ShiVa Game Engine 2.0 Shines On Linux

ShiVa is a French-developed multi-platform game engine and coming up is the ShiVa Game Engine 2.0 release that brings with it many improvements.

Felix Caffier of ShiVa Technologies wrote into Phoronix to talk about the engine, "[it] has supported Linux from its own beginnings (2007) and has been at the forefront of exploring new, exciting, and often linux-based platforms, yet we have always flown under the radar for some reason, even in the Linux community. Our engine currently supports Linux on the Web Browser (Firefox browser plugin), HTML5/WebGL (still in development but already functional), as standalone application (x86 and x86_64 desktop linux, SteamOS etc.), on Mobiles (Android, WebOS, Android-based microconsoles like the OUYA) and as a dedicated multiplayer server product."

In terms of the upcoming ShiVa 2.0, Felix explained, "While our engine has been designed from the ground up to be portable to pretty much any platform and supported linux for years, the game editor needed to create game packages for the engine has been confined to Windows desktops for the longest time. Our entire ShiVa Editor 1.x line of products required a Windows PC. But for some time now, we have been working on the next generation of the ShiVa Editor, ShiVa 2.0, which will not only bring enhanced usability and a ton of new features, but also feature a true cross-platform editor that runs natively on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. We have chosen Linux (openSUSE 13.1 x86_64) as the first platform to tease our new editor and show the public what we are currently working on. ShiVa 2.0 is currently under heavy development and is scheduled to ship later this year."

The developers have posted an earlier video of version 2.0 running on openSUSE Linux.

Those wishing to learn more about the latest improvements to the Linux-friendly ShiVa can read a series of blog posts at ShiVaEngine.com.