Visual authoring for Pixscape, a 2D and 2.5D game engine built on LibGDX.
Build your game visually. Write gameplay in Java. Keep using LibGDX.
🌐 Website: https://pixscape.games/
📘 Documentation: https://pixscape.games/docs
⚙️ Runtime: https://github.com/pixscapegames/pixscape-runtime
📝 Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
Pixscape is a visual 2D and 2.5D game engine built on LibGDX.
It combines Pixscape Studio, the visual authoring environment, with Pixscape Runtime, the engine layer that loads and runs authored scenes.
Use Studio to build scenes, tiled and isometric worlds, physics, animations, particles, Game Objects, shaders, lights and 2.5D spatial environments.
Your gameplay and application logic stay in Java. LibGDX remains underneath Pixscape and stays available alongside it.
Pixscape adds an opinionated game-engine layer rather than replacing LibGDX: scene management, ECS-based entities, rendering and ordering, asset coordination, physics, Tiled integration, animation, particles and Spatial 2.5D are handled by the engine so game code can focus on gameplay.
Pixscape Studio Free is open source so developers can inspect it, build it, modify it, fork it if necessary, and trust it as a real foundation for real projects.
Pixscape Runtime is also open source under Apache License 2.0.
Pixscape Pro will be a separate optional edition focused on advanced production tools. Pro does not replace, restrict, or weaken Pixscape Studio Free.
- Open-source visual editor
- Built for LibGDX and Pixscape Runtime
- Scene-based 2D and 2.5D workflow
- Simultaneous editing of multiple scenes
- Visual HUD editing
- Universal Layers with mixed scene content
- First-class Tiled Map entities
- Multiple Tiled Maps per scene and per Layer
- Sprite and animation editing
- Orthographic and isometric tiled maps
- TMX and TSX import workflows
- Single-image and image collection tilesets
- Tileset profiles for native-size and isometric tiles
- Tiled Object Layer import for orthogonal and isometric maps
- Typed entity custom properties
- Direct quad editing
- Hierarchical Game Objects with reusable assets
- Game Object physics, joints and Spatial Actor support
- Spatial V3 deterministic 2.5D wall and actor ordering
- Box2D physics integration
- Shader and light workflows
- Particle effects
- Desktop, Android and HTML5/WebGL2 export pipeline
- Runtime-first ECS architecture
- Apache 2.0 license
- Scene editor
- Multiple open scenes with document tabs
- Visual HUD screen editor with widget hierarchy and interactive test mode
- Asset browser
- Drag-and-drop placement
- Universal Layers with mixed content
- Context menus and property panels
- Canvas pan and zoom workflow
- Selection, lasso, gizmo and resize tools
- Debug console
- Sprite placement and configuration
- Spritesheet-based animations
- Animation clips
- Asset-level animation definitions
- Multi-animation entities with switchable Animation assets
- Runtime animation export
- Repeatable sprites
- 2.5D spatial properties for sprites and animations
- Direct per-corner quad editing
- First-class Tiled Map entities
- Multiple Tiled Maps in the same Scene or Layer
- Independent Map projection, grid, dimensions and configuration
- Orthographic and isometric tiled maps
- TMX map import with external TSX files and inline tilesets
- Standalone TSX import for supported tilesets
- Single-image and image collection tilesets
- Tiled image layers imported as editable Pixscape scene content
- Tiled tile-animation import and editing
- Tileset profiles for logical cell size, native render size, projection, anchors and offsets
- Margin and spacing support for atlas tilesets
- Tile flip and diagonal transform flags compatible with Tiled
- Repeatable image layers and sprites
- Authored collision polygons
- Spatial V3 wall authoring with connected structures and junction handling
- Normal Layer and z-order composition for complete Tiled Maps
- Tiled Object Layer import for orthogonal and isometric maps
- Rectangle, point, tile, polygon and polyline objects
- Animated Tiled tile objects
- Tiled class/type metadata and typed custom properties
- Hierarchical Game Object authoring
- Parent/child entity relationships
- Convert selected scene entities directly to a Game Object
- Save reusable Game Object assets
