14 DAY TRIAL // Leadwerks, a tool designed for Linux games development that managed to secure enough funding on Kickstarter, will arrive soon on Steam.
The Leadwerks development team has already released the Linux version of the game-building tools and they even entered a partnership with Canonical. The application has already been available in Ubuntu Software Center for a few months, which means that it's stable and proven to work.
The developers have explained that they had some problems with the packaging for the Steam platform. The community was wondering why this very powerful tool wasn’t also on Steam for Linux, and now we have the answer.
“We experienced a major delay in the Linux build of Leadwerks on Steam. Consequently, Linux users haven't been able to access all the great new Steam features like screenshot publishing and the Leadwerks Workshop, which gives you access to lots of great 3D content to use in your games. The issue had to do with GCC's requirement for 16-bit ABI alignment.”
“This is honestly way beyond my area of knowledge, but with the help of Valve and Blitz Research Ltd. the problem seems to be solved. Stay tuned for the announcement of its release on Steam,” says Josh Klint, the Leadwerks CEO.
The Leadwerks Game Engine is not as famous as some of the older ones, for example Unity. The project was started on Kickstarter and the company that makes it managed to obtain double the money they were originally asking.
The Leadwerks Game Engine has been available on Steam for the Windows users since January 2014, and numerous updates have been implemented since then. To make things even more interesting, a Leadwerks Workshop has been started on Steam and there are already quite a few entries made by the community.
A lot of game engines for the Linux platform and numerous others are on their way as well. Leadwerks will have to fight with some very powerful adversaries like Unity, Unigine, Unreal (lots of Us it seems), and these are just the ones that are already out.
The Steam for Linux launch definitely started this avalanche of engines for the open source platform. For now, just a few companies have dared to put their faith and assets on the line and bet on Linux. From what we have seen so far, the Leadwerks Game Engine has a real bright future in open source and the community needs more companies like this.