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Leadwerks Game Engine To Launch On Ubuntu Software Centre

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The Leadwerks game engine is now available to buy from the Ubuntu Software Centre, so anyone using Ubuntu can purchase it and install it directly within Ubuntu to begin creating games.

Leadwerks came to Linux as a result of their crowdfunding effort which more than doubled its goal, showing the demand for a Linux-native commercial-grade game kit for Linux.

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.!

My opinion on this, ignore if you just want the facts of the release...
As much as I applaud Leadwerks for porting over to Linux thanks to their crowdfunding campaign, I cannot help but think "who cares" to anything going into the Ubuntu Software Centre, who honestly buys from it?

I really hope they aren't betting anything on this as it's screaming out for failure, has anything, ever sold well on the USC? Nope.

I actually see the USC as another form of vendor lock-in, you will then be tied to Ubuntu. What if you want to jump over to a different distro? No dice.

Finally you can see the full press release here. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Toolkit
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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HadBabits May 27, 2014
Quoting: Hamish
Quoting: HadBabitsAs for Leadwerks, I backed it, and have a copy of the Indie Edition. Unfortunately, when I tried it you had to do some serious workarounds to get it working on Mint (seems it was made with Ubuntu in mind). Hopefully that's been changed, otherwise I'd say they're being pretty short-sighted.
I would imagine that would have to be seriously Ubuntu tied if it were not to function well on Mint. :S

As I recall, it had some Ubuntu-specific dependencies. I think it was something for Unity.
Anonymous May 27, 2014
Quoting: AnonymousLeadwerks is definitely not for real development, at least not yet. It' shows on their steam store page. Just watch the video lol
Quote - "You like playing games on steam? You ever wanted to make your own games that you and your friends can play"
At least they now have a demo to try http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/demo
They clearly didn't want to release a demo for it, and argued that giving people a free weekend on steam would be enough time for someone to evaluate it. Very funny to read Link - http://steamcommunity.com/app/251810/discussions/0/540738051931952579/#p1


As for Godot, it can't even go fullscreen on Linux, and they think it's too hard and don't wanna even consider using SDL2. They chose not to use SDL back when it started because alt-tab didn't work, so they figured Linux users would prefer to just play in a window lmao. Link here
https://github.com/okamstudio/godot/issues/140

I know the source is available, and the community will improve/fix things, but with that and other issues I wouldn't start a serious project with it right now unless I was willing/wanted to put some serious time into the engine ontop of writing a game itself.

Anyhow looks like someone from the community at the very end of the link is working on getting fullscreen implemented. Wonder if it will get into the main branch or if their will be a fork just for fullscreen.

It is indeed a shame that SDL2 isn't used, but the devs have their reasons. In any case, it's not that hard to get patches submitted and accepted to Godot. I've submitted several, and they were accepted. If you want to rip everything out and replace it with SDL2, go for it. Or if you just want to fix fullscreen, do that instead. I tried, but X11 is a horrendous API, and it's really not as easy as it *should* be to toggle fullscreen while not breaking Alt+Tab. Join the IRC channel if you want - the devs are always in there and reasonably responsive.
NothingMuchHereToSay May 28, 2014
The USC is gonna be embedded within Unity 8, it's vendor lock-in, yes, but Steam also comes to mind, if it runs on Ubuntu, it should be able to run on anything. It's more like a risk, as there's some people who would be more than happy to buy from the software center, but I agree that this isn't really the best move to be ONLY available on Ubuntu at all.

What they need is to package their program for Debian- and Fedora-based distros. Do they have download links to their programs or do they want Canonical/Microsoft/Apple to host their program?
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