Newsletter – Issue 022

📆 2024-06-12

🔥 Headlines

Discord shared their plan for the future (opens in a new tab) and launched their Embedded App SDK (opens in a new tab) for Activities (NPM package (opens in a new tab)). Multiplayer web games can now be played directly within Discord via iframes, with users connected via voice chat. The SDK lets you authenticate players and manage how your game interacts with Discord. Check out the official starter (opens in a new tab), Hugo Duprez (opens in a new tab)'s starter (opens in a new tab), and Colyseus (opens in a new tab)' starter (opens in a new tab) (article (opens in a new tab)).

🍏 Safari 18 beta (opens in a new tab) was announced at Apple's WWDC (opens in a new tab) developer event. WebXR is no longer behind a feature flag, and immersive-vr sessions and hand tracking are available by default (opens in a new tab). Even though WebGPU has been available in the Technology Preview (opens in a new tab) since last December, it is unfortunately not part of this release. So, you will have to support WebGL for a while if you support Safari. On the Web Apps (PWAs) front, if a user has your web app installed and clicks a link pointing to your domain from outside their browser (like a link shared on Discord or Slack), it will open in the web app. Unfortunately, there are still no Install Prompts (opens in a new tab) on Safari, so you will have to keep explaining to your users how to install your web app manually.

The Meta Quest Browser now supports WebGPU (opens in a new tab) since version 32.0!

Babylon.js 7.0 (opens in a new tab) is out! Check out the release video (opens in a new tab). This major version includes a procedural Node Geometry (opens in a new tab) (live editor (opens in a new tab)), Global Illumination (opens in a new tab), Gaussian Splats (opens in a new tab), Ragdoll Physics (opens in a new tab) and better WebXR support.

The winners of Gamedev.js Jam 2024 (opens in a new tab) have been announced. The theme was Power.

Athena Crisis (opens in a new tab) by Christoph Nakazawa (opens in a new tab) is now open source (opens in a new tab) and funding contributions! Check out the repo (opens in a new tab).

🥭 Jamango! web game raises $2.5M (opens in a new tab) – Co-founded by Adam Dalton (opens in a new tab), Richie Whelan (opens in a new tab), and Jeremy Klarenbeek, Jamango! is a browser-based multiplayer user-generated content platform. It is currently in closed alpha, but you can check out the homepage (opens in a new tab) to get an idea of what's coming. I have been working for Jamango! for several months, and this project is truly promising. Remember this name, and keep an eye out for the public release!

⭐️ 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 350+ game developer community and 65 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)!

Poki will be rolling out its new playtesting (opens in a new tab) flow soon™️, which allows you to get unlimited free playtests of your game with Poki players! Just upload a web build of your game and start watching, no strings attached! The official announcement is still to come, but if you have questions, feel free to ping the team on the Web Game Dev Discord (opens in a new tab)!