- Drag and drop Game Object instances into scenes
- Edit individual ECS entities inside a Game Object hierarchy
- Clipboard support
- Undo and redo integration
- Physics bodies and authored shapes
- Physics joints
- Spatial Actor support
- Runtime Game Object export and instantiation
- Deterministic actor, wall and tiled-structure ordering
- Automatic wall structure merging and splitting
- Precise wall footprint editing
- Corner and junction handling for complex 2.5D structures
- Altitude-aware walls and Tiled Maps
- Physics-footprint-aware actor ordering
- Optional Spatial-generated collision fixtures for authored walls
- Optional Spatial Actor participation on ordinary Layers
- Box2D body authoring
- Fixtures and authored shapes
- Physics editing mode
- Runtime physics export
- Physics-aware actor footprints for Spatial ordering
- Optional automatically managed wall collision fixtures
- Custom collision-shape authoring for advanced layouts and passages
- Physics integration with Game Objects and joints
- Pixscape Runtime export
- Sprite and tiled rendering
- Universal Layer and z-order composition
- Profile-aware tile placement
- Native-size tile rendering with anchors and offsets
- Repeatable renderables
- Shader support
- Light support
- Particle support
- Atlas workflows
- Runtime asset availability
- Preview instrumentation for texture binds, batch flushes and region-cache resolution
- HiDPI-aware Studio and Preview rendering
Pixscape Studio Free exports projects for Pixscape Runtime.
Pixscape Runtime is a separate open-source runtime built on LibGDX and Artemis-ODB ECS.
Current runtime dependency:
games.pixscape:pixscape-runtime:0.2.2Pixscape Runtime is published on Maven Central:
https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/games.pixscape/pixscape-runtime
Pixscape Studio Free currently focuses on projects targeting:
- Desktop
- Android
- HTML5 / WebGL2
Pixscape Studio desktop requires Java 25. The HTML/GWT build remains on Java 21.
Pixscape Runtime is built with modern tooling and published as Java 8-compatible bytecode for broader LibGDX ecosystem compatibility.
iOS/RoboVM is not currently listed as an officially tested target.
Requirements:
- JDK 25 for Studio desktop and JDK 21 for HTML/GWT (selected through Gradle toolchains)
- The Gradle wrapper included in this repository
On Windows:
.\gradlew.bat --console=plain compileJava test :html-player:compileJavaOn Unix-like systems:
./gradlew --console=plain compileJava test :html-player:compileJavaTo perform a complete GWT compilation of the HTML preview player:
.\gradlew.bat :html-player:compileGwtOn Unix-like systems:
./gradlew :html-player:compileGwtGenerated outputs such as .gradle/, build/, html-player/build/, and html-player/war/ are local build artifacts and should not be committed.
Build the reproducible Linux x64 tar.gz distribution:
./gradlew linuxTarGzThis writes:
build/distributions/Pixscape-Studio-Free-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz
build/distributions/Pixscape-Studio-Free-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256
Build the optional x86_64 AppImage with appimagetool:
./gradlew appImage -Pappimagetool=/path/to/appimagetoolappimagetool is not committed to this repository. The Gradle task looks for it in this order:
-Pappimagetool=/path/to/appimagetoolAPPIMAGETOOL=/path/to/appimagetool- an executable named
appimagetoolonPATH
The AppImage build writes:
build/distributions/Pixscape-Studio-Free-<version>-x86_64.AppImage
build/distributions/Pixscape-Studio-Free-<version>-x86_64.AppImage.sha256
The directory src/main/resources/html-preview-template/ is intentionally versioned.
It contains the prebuilt GWT HTML preview player used by Pixscape Studio Free, so a clean clone can run the preview flow without requiring every contributor to regenerate the GWT bundle manually.
Maintainers may refresh this template when the HTML preview player changes.
Full documentation is available on the official website:
See CHANGELOG.md for release notes.
Pixscape Studio Free is released under the Apache License 2.0.
See LICENSE and NOTICE for details.
Apache 2.0 covers the source code license. It does not grant trademark rights to Pixscape names, logos, icons, or branding.
See TRADEMARK.md for trademark usage rules.