Newsletter – Issue 029

🔥 Headlines

Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s make 2026 an excellent year for web game development!

React Three Fiber v10 Alpha and Drei v11 Alpha are out! With a new scheduler and first-class WebGPU support (new TSL hooks!), this is a big day for the R3F ecosystem. Huge props to Dennis Smolek for the incredible amount of work that went into making this happen. They are still experimental, so please give them a try and share your feedback on Poimandres’ Discord or GitHub (R3F, Drei).

🌹 Koota by Krispy from Poimandres is a new ECS library built for real-time apps, games, and XR experiences. It features a data-oriented architecture with first-class React integration, entity relations, and efficient querying. Use as much or as little as you need for your project! Koota is receiving frequent and well-documented updates.

🌎 Web Game Database is a new website by dek (Hordes.io) that tracks the number of concurrent users of various web games. Based on public data provided by the games themselves, it’s a great way to see how popular different games are and how their traffic changes over time. Here is a thread about how the holiday season affected traffic.

Needle Inspector: DevTools for Three.js (video) is a fantastic Chrome extension made by Needle that lets you inspect any Three.js scene. It supports visual scene hierarchy, real-time property editing, performance monitoring, advanced inspector tools, integrated AI support, and more. A must-have for Three.js developers.

⭐️ Sponsors

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• Share your game to get free, unlimited playtests with real players.
• Start play testing on Poki with the #showcase post on Discord.
• Learn more about Poki in this video.

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Benchmarks are now live in the Developer Portal! Visualise your performance in key areas against the Top 20%. Check the new charts on the developer dashboard to understand your metrics and drive improvement.

VIVERSE gives developers powerful tools to bring interactive 3D and XR experiences to life directly in the browser, with free hosting, multi-engine support, and monetization tools. With our Creator Program, we’re investing in the next generation of creators who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the browser. Join the VIVERSE Discord.

We are rolling out Beta one-time payments and subscriptions. Our new monetization tools represent VIVERSE’s mission to become the most developer-friendly platform, with revenue splits between 80% and 90% for creators. Email us or message us on Discord for more info!

🏎 Engines

• Three.js r182 (changelog, migration guide), version r183 should be out in a few days
• R3F v9.5.0 – Now compatible with React 19.2, including Activity and useEffectEvent
• TresJS Cientos 5.2.0 – Adds CameraShake, reworked Html
• PlayCanvas Engine 2.15.0, 2.14.0, and 2.13.0
• PlayCanvas Editor v2.11.0 – Adds rectangle selection for entities in the viewport
• PlayCanvas Editor MCP Server v0.1.0 – Control the editor using LLMs
• Phaser 4.0 RC 6 – Texture wrapping control, tilemap enhancements, stability improvements
• Kaplay v4000 Alpha 25, Alpha 24, and Alpha 23
• Babylon.js Inspector V2 Preview - Improved extensibility, performance, reactivity, and UI
• Wonderland Engine 1.5.0, 1.5.1, and the latest newsletter
• Excalibur 0.32.0 – Release focusing on developer experience and performance
• Construct 3 r467 – Renderer improvements, iOS export update, Windows WebView2 updates

🛠 Tools

• three-text – High fidelity 3D mesh font geometry and text layout by Jeremy Tribby
• MECS – ECS library based on Monomorph by Perplex
• 🎾 JoltPhysics.js 1.0.0 and Jolt Physics