After blasting through Greenlight in just 27 days, Leadwerks Software today announced the launch of Leadwerks Game Engine: Indie Edition, exclusively available on the Steam distribution platform. The arrival of Leadwerks adds 3D game development software to Valve’s lineup of creative and productivity tools.

Leadwerks is designed to make game development easy for Steam’s 65 million users, with a royalty-free license for making commercial products. A new renderer built on OpenGL 4.0 provides high-end graphics comparable with modern AAA games at an affordable price. Built-in level design tools based on constructive solid geometry make map design easy for users who aren’t expert artists. Game code is written with Lua, an easy-to-learn script language that also happens to be used in hundreds of commercial games like Crysis, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft. Extensive documentation is provided, with examples to demonstrate every aspect of building a 3D game.

Leadwerks promises to provide an easy entry mode to overcome the console barrier that has traditionally kept indie game developers at a distance. Last summer the company raised over 200% of their funding goal on Kickstarter to add support for the Linux operating system. With Linux development nearly complete and the pending release of Valve’s Steam Machines, a disruptive alternative to traditional consoles, Leadwerks looks ready to provide an easy route to console publishing via Steam. The company is attending Steam Dev Days next week to learn more about SteamOS and Valve’s new hardware.

Leadwerks Game Engine: Indie Edition can be purchased on Steam for $99.