Leadwerks Game Launcher

[Josh]

I am planning to update Leadwerks Game Launcher and relaunch it, with support for first Leadwerks 4, and then adding Leadwerks 5 Lua games. Setting up a Steam page is a lot of work many people don't want to deal with, and not everyone has to be a professional game developer. The app has been effective in getting your game in people's hands, before Steam Workshop broke, so for many people this is just the way they want to make games and let other people play them.

[Josh]

I am also uploading some of your archived games here, where they can be downloaded without a login:
https://www.leadwerks.com/community/files/category/152-games/

It was more difficult to do this before, but since this website now uses S3 for all the file storage, I can store many big files and it doesn't make my web backup process very difficult.

[Josh]

Okay, I understand what's going on now.

Developing games with Leadwerks is a social experience. It's fun to make things, show your friends, make friends online, and get comments from people playing your game.

Making a commercial game can sometimes be where it no longer becomes fun. Now you have to pay $99 and your game most likely will be ignored on Steam, unless you have a plan to promote it that works. Even if you are successful, you can no longer just make the things you want to, now you have to make exactly what the players will respond to. Also, the players aren't able to tell you what they will respond to, so you have to guess and you only find out after you make the game if that's what they wanted!

So I can understand making small games during the game tournaments, without any competitive pressure, and being part of something fun...this is a great setting for creativity to thrive in. Publishing your game to the launcher and seeing other people playing it is very gratifying, for the same reason people make mods. (In some cases, some of those games will go on to become commercial titles, but it's not a requirement and that doesn't need to be the goal.)

Now if I feel frustustrated that AAA games aren't being made with my software, that's my problem to fix. People will buy DLCs if I publish them, so I should be able to afford to license pretty much any artwork we need. And the best way for me to show the way is to create a high-quality game myself and prove what it possible. (Which is what I am doing.)

Many people just want to bring their idea to life and let other people play their creations. This is just as valid as anyone who wants to try to be an AAA developer, and we should encourage their creativity. Everyone doesn't have to be a professional game developer, and it's okay for Leadwerks to be good for hobbyists.

[Josh]

It might make sense to launch a new app in the future, but I should probably just use the existing app ID, because it has a lot of content already uploaded. I should get that working first.

[Josh]

I have had a very bad attutude in the past with this. I often felt like I wanted someone to take my engine and use it with really good art and make some AAA game, but I should instead be encouraging and helping you to bring your creative dreams to life. If I am not happy with artwork being used, then it's up to me to provide better DLCs, which people always buy a lot of. It's up to me to lead the way as a game developer, and show people what is possible, while supporting all types of projects people want to make. I should definitely not be critical of peoples' work or pressure them to make a commercial game if they just want to make something for fun. I am very grateful to have such a wonderful creative group of people using Leadwerks to make interesting things.

[Josh]

Here is a quick test of a new application, fetching data from Steam workshop correctly: