Gaming
Opera GX becomes the first browser to allow users to set a game as their browser and Windows background
Gaming is all about modding and customization, and so is Opera GX. Today, the world’s first browser for gamers is taking a step further in this direction with Live Wallpapers. The new feature morphs your browser and your Windows desktop into an interactive game.
Opera GX recently shipped browser Mods, a feature allowing users to modify their browser with unique themes, sounds and shaders that change the way websites look in real time. Building on this, Live Wallpapers, which are in fact mini games made with the GameMaker engine, react to mouse moves in real time, evolving and changing their appearance based on the user’s actions and movements. Opera GX is thus gamifying both the browsing experience, as well as the entire desktop experience for Windows users.
“They say ‘home is where the heart is’ and that’s our goal with Live Wallpapers,” said Maciej Kocemba, Product Director, Opera GX. “We want users to feel at home when they open both their operating system and their browser, and Live Wallpapers allows for that through the ability to configure one’s own parameters to match their style preferences and interact with the Live Wallpaper at every step. Live Wallpapers morphs your setup into its own interactive game.”
Leveraging Opera’s GameMaker engine, Mods change the way Opera GX looks, sounds, behaves and interacts, so each user can design their own unique browsing experience to match their gaming setup. You can modify your entire browser however you please, and your creations can be uploaded for free to the GX.store. Wallpapers take this experience a step further and allow you to also make the Windows desktop personal and interactive.
Spanning a collection of over 50 live wallpapers created by the community and the GX team, all Live Wallpapers displayed within the GX.store are free to download.
“Opera GX is the only browser made for gamers from its inception, more than four years ago. This allows us to ship wild features, such as Mods that not only change the look, feel, and sound of the browser but also how websites appear. Today, we’re going a step further with Live Wallpapers and allowing users to mod their operating system,” added Kocemba.
To celebrate the launch of the feature and its fourth birthday, Opera GX made a Mod specifically designed for American YouTuber and personality, MrBeast. MrBeast will reveal his unique Live Wallpaper live via his YouTube gaming channel on the 6th July.
Live Wallpapers in Opera GX is accessible to all users across Windows and macOS. On Windows, users can also mod their operating system wallpaper. To set a Live Wallpaper as the Windows background, users need to join the Early bird program in GX’s settings. To apply a Live Wallpaper in Windows, users can interact with the Windows tray application, and select the wallpaper they want to set from there. To access Live Wallpapers, users should download Opera GX, then head to the GX online store and install the desired wallpaper.