A visual 2D and 2.5D game engine built on LibGDX

Create scenes, tiled worlds, physics, animations, particles, and pseudo-3D depth visually. Write your gameplay in Java and keep using LibGDX alongside Pixscape.

GitHub

Open-source Studio and Runtime Apache 2.0 No royalties No runtime fees

Features

2.5D

Create rich pseudo-3D worlds visually, with automatic depth and spatial ordering — no code required.

Pixscape tiled map and collision editing

Tiled maps & collisions

Import supported Tiled .tmx maps with tilesets, collisions, and preflight diagnostics.

Physics

Author bodies, fixtures, and collisions visually for runtime-ready scenes.

Animations

Create reusable animation clips, assign multiple animations to an entity, and control how they play.

Particle effects

Design and preview particle effects within the same visual workflow.

Game Objects

Create reusable hierarchical Game Objects in Studio while keeping ECS entities underneath at runtime.

Lights

Place and configure dynamic lights while previewing the result immediately.

Shaders

Apply custom shaders and tune visual effects without leaving the editor.

Sprites

Compose, transform, deform, organize, and repeat sprites directly in your game scenes.

Parallax scrolling

Create layered backgrounds with configurable depth and scrolling behavior.

Pixscape Preview showing live rendering and performance metrics

Preview and metrics

Preview scenes directly in Desktop or HTML, with live performance metrics for rendering, frame time, Tiled maps, caching, and physics.

Pixscape Studio Debug Console

Debug console

Inspect Studio logs and diagnostics in a dedicated debug window while building and testing your scenes.

Pixscape Studio Free 0.4.0 includes visual HUD editing and simultaneous editing of multiple scenes in document tabs.

Organize your workspace

Dock and detach panels across multiple screens to build a workspace that fits your workflow.

Pixscape Studio panels arranged on the left monitor
Pixscape Studio canvas on the center monitor
Pixscape Studio panels arranged on the right monitor

Built on LibGDX

Pixscape doesn't replace LibGDX. It builds on it.

Pixscape Runtime adds an opinionated 2D game-engine layer to LibGDX. Use Pixscape Studio to author your game visually, while Pixscape Runtime owns the managed world and rendering pipeline. Gameplay and application logic stay in Java, and regular LibGDX code can run alongside Pixscape, including after engine.render().

Visual authoring

Build scenes, tiled worlds, physics, animations, particles, lighting, and spatial environments visually.

Java gameplay

No proprietary scripting language. Your gameplay and application logic stay in Java.

LibGDX stays available

Keep using LibGDX APIs and ecosystem libraries alongside Pixscape. After the Pixscape world is rendered, you can continue with regular LibGDX rendering as usual.

Start from where you are

See Pixscape in action

Tiled isometric demo

A playable demo built with Pixscape Studio and Runtime, combining an isometric Tiled map, 2.5D depth, physics, animations, particles, Game Objects, and simple combat.

Latest release

Pixscape Studio Free 0.3.0

Compatible with Pixscape Runtime 0.2.1

  • Universal Layers
  • First-class Tiled Maps
  • Game Objects
View release notes

Roadmap

What we're building next

Tiled object layers & properties done

Import Tiled object layers and custom properties into Pixscape scenes, preserving richer level-design data and gameplay metadata.

Direct quad editing done

Edit render geometry directly in Studio for more flexible 2D and isometric scene composition.

Game Objects done

Author reusable hierarchical Game Objects on top of Pixscape's ECS architecture, while retaining ECS entities underneath at runtime.

Hot Reload

Reflect content and project changes in the running game without requiring a restart.

Pixel-perfect camera movement

Optionally snap only the final camera rendering position to the screen pixel grid for crisp pixel-art scrolling, while the logical camera keeps smooth subpixel motion.

2.5D lights & shadows

Extend Pixscape's spatial system with depth-aware lighting and dynamic shadows for actors, structures, and 2.5D environments.

Spine support

Import and use Spine skeletal animations in Pixscape Studio and Runtime.

Pixscape extensions & plugins

Build reusable Pixscape-native libraries with custom Runtime systems, APIs, assets, and eventually Studio authoring tools.

Product model

Free is the open-source foundation. Pro funds the future.

Pixscape Studio Free and Pixscape Runtime are open source under Apache 2.0. You can build complete games with Free, including commercial projects, with Java gameplay, LibGDX interoperability, and source access to the public foundation.

Pixscape Pro is planned as a separate, optional proprietary edition focused on advanced production tools. It does not replace, restrict, or weaken Studio Free.