Newsletter – Issue 019

🔥 Headlines

🥳 We are reaching the 1-year anniversary of Web Game Dev! The website, newsletter, and Discord server, which now counts nearly 1500 members, all started about a year ago, and it’s been a fantastic journey! Web game developers now have a place to share their work, learn from each other, and get inspired. Thank you all for being part of this great community and making it what it is today!

⭐️ Sponsor

Poki is on a mission to create the ultimate online playground – where players and developers come together to play and create! Together with a growing 300+ game developer community and 50 million players each month, we’re creating a new standard for web games. Interested in working together? Share your game with us!

💼 We’re hiring! We’re on the lookout for someone with a keen eye for hit content and talented game developers. Do you have a great feeling for games with outstanding people skills and enjoy the thrill of generating new business in a growing and competitive niche? Then check out the full Business Development Manager listing!

🏎 Engines & Libraries

• Three.js r158 – Includes BatchedMesh addon by takahiro (changelog, migration guide).
• Drei Vanilla v1.13 – Text, SpriteAnimator, Billboard, Outlines by vis_prime and alexzhang1030
• Drei v9.88 – Fisheye, RenderCubeTexture, Cloud
• Threlte – CSM, useSuspense, useTexture, useGamepad, @threlte/xr, @threlte/flex. Threlte Plugins tutorial.
• TresJS cientos v3.5.0 – HTML component, FBO, Line2, CatmullRomCurve, GlobalAudio, Directives. See the previous 3.4.0 announcement of LensFlare, Sky, SVG, and Stats-gl, and the upcoming CustomShaderMaterial 🤯
• PlayCanvas Engine v1.66.0 – WebGPU enhancements, Null renderer for NodeJS, WebXR Anchor support.
• PlayCanvas Editor v1.33.11 – Support for AVIF and WebP
• Phaser 3.61 Beta 4 – See the announcement post of Beta 4 and Beta 3
• Phaser Editor 2D v3.63.0 and a Game Objects in Phaser Editor 2D tutorial by Harshal Gami.
• PixiJS v8 Beta – Adds WebGPU Support and improved performance with a new architecture.
• Babylon.js v6.28.1 – Ground Projection
• Needle – 3.22 Gaussian Splatting and meshing for Quest 3
• Wonderland Engine v1.1.0, 1.1.1, and 1.1.2
• Ambient Engine platform announcement (video).
• Hology Engine is a new engine built on Three.js (see the sculpting demo).

🛠 Tools

• gsplat.js, JavaScript Gaussian Splatting library by Dylan Ebert
• Triplex 0.60.0 – Element actions, duplicate elements, backend stability improvements by DOUGES
• react-three-babel by Umar Ahmed and Cody Bennett
• glTF Viewer 4.0 by PlayCanvas
• Super Splat – 3D Gaussian Splat Editor by Donovan Hutchence
• Timeline.js for PlayCanvas (video) by Cem Demir
• PICO officially supports PWAs by PICO XR
• Introducing the new heyVR Gameplay SDK by heyVR.io, a portal for WebXR games
• 🔺 PolyDraw.app (video) by verekia – Draw polygons, organize them by groups and colors, export coordinates
• 🐸 About Shaderfrog 2.0 by Andrew Ray

TypeScript support info has been added to every library listed on WebGameDev.com. There is also a new Spatial Partitioning page with Quadtree and Octree libraries.

🎬 Videos

• What can you do with WebGPU? talk at Devoxx by Corentin Wallez and François Beaufort
• How do Major Video Games Render Grass? by SimonDev
• 🎓 Your Colors Suck (it’s not your fault) by Acerola
• 🎓 How Are Games Rendering Fur? by Acerola
• Interactive particles loop with Three.js by akella
• 3D in React With Triplex, a Visual Editor for R3F on Learn With Jason with DOUGES
• Build a 3D Multiplayer Mobile Shooter Game with Playroom by Wawa Sensei
• 10 Days to Create a 3D Multiplayer Game with React by Wawa Sensei
• How to Build a 3D Chatbot with ChatGPT & ElevenLabs by Wawa Sensei
• TresJS Lights & Shadows by Alvaro Sabu
• Babylon Chronicles: The Future with WebGPU by Babylon.js
• Using PlayCanvas - the open-source Unity alternative for the first time by Huw Prosser
• 🌎 Steam Visibility: How Games Get Surfaced to Players by Erik Peterson
• Switching from Unity to Wonderland Engine by Wonderland Engine
• Phaser Tutorial | Make Your First 2D JavaScript Game by lowpolyprincess
• Building Mixed Reality Experiences with WebXR with Rik Cabanier and Felix Z
• How We Ported a Native Quest Game to WebXR by Timmy Kokke and Jonathan Hale
• 🎬 Video series on various topics such as GLSL, AI with Yuka, Three.js, Babylon.js, and Physics by Wael Yasmina

✍️ Articles

• From WebGL to WebGPU by François Beaufort
• What’s New in WebGPU: Chrome 118 and Chrome 119 by François Beaufort
• A Journey Into Shaders by Antoine Mayerowitz
• Path to Glory — Post Mortem (JS13K 2023) by Rémi Vansteelandt
• 🕹 Playing with the Gamepad API by Alvaro Montoro
• Ray Marching in the Babylon.js Node Material Editor by Popov
• How We Profile WebXR/WebGL Apps by Wonderland Engine
• Wonderland and Robot Invader convert VR game to web and PC by Wonderland Engine
• 📡 Scaling Hathora to 1 million CCU with Frost Giant by George Price
• 📡 An Interactive Intro to CRDTs by Jake Lazaroff
• 📡 MMO Architecture: Connections, Sockets, Threads and Source of Truth, Dataflows by PRDeving
• 🌎 CrazyGames launches CrazyGames Originals – See the list of Originals

🎮 Games

• reDEAD by TheoTheDev – Defend your base and survive against waves of zombies! 🧟
• Finn’s Ascent by Luke Carl Thompson – Find your way through the ocean and the sky! 🐠
• Battle Typer by Kornelijus Šaulys – Typing game with battleships! ⛴️
• Zoo Drop by Stephen Haney – Merging puzzle game 🐼
• Simply Up by Solar Games – Climb your way to the top in this parkour game! 🏃‍♂️
• Path to Glory by Rémi Vansteelandt – Beat ‘em up that won js13kGames 2023 🗡
• Konkr by Embair – Turn-based conquest strategy game where you expand your kingdom 🏰
• WizardWars.online by Luke Wood – Fight other wizards in arenas! 🧙‍♂️
• Mini Golf Club by Obumo Games – Real-time multiplayer mini golf ⛳️

✨ Demos

• Voxel Global Illumination by N8
• Zelda Wind Waker clone (tweet) by Robin Payot
• Waterfall by Steve Krichten
• Mixing context menus & models (live) by 0xca0a
• Warpspeed (repo) by Ed Sunman – Winner of Threlte Warp Hackathon
• Halloween Zoetrope (repo) by idlesseby
• Zombie shooting game demo by Igor Suntsev

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