Wallpaper Engine

Wallpaper Engine is an application for Windows with a companion app on Android^[3] which allows users to use and create animated and interactive wallpapers, similar to the defunct Windows DreamScene. Wallpapers are shared through the Steam Workshop functionality as user-created downloadable content. It features its own rendering engine and provides a wallpaper editor, allowing for the creation of 2D and 3D wallpapers, including a particle system editor and a fork of JavaScript called SceneScript for additional wallpaper logic. It also supports using video files, audio files, webpages and some 3D applications as wallpapers.^[4]

Wallpaper Engine

Wallpaper Engine on Windows 11
Developer(s)	Kristjan Skutta, Tim Eulitz
Initial release	Early Access on Steam Greenlight: 10 October 2016; 8 years ago (2016-10-10)[1]
Stable release	2.2.18 / 7 October 2022; 2 years ago (2022-10-07)
Written in	C++,[2] JavaScript, PHP
Operating system	Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, Android
Platform	IA-32 and x86-64
License	Proprietary software
Website	https://www.wallpaperengine.io/

History

A proposal outlining the general idea of the software was added to Steam Greenlight in December 2015.^[1] The application was subsequently released as a paid product on Steam in October 2016 as an early access title. After three years of development, the software left its early access stage in November 2018.^[5] In August 2019, Wallpaper Engine was announced to be one of the release titles for Steam China.^[6]

In late November of 2021, the team released version 2.0 of Wallpaper Engine. This update brought a new logo, a large set of additional features, support for Windows 11, and a free android release that interfaces with the desktop version.^[7]

Despite not being a game, Wallpaper Engine is one of the most used apps on Steam, being located in Steam's Top 25 played games in July 2019^[8] and Top 10 played games in November 2021.^[9] Kotaku reported users in China used it to share pornographic videos in 2022.^[10]