Newsletter โ Issue 001
Welcome to the first issue of the Web Game Dev Newsletter!
๐ฅ 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.
โฌ๏ธ Updates
Three.js 147 (opens in a new tab) โ 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)).
โ๏ธ Content
- ๐ฌ ๐ 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.
- ๐ฌ ๐ Continuity of Splines (opens in a new tab) by Freya Holmรฉr (opens in a new tab). A beautiful in-depth explanation of splines (such as Bรฉzier curves).
- ๐ฌ
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. - โ๏ธ 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).
โจ Games & Demos
- ๐ฎ Narrow One (opens in a new tab) by Pelican
Party (opens in a new tab). A capture-the-flag archery multiplayer game.
- ๐ฎ Slow Roads (opens in a new tab) by anslo (opens in a new tab).
Buckle your seatbelt and cruise around an infinite procgen landscape.
- ๐ฎ (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).
- โจ
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)). - โจ (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).
- โจ (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 โจ Games & Demos (opens in a new tab) page or ๐ฎ WebGamer.io (opens in a new tab).
๐ฌ From our Discord
We had the first Web Game Dev video meetup on December 10th 2022! Here is a recap:
- โข 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.
- โข 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.
- โข 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.
- โข 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.
- โข 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).
- โข 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).
- โข 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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