Newsletter – Issue 023

📆 2024-09-25

🔥 Headlines

🦋 We now have a Web Game Dev Bluesky Starter Pack (opens in a new tab) that you can use to easily sign up and follow 100+ folks from the JavaScript game dev and front-end ecosystems. There is also a list (opens in a new tab) that you can follow.

Subscribe to the new YouTube channel (opens in a new tab) where we post Trezy (opens in a new tab)'s Games Showcase meetups (opens in a new tab)!

WebXR is now enabled by default on Apple Vision Pro. Watch the Build immersive web experiences with WebXR (opens in a new tab) WWDC24 presentation by Ada Rose Cannon (opens in a new tab) and read the WebKit 18.0 release notes (opens in a new tab).

Kaboom.js (opens in a new tab) is no longer maintained, but there is now a community fork called Kaplay (opens in a new tab).

Unity 6 is coming (opens in a new tab) with a new focus on the web and WebGPU, as announced at the Unite 2024 Keynote (opens in a new tab). They announced the Crazy Web Game Jam 2024 (opens in a new tab) with CrazyGames (opens in a new tab) (Unity-only), and canceled the Runtime Fee (opens in a new tab).

🌐 The Ray Browser (opens in a new tab) (video (opens in a new tab)) is a new browser focused on gaming, with support for split-screen (with a game on one side and Discord on the other, for example). It has features for developers (opens in a new tab) such as its WebGL2 inspector.

The State of JavaScript 2023 (opens in a new tab) survey results are out.

⭐️ 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 400+ 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, the market leader on Web, is proud to sponsor Web Game Dev! In the coming month, we will give the community access to our new Playtesting feature - which provides unlimited and free playtesting of your game with our audience! Keep an eye out for more in the Web Game Dev Discord (opens in a new tab) at the beginning of October! Learn more about Poki in this presentation (opens in a new tab).

🏎 Engines

Three.js r168 (opens in a new tab) (changelog (opens in a new tab), migration guide (opens in a new tab))
Drei Vanilla 1.19.0 (opens in a new tab) – Expose Caustics (opens in a new tab) materials, add MeshWobbleMaterial (opens in a new tab) and MeshDistortMaterial (opens in a new tab).
Three.js Shading Language Sandbox (opens in a new tab) – TSL examples by Bruno Simon (opens in a new tab).
R3F v8.17.0 (opens in a new tab) – Adds flushSync, which forces React to flush any updates synchronously and immediately.
Drei v9.113.0 (opens in a new tab) – InstancedAttribute and createInstances (opens in a new tab), support any color representation in GradientTexture (opens in a new tab).
@react-three/xr (opens in a new tab) (video (opens in a new tab)) went through a major overhaul (opens in a new tab), thanks to Bela Bohlender (opens in a new tab) (who also made uikit (opens in a new tab)).
TresJS 4.2.0 (opens in a new tab) – Adds dpr prop to TresCanvas, and userData to inspectable devtool properties.
Cientos v4 (opens in a new tab) – AnimatedSprite (opens in a new tab), breaking changes and refactors.
PlayCanvas Engine 2.0.0 (opens in a new tab) – A release that drops WebGL1 support among other breaking changes (opens in a new tab) and API cleanups, and adds new custom shader and hardware instancing APIs.
Phaser v3.85 (opens in a new tab), Phaser Editor 4.4 (opens in a new tab), and Phaser Beam Technical Preview 4 (opens in a new tab)
Wonderland Engine 1.2.3 (opens in a new tab) – Editor Scope plugins, configure shortcuts, and Streaming Fetches.
Construct (opens in a new tab) r407 (opens in a new tab) – Instance Bar, instance tags & signals, flowcharts improvements
PixiJS 8.4.0 (opens in a new tab)
Babylon.js 7.26.2 (opens in a new tab)
Needle (opens in a new tab) 3.48.0 (opens in a new tab)
Excalibur.js (opens in a new tab) has a new newsletter (opens in a new tab).
Orillusion (opens in a new tab) v0.8 (opens in a new tab)
Web Export in Godot 4.3 (opens in a new tab) by Adam Scott (opens in a new tab)
GameMaker (opens in a new tab) (Lua) has a new engine (opens in a new tab) with experimental WebGPU support.
Flutter (opens in a new tab) can be used to make games (opens in a new tab), now with WebAssembly support. Watch the Google I/O presentation (opens in a new tab).

🛠 Tools

N8AO 1.9 (opens in a new tab) by N8 (opens in a new tab) – 10-20% perf boost, more config options, quantize AO tones for bevel and toon effects.
Three.ez InstancedMesh2 (opens in a new tab) – Simplified and enhanced InstancedMesh (opens in a new tab) with frustum culling, fast raycasting (using BVH), sorting, visibility management and more, by Andrea Gargaro (opens in a new tab).
InstancedBatchedSkinnedMesh (opens in a new tab) with GPU mixer by Cody Bennett (opens in a new tab).
v0 (opens in a new tab), Vercel's AI code-generation tool, now supports React Three Fiber (opens in a new tab) and its ecosystem.
Interactive Water Surface (opens in a new tab) (demo (opens in a new tab)) by Toby (opens in a new tab)
Ecctrl FixedCamera mode (opens in a new tab) by Andrew Chen (opens in a new tab)
VFX-JS (opens in a new tab) and React-VFX (opens in a new tab) – WebGL-powered visual effects by AMAGI (opens in a new tab).
TypeGPU (opens in a new tab) – A type-safe toolkit for WebGPU. by Iwo Plaza (opens in a new tab) from Software Mansion (opens in a new tab).
🎾 Jolt Physics 5.1.0 (opens in a new tab) – Improvements to soft bodies, characters and vehicles, by Jorrit Rouwe (opens in a new tab).
🎵 Pelimanni (opens in a new tab) – Web Audio classical instruments and utilities for making dynamically looping music by Joni Korpi (opens in a new tab).
Colyseus 0.16.0-preview (opens in a new tab) by Endel (opens in a new tab)

🎬 Videos

✍️ Articles

Kevin Glass (opens in a new tab) from the Rune (opens in a new tab) platform has been putting out a ton of great articles on Rune's blog (opens in a new tab):

🎮 Games

Blumgi Racers by Blumgi – Gravity-defying puzzle game.
Quivershot by Dedra Games – Top-down pixel roguelite.
Blaze Drifter by Deer Cat Games – Racing game with takedowns.
Stunt Bike Extreme by Hyperkani – Motorbike balancing game with stunts and jumps.
Ping Pong Go by Happylander – Ping Pong game with increasing difficulty.
SquadBlast by UltraHorse – Multiplayer 2D hero shooter and platformer.
Kour.io by LEGiON Platforms – Multiplayer FPS with various game modes.
Dungeons n' Ducks by Long Story Short – Puzzle game with original mechanics.
Bulletz.io by Luke Wood – Agar-inspired game in which you grow by consuming other players.
WorldGuessr by Gautam – Open-source geography game inspired by GeoGuessr.
Brawl Bugs (opens in a new tab) by Jay – Multiplayer arena brawler with insects.
Connection Home (opens in a new tab) – Platformer demo game made to showcase the Hology Engine (opens in a new tab).

✨ Demos

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💌 Newsletter Issue 022