2D First

luxe provides a strong 2D toolsetready to make a wide range of games. This applies whether it's a one hour or one+ year project.

3D Capable

Inside luxe lives a powerful but accessible hardware driven renderer, with great support for shaders, asset pipelines, render paths and more.

We use luxe to make 3D games!

See the roadmapregarding 3D workflow status.

Friendly Code

luxe core is c++. Games are usually made with our version of theWren programming language.

With compile time error checking, optional type annotations, code completion, inline docs, hints, hovers and more we're always improving the experience.

Made in a game studio

luxe isused daily to make games by the engine developers.

We've always believed an engine isdriven by real world use, so we made a game studio around it. We're makingMossfield Origins,Mossfield Archives and more.

We're a diverse game studio with a strong vision for good community, sustainable business andempowering more voices to create games.

Design Philosophy

Modular by design.

luxe has a rich set of systemsready to make games.But!

luxe couldn't possibly provide all systems for every type of game, withoutbecoming bloated or unfocused.It's a strong foundation.

Modules serve this need, expanding the tools available.
This modularity is a fundamental part of luxe,
even the luxe API itself is a module.

Fluid and flexible.

Carefully designed core + built in systems brings a lightweight yet expressive set of tools.

The heart of luxe israpid iteration and expression of intent,made for humans.

Workflow is key.

Code first OR editor. It's project specific.

Whether solo or in a team, code first or editor based workflows are supported. The editor is optional.

Editors and tools enhance the luxe workflow, which empowers artists, designers and programmers to do more than what would be convenient with code only.

Made for game specifics.

The engine & editor aredesigned for game specifics.

Custom project specific editors, ui, systems, asset types and more are supported. Reusable and shareable via modules.

Modifiers +
Scenes +
Prototypes.

Familiar workflow:attach a modifier to an entity to give it composable behaviors.

Custom modifiers with efficient per entity data.
Scenes + prototypes for loading entities from data.

Tools, not features.

Games are a diverse medium with unique challenges. luxe makes a distinction between tools and features, centering on tools.

This frees the engine from things a fraction of games want,allowing games to be specific, adaptive and exact. At runtime, pay for what you use.

Animation

Animation editor.Per entity Anim data stored in scene. Or Anim assets for shared content.Targeted animation (e.g animate other entities). Multiple tracks.Animate any field in any modifier. Animation events.Control rate, looping and more from code. Stackable animations.Skeletal animation with scripted blend graphs

Tilemaps

Pixel art support.Mutli asset editor. Create via code (e.g proc gen).Query API. Sparse/unbounded maps (no width/height limit).Layered depths. Multiple instances of map in world.Import sheets or images. Per tile data: color, size, tags, flip, rotation custom and more.Custom shaders/materials

Sprites

Display Images on screen.Pixel art support.Custom Origin, Skew,UV.Atlas support. 3D Billboard modes like fixed size, fixed screen size, or world space with optional locked axes.HSV/Coloring. Built in effects: Outlines.Shadows. Shine.Dissolve. Custom shaders/materials.

Text

TTF/OTF support with custom glyphs and ranges.Crisp scalable MTSDF rendering. Inline markup syntax + basic markdown support.Inline Icon font support. Text style assets.Localization + language specific fonts. Interact states (normal, hover, interact).Outlines and Shadows (multiple). Style states (normal, bold, italic, strike+).Flexible layout (leading, tracking, spacing, indent+)

Preview in editor

Preview and run any open scenes directly in editor. Pause, resume, step frame by frame.Select and edit the scene while running.See values changing in realtime.Scaffold settings for game specifics.

Pixel Art

Project templates ready to use, with scaling, input handling+.Transform snap to 1 unit. Built in modifiers support pixelated flag.Project level defaults/settings for workflow/consistency. Arcade supports pixel scales.Pixel font support.

Arcade Physics

2D focused polygonal arcade physics for a wide range of 2D games.Collision callbacks.Shape presets (circle, rect).Platformer controller. Topdown controller.One way collision. Triggers/sensors.Control velocity, acceleration+ directly. Debug drawing.Query API. Sparse spatial hash.Automatic Tiles collision by tag.

Save Data

Cross platform save API.Handles platform specifics.Basic API for quick use cases like jams. Detailed API for elaborate games.Save slot handling. Game ID and User ID aware.Supports Key/Value pairs. Settings saving.Supports files and data (screenshots, json+).

States

Built in state machines for scenes and modifiers.Lightweight and only exist when used.Declarative syntax with code completion and error checking.Allows running multiple states & persistent states to simplify code.Nested states. Declarative API for state behavior.Transition helpers like callbacks, events, time, data changes+.

Wires

Event system built into modifiers and scenes.Easily expose incoming or outgoing wires to connect to or receive messages on.Decouple game systems and scenes.Connect via code.Connect via editor.'just a function' or 'just a variable' level of simplicity.Send typed data over the wire.

Particles / VFX

Modular 'particles as shaders' using the built in shader language. Reusable modules for sharing/repurposing.Compose elaborate effects without code.Editor workflows with realtime preview.Multi renderer support with Ribbon, mesh, sprite, shape2D renderers.Built in std API like print.Built in modules for common effects.

User Interface

Input handling in 2D/3D situations.World or image space rendering. Expressive API with full control.Flex layout for dynamically sized/multi resolution handling. Composable built in controls Panel, Label, Button, Check, Text, Window, Progress, List, Scroll, Slider.Field types like Number, Vector, Color, Path+.Many provided controls like Color Picker, Tabs, Filtered list, Choice and more. Themes, styles and overrides for custom visual identity.

Draw Canvas

Efficient 2D + 3D drawing API for in game or debug visualization.Persistent and immediate style workflows.Solid + Outline based drawing.Circles, NGons, Lines, caps, joins, detailed rectangles+.Path rendering.

Input

Input graph for handling priority and layering. Mouse, gamepad, touch, keyboard.Mapping inputs for rebindable controls. Immediate or callback APIs.Cursor control.

Fixed point

Built in language level support for 16.16 fixed point. All common math operations.As efficient as built in Num class.More support (modifiers/scenes/etc) on the way.

Audio

Drop audio assets in the project: mp3, ogg, wav, flac.Support for audio buses to control music/fx/vo separately.Playing, looping, volume and much more controllable from code.3D Spatial audio with listener and source positions.

Wren Debugger

Breakpoints, step over, step into+.Variable inspection of local, class and module scope.View contents of custom game defined data types.Set/modify for a wide range of types for live editing.Launch or attach style, with wait for debugger.

Noise API

A 2D and 3D noise generation service API is provided in luxe. ImplementsFastNoiseLite as a service API for your games.Try their web demo here.

Roadmap

Visit the roadmap to find out what we're working on.

Follow progress on things likeC# support, Visual Scripting, Console platforms, Box2D and more viadev logs or themailing list.

Rendering for everyone.

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

The render path is 100% controllable by the game, but typically managed for you by a module.

Scripted render pipelines

Rendering happens at the game level allowing for fully custom, module provided, or a mix of render paths.

Portable abstraction

With a full abstraction over portable backends, a shading language designed with the luxe philosophy,rendering is right at home in luxe and goes where luxe goes.

Experiment and iterate

Rendering is a complex field.Fast iteration is important and experimenting is key, which luxe is designed for.

It's also approachable, so that beginners can learn foundations without starting from scratch.

Join the community

Ask for help, share your work, and more.