All of us here at Dark Basic Software are incredibly pleased to announce that the first build of an all-new GameGuru MAX engine is nearing completion. By taking advantage of many of the hidden treasures within the latest Wicked Engine, and alongside a bit of our own magic, we will be gradually unlocking what DirectX 12 has to offer and delivering a complete revamp of the MAX experience.
As promised back in May 2025, when DBS fully took over development, we have spent the last 11 months bringing stability to the engine while also working behind the scenes on a full transition to the latest Wicked Engine. This move allows us to tap into a wide range of improvements, vastly improved visuals, advanced physics, and a fully revamped water, grass, and tree system.
Right now, we’re testing in-house to iron out any obvious issues, and will soon be working with a small group of chosen internal testers to ensure a smooth, trouble-free first release. Our focus is simple: ensure the new, improved MAX is fully compatible with your existing levels—while enhancing your games across the board in a single update.
So, what can you expect in the first release?
Full compatibility with existing levels and games
Improved grass, trees, and water for more realistic environments
Improved compatibility with the latest AMD/NVIDIA/Intel drivers
What can you expect in the future?
As many of you know, we don’t like to overpromise. Once we have a stable DirectX 12 release in your hands, we’ll begin exploring the wealth of features within Wicked Engine and bringing them into MAX over time.
In the short term, we expect to quickly add:
Improved rendering techniques
Faster, more realistic shadows
A cleaner, more efficient lighting system
Faster, more realistic and flexible physics system
Massive improvements to the NPC behavior system
Of course, Wicked Engine contains many other exciting visual and technical improvements, and we’ll continue working to integrate as many of these as possible—while maintaining the traditional, easy-to-use experience you’ve come to expect from GameGuru MAX.
How’s this all going to work?
Internally, we’re introducing an automated workflow to streamline engine integration and testing, allowing our team to focus on stability, performance, and user-facing improvements.
The benefit of this approach is that GameGuru MAX will remain closely aligned with the latest Wicked Engine source code, while still giving our development team full control over which features are adopted and when they are exposed to users—ensuring a smooth, stable, and trouble-free experience for the end user.
What this means for you is simple: we’ll be able to deliver more, faster—helping us open up tools and further streamline the game-making experience.
On top of all of this, this major upgrade is completely free and will be available to all existing and new users as part of the continuing development of GameGuru MAX.