Game engine · C++20 · Vulkan
MotaEngine
Build the game, ship the server, keep the source. A C++20 game engine with a Vulkan renderer, Jolt physics, Lua scripting and a dedicated server built in. Free to use: a 5% royalty applies only after a game earns US$1 million.
Version 0.1.0 · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · dedicated servers on Windows and Linux
$ mota new MyGame $ cd MyGame $ mota build $ mota run $ mota package # dist/MyGame: exe + signed pak + run.bat # the same build, headless, on Linux $ ./MotaServer --port=27015 --health-port=8080
C++20
modern, no RTTI
Vulkan 1.3
renderer
3,500+
automated tests
Win + Linux
dedicated servers
Everything a shipped game needs, in one engine
Rendering, simulation, networking and tools that are wired together and tested together, not a kit of parts.
Vulkan 1.3 renderer
PBR materials, cascaded shadow maps, terrain and sky, GPU particles, a post-processing pipeline and a path-traced reference mode.
Archetype ECS
Cache-friendly archetype storage, reflection-driven inspection and serialization, and parallel system execution on a job system.
Jolt physics
Rigid bodies, collision queries, raycasts and trigger volumes, simulated on worker threads at a fixed step.
Dedicated servers
The same engine runs headless as MotaServer on Windows or Linux: reliable UDP, replication, RPCs and health endpoints for your orchestrator.
Lua scripting
LuaJIT gameplay scripts with sandboxing, hot reload and an entity, input, physics and math API, next to your C++ game code.
Gameplay framework
Game modes, player controllers, damage, inventory, quests, prefabs and save/load, plus ready-made menus, HUD, settings and a developer console.
Animation
Skeletal clips, blend trees and state machines with crossfades for your characters.
AI
Behavior trees, a blackboard, A* pathfinding and a perception system for your non-player characters.
Ship it
One command cooks your textures and models, writes a signed LZ4 pak and stages your game with its runtime files and legal notices.
Rendered in MotaEngine
Captures from the engine's golden-image test suite, which renders every scenario and compares it with a reference.
Your game lives in its own repository
Scaffold a project, build it against the prebuilt SDK or the engine source, and package it for players. Engine updates never mix into your game's history. The dedicated server is the same build run headless, so multiplayer needs no second code base.
- Full C++20 source, tools and sample games
- Prebuilt Windows x64 SDK with the mota CLI and the StormForge sample
- Linux x64 server SDK with a Dockerfile
- Dear ImGui editor with a property inspector, content browser, profiler and node graphs
Free until your game earns $1M
Full source, every feature, no seat fees. After a single game passes US$1,000,000 in lifetime revenue, the royalty is 5% of what it earns beyond that.
Building
Use, modify and build the engine for anything: learning, prototypes, studio work. Nothing is owed.
Releasing
When you release a game that can earn money, tell Motaware within 30 days with a short form on motaengine.com.
Earning
5% of a game's revenue beyond its first US$1,000,000 in lifetime revenue, counted per game.
This is a summary. The MotaEngine License is the binding text. MotaEngine is separate from the Motaware plans.
Good to know
How do I get it?
On motaengine.com: sign in with your Motaware account, accept the MotaEngine License once, and download the source or a prebuilt SDK.
What do I need to build with it?
Windows 10 or 11 (x64), Visual Studio 2026 (version 18) or later, CMake 3.25 or later and the Vulkan SDK 1.3 or later. Linux dedicated servers build with Clang on Ubuntu 24.04.
Which platforms can my game run on?
The game client runs on Windows x64, and the dedicated server on Windows and Linux x64. Mobile and macOS aren't supported yet.
Can I share the engine or my changes to it?
You can share patches, plugins and ports with others who have accepted the license. You can't redistribute the engine itself or turn it into a competing engine or game-making tool.
Get MotaEngine
The source and the SDKs are free to download on motaengine.com. Version 0.1.0.
Go to motaengine.comQuestions? help@motaware.com