materials, customizable post-processing effects, hardware tessellation, and a clustered forward+ renderer with support for up to 32x MSAA.Built-in Level Design ToolsBuilt-in level design tools let you easily sketch out your game level…
- Leadwerks 5 Level Design Session - 7 November 2025
We’re excited to invite all our community members to a special live developer meeting happening this Saturday morning on our Discord server. This is a fantastic opportunity to connect directly with the Leadwerks community, ask questions, and get the latest updates firsthand.In this special session, we will share our experience using the powerful level design features in Leadwerks 5 to bring our vision of the SCP Foundation to life. Discover the creative techniques and tools we are using to craft detailed, realistic environments. We will also review the new 3D Spatialization tutorial series, designed to provide you with comprehensive knowledge about three-dimensional geometry for game development, with nearly three hours of video footage and many code examples.Mark your calendar and join us this Saturday morning on our Discord server. We look forward to seeing you there!Join us on Discord
- Resonant Dusk Released, Powered by Leadwerks - 18 October 2025
Another game made with Leadwerks Game Engine, the fixed-camera mystery advanture Resonant Dusk has been released: Unravel the secrets of the Bariton mansion! Take on the mantle of detective in the role of Lucas Usher, and solve the riddles plaguing the ghosts of those left behind! Uncover their secrets and help them find salvation…or damnation.
- Leadwerks Games Bundle #1 Released - 15 September 2024
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/
- "Concealment" survival horror game released - 26 March 2021
Developer HorrorTheory has released their Leadwerks-powered game Concealment. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1541690/Concealment/ Your life is in your hands 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. Story 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. Features 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. Get the…
- Leadwerks Game Engine 4.6 Updated - 16 April 2019
A new update for Leadwerks Game Engine 4.6 is available on the default branch. This fixes a physics bug that would cause boxes to float into the air after the player stepped on them.
- Leadwerks Game Engine 4.6 Released - 25 March 2019
Leadwerks Game Engine 4.6 is now available on Steam! This free update adds Steam peer-to-peer networking, lobbies, voice chat, and more. A new multiplayer game template makes it easy to get started with your own multiplayer games, adding new depth and interactivity to the fun. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F5488072%2Fd19d0db445a0bae7f117c461e56332dca5bedcdc.png We've also added over 100 bug fixes, making this the most stable release ever to build your game on! This update also introduces Leadwerks Marketplace, your easy-to-use shop for 3D models, textures, and other game assets. Register a Leadwerks account and download the Mercenary Action Figure for free this week. Other changes: New parameters for better control over physics springs. World::Update() now has an optional parameter for number of sub-steps, can be used for improved physics precision. Mod…
- Leadwerks Software to Assist NASA Building VR Applications - 6 September 2018
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F5488072%2F83f7b9bb2c41192ba682357a74843a9a02ba894e.jpg Leadwerks 3.0 was released during GDC 2013. I gave a talk on graphics optimization and also had a booth at the expo. Something else significant happened that week. After the expo closed I walked over to the Oculus booth and they let me try out the first Rift prototype. This was a pivotal time both for us and for the entire game industry. Mobile was on the downswing but there were new technologies emerging that I wanted to take advantage of. Our Kickstarter campaign for Linux support was very successful, reaching over 200% of its goal. This coincided with a successful Greenlight campaign to bring Leadwerks Game Engine to Steam in the newly-launched software section. The following month Valve announced the development of SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system for the St…
- Bladequest: The First Chapter released on Steam - 13 August 2018
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F5488072%2Fa7ad17968f6dfa8b9be6fddbd712a065cb64a654.jpg Bladequest: The First Chapter is a short, but highly atmospheric first person game experience, Powered by Leadwerks Game Engine and inspired by games like The Elder Scrolls, or the Gothic Series. It is called the “The First Chapter”, because it is one, in a series of games, created to directly test existing game mechanics in field and step by step craft an awesome game from your feedback! Watch the roadmap graphic for more information! In this adventure you help your brave companion Veronica to find a cure for her brother, who has been struck by a terrible disease. Explore a sinister castle ruin, infested by the undead and face the dark Shadowlord. Dominate your enemies with axe and shield, longsword, or bow, to once and for all send them back to hell! Jump into this e…
- Summer Game Tournament - 15 June 2018
Summer is here, and you know what that means! Yes, it is time for another LEGENDARY game tournament. This year the theme is "Retro Gaming". Create a modern take on an arcade game hearkening back to the days of NES, Neo Geo, Sega, or just make anything you want. Either way, you get this totally radical poster as a prize! https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F5488072%2F6f9f01d1e6c2619d137c03f0512b9ca8c32a1d66.jpg How does it work? For one month, the Leadwerks community builds small playable games. Some people work alone and some team up with others. At the end of the month we release our projects to the public and play each other's games. The point is to release something short and sweet with a constrained timeline, which has resulted in many odd and wonderful mini games for the community to play. WHEN: The tournament begins Thursday, June 21, and ends on July 3…
- Announcing Leadwerks Projects - 1 March 2018
We've added a new website feature called Projects to help teams collaborate on their games. A project can be created with several privacy features so you can use this for public open-source games everyone can participate in, or for your team's secret project. You can add a forum, blog, and downloads section to your project and use it to host files, carry out discussions, and post updates to your team. The project creator can also moderate the content and has the ability to invite and approve new members. If you don't have a Leadwerks account, why not sign up for one now? It only takes a moment and you can sign up with your email address, Facebook account, or Steam account.
- Announcing Leadwerks Projects - 1 March 2018
We've added a new website feature called Projects to help teams collaborate on their games. A project can be created with several privacy features so you can use this for public open-source games everyone can participate in, or for your team's secret project. You can add a forum, blog, and downloads section to your project and use it to host files, carry out discussions, and post updates to your team. The project creator can also moderate the content and has the ability to invite and approve new members. If you don't have a Leadwerks account, why not sign up for one now? It only takes a moment and you can sign up with your email address, Facebook account, or Steam account.
