Newsletter – Issue 019

📆 2023-11-08

🔥 Headlines

🥳 We are reaching the 1-year anniversary of Web Game Dev! The website, newsletter, and Discord server (opens in a new tab), 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 (opens in a new tab) 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 (opens in a new tab)!

💼 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 (opens in a new tab) listing!

🏎 Engines & Libraries

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

🛠 Tools

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

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

🎬 Videos

✍️ Articles

🎮 Games

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

✨ Demos

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