Newsletter – Issue 001

Welcome to the first issue of the Web Game Dev Newsletter!

🔥 Headlines

We've got 2 new work-in-progress projects to bring scene changes back to React Three Fiber source code: React Three Editor (opens in a new tab) by Nikhil Saraf (opens in a new tab), and a proof of concept (opens in a new tab) by DOUGES (opens in a new tab) which uses Deno and ts-morph (opens in a new tab).

Great news for WebXR developers: Meta Quest browser now supports immersive navigation (opens in a new tab), which means you can now change same-origin URL routes within a WebXR session (yep, that was surprisingly not possible before). This is a step forward for metaverse experiences, and also opens up interesting ways to build XR games around traditional URL routes (like seamlessly going from /my-house to /worldmap or /arena). It is also now possible to send a link from desktop or mobile (opens in a new tab) to Quest headsets, to not have to type URLs.

⬆️ Updates

Three.js 147 (opens in a new tab) – Everybody is in love with the pixel postprocessing effect (opens in a new tab) (changelog (opens in a new tab), migration guide (opens in a new tab)).

✍️ Content

• 🎬 🎓 How Big Budget AAA Games Render Clouds (opens in a new tab) by SimonDev (opens in a new tab). You will never look at clouds the same.
• 🎬 🎓 Continuity of Splines (opens in a new tab) by Freya Holmér (opens in a new tab). A beautiful in-depth explanation of splines (such as Bézier curves).
• 🎬 100+ JavaScript Concepts you Need to Know (opens in a new tab) by Fireship (opens in a new tab). A quick overview of all things JavaScript.
• ✍️ The magical world of Particles (opens in a new tab) with React Three Fiber and Shaders by Maxime Heckel (opens in a new tab). If you like this article, check out his previous one, The Study of Shaders (opens in a new tab).

✨ Games & Demos

• 🎮 Narrow One (opens in a new tab) by Pelican Party (opens in a new tab). A capture-the-flag archery multiplayer game.
• 🎮 Slow Roads (opens in a new tab) by anslo (opens in a new tab). Buckle your seatbelt and cruise around an infinite procgen landscape.
• 🎮 (WIP) WoW-based card game (opens in a new tab) by Brian Breiholz (opens in a new tab). It uses Miniplex (opens in a new tab) and the Needle Engine (opens in a new tab).
• ✨ Space Pod (opens in a new tab) by jin (opens in a new tab) for the M3 (opens in a new tab) metaverse community (live demo (opens in a new tab)).
• ✨ (WIP) Hello Worlds (opens in a new tab) by Kenneth Pirman (opens in a new tab), who is building gigantic worlds so you don't have to (opens in a new tab).
• ✨ (WIP) RaycastVehicle (opens in a new tab) for Rapier (opens in a new tab) by Isaac Mason (opens in a new tab), for all your car physics needs.

See more on the ✨ Games & Demos (opens in a new tab) page or 🎮 WebGamer.io (opens in a new tab).

💬 From our Discord

We had the first Web Game Dev video meetup on December 10th 2022! Here is a recap:

• • I (opens in a new tab) talked about WebGameDev.com (opens in a new tab) and how I am dedicating 2023 to keep learning and writing about gamedev full-time to help other folks who are transitioning from web development.
• • anxpara presented Wayfinder (opens in a new tab), an animation tool that augments any CSS animation engine, providing a waypoint-centric approach to moving elements around pages.
• • Nathan Pointer (opens in a new tab) presented his gorgeous three-landscape (opens in a new tab) demo (opens in a new tab) and talked about technical challenges.
• • Hamza Kubba showed his futuristic city-spaceship-battle game and some of the tricks he's used, like fake projectile lighting, and an AI that's based on player line of sight.
• • Brian Breiholz (opens in a new tab) gave us a big slap in the face with his WoW-influenced card game (opens in a new tab).
• • Hendrik Mans (opens in a new tab) presented Bigby (opens in a new tab), a Three.js game framework based on plugins, and how it relates to Miniplex (opens in a new tab).
• • N8 (opens in a new tab) took us for a tour of his procgen infinite office, and talked about performance optimization and effects.

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