luxe is a free, cross platform, open source, rapid development game engine
to make games for Mac, Linux, Windows, iOS, Android and Web & more*
*consoles wip but too early to discuss.

about

luxe is an easy to learn game engine for making 2D or 3D games. As an engine it prioritizes design and workflow for rapidly expressing ideas.

Designed as a 2D first engine, luxe aims to provide a strong 2D toolset ready to make games. This applies whether it's a one hour or one+ year project.

Beyond the 2D layer lives a powerful but accessible hardware driven renderer, with great support for shaders, asset pipelines, render paths and more.
This allows 3D rendered games to use luxe all the same.

luxe itself is written in c++, although luxe games normally use the Wren programming language (which the engine has deep integration with). Later, any language can be used. Read the language dev log for more.

Read on further for more details about luxe!

development status

luxe 1.0 preview build is almost ready!

offline development is rapidly reaching a user-ready point.
The new luxe will become available when it does. Be one of the first to try out the new luxe!

design philosophy


  • modular

    A tightly designed core engine with a module system ensures a lightweight yet expressive set of tools.

  • fluid

    The heart of luxe is rapid iteration and expression of intent. These are design pillars, because workflow matters.

  • for humans

    Built by people that make games with it, luxe cares about the people that are using it day to day.


workflow

the luxe editors complement both a data driven or code based workflow

luxe is for solo developers as well as teams, so while it provides a great code based workflow, it is not limited to code only.

editors and tools enhance the luxe workflow, which empowers artists, designers and programmers in the expression of ideas, and rapid game development.

The editor is designed for game specifics, just like the rest of the engine, so custom/project editors are easy, and shareable via modules.

editors help to build worlds, animation, ui and more.


tools, not features

worlds, modifiers, entities and systems

Games are a diverse medium with unique challenges. luxe makes the distinction between tools and features explicit, and builds around tools as a core principle.

This frees the engine from being bloated by things a fraction of games want, and instead aims to empower games to be specific, adaptive and exact. At runtime, you only pay for what you use.

By combining systems both high and low level,

luxe is like a toolbox, and a game is the connection of these into a whole.

When configuring a type of project to reuse (like a 2D platformer or 3D first person project), luxe provides outlines, which jump start projects into predefined workflows. Outlines are where custom workflows are defined above the engine level.

luxe provides pieces that snap together,

ready to make games.



rendering for everyone

luxe is powered by an easy to learn but highly flexible renderer.

Games can have unique needs, and game specific choices. luxe allows games to choose the best suited rendering style for their world, and offers high level interaction from the game.

With a full abstraction over portable backends, a new shading language designed with the luxe philosophy, and a scripted pipeline driven workflow, rendering is right at home in luxe.

Rendering is a complex field where fast iteration is important, and experiments can be done quickly and easily. luxe aims for that, and to be approachable, so that beginners can learn foundations without starting from scratch.

modular by design

luxe is built around a modular package system

luxe has a rich set of systems ready to make games, but it couldn't possibly provide all systems that all different types of games need, without becoming bloated or unfocused.

When the engine doesn't provide something, it's often by design. Modules serve this need by providing a way for you to expand the tools and systems that are available to you when making games. Modules also provide ways to use other programming languages.

This modularity is a fundamental part of luxe,
even the luxe API itself is a module.


luxe alpha

luxe is developed in iterations.
The previous/older iteration was named the `alpha` version,
its development cycle is ending soon, but the code base will remain available.

please note the luxe alpha is not representative of luxe 1.0,
and despite it's alpha status, games still shipped on all major platforms!