Announcing Leadwerks 3

The much anticipated LE3 was first introduced with the price of $999USD desktop only.
iOS and Android support is an addition $999USD each!!
Then after a day of massive criticism, it dropped to $450.
Then again dropped to $199.

I guess it was funny at the time watching a few people (around 10) leave Leadwerks and move to another closed source game engine, EE (Esenthel Engine).
You think they would have learned?

Sure EE is pretty awesome, it has a lot of great features (including Linux support) while being affordable.
After all, I did buy a license.
But you are required to use the editor which adheres to no windows standards!
You can use/debug in Visual studio, but any changes made don’t revert back to the editor, so no point unless you are only targeting windows.

Not having much internet access at the time, I moved from EE to Gameplay3D when he made his application require license checking every time on start-up, with no Grace period (V2 editor starting with no internet connection).

I learnt the importance of having the game engine source code!
The freedom and flexibility of adding your own features instead of having to bid on them like crowd funding just to motivate the creator.
More importantly, I wasn’t learning much using EE because it’s poorly documented and I couldn’t drill down into the engine’s code to see what was going on!
Besides, I didn’t need advanced features like MMORPG support etc.
That’s why I switched to Gameplay3D.
But here’s the lesson, game engine programmers, like everyone else need to be paid… but some are just a bit more eccentric!

Below is the google cache of the page which was removed after a lot of nasty comments!

This is Google’s cache of http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/blog/1/entry-1048-announcing-leadwerks-3/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 27 Feb 2013 13:36:13 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more
Tip: To quickly find your search term on this page, press Ctrl+F or ⌘-F (Mac) and use the find bar.

Text-only version

Announcing Leadwerks 3
Posted by Josh Klint, 24 February 2013 · 2,715 views

Two and a half years ago, I recognized the Leadwerks community needed a new technology base that was capable of extending beyond just Windows. We needed an art pipeline that was intuitive and fast. We also needed a framework for game interactions that made it easy to set up gameplay, without trapping the developer in a box.

Today I am proud to announce our new game development platform is ready.

Leadwerks 3 Beta will be available exclusively to Leadwerks 2 customers on Thursday, February 28, at 10:30 A.M. Pacific Standard Time. The Leadwerks 3 base product for Windows and Mac will retail at $999, with add-on support for Android and iOS available for $999 each.

As a thank you to our community for participating in all the discussions that led to the design of Leadwerks 3, Leadwerks 2 customers can enter the coupon code NATIVECODE at checkout to receive $499 off the price of each product until April 1.

The Black Box
All orders of Leadwerks 3 include the Leadwerks Black Box, a physical package that will be shipped directly to you. Packages will be shipped worldwide at the end of April. The Black Box includes a printed manual, among other items…

GDC 2013
Stop by our booth at the GDC the week of March 25 and chat with the developers. (Details TBA.) If you have a full pass, make sure you check out my lecture titled Building Scalable Cross-Platform Graphics Systems for Mobile. I’ll be talking in detail about all the tricks and techniques I used while developing our game Darkness Awaits and you can learn more about what makes Leadwerks 3 fast.

Leadwerks Launch Party
We’re celebrating with our launch party on Saturday, April 27th, at the Hacker Lab in Sacramento, California. Join us for a presentation of Leadwerks 3, unveiling of the Leadwerks Black Box, and lots of fun.

Leadwerks Game Competition
The first Leadwerks 3 game competition begins Thurday! Make the best playable game you can and submit it to us by email before April 1. One winner will be chosen to receive a free flight from anywhere in the world, and three nights lodging near our headquarters in California. You’ll get to attend the Leadwerks launch party in person and hang out with the developers. Who knows, you might even make it on our YouTube channel.

Thank you everyone in the community for your patience, support, and insistence on perfection during the development of Leadwerks 3. This experience has been exciting, terrifying, and fun. I’ve learned so much about technology, design, management, and life. Our new technology is a carefully thought-out and stable foundation we will build on for years to come.

I’d also like to thank all the people who have worked on this project including Simon Armstrong, Brad Bolthouse, Ken Crittendon, Julio Jerez, Aria Kraft, Scott Townsend, Ed Upton, and Chris Vossen. I can’t imagine the final product without any of your contributions.

Click here to read the comments.

Comments now disabled.
For comments or questions, please post on twitter @mgarcia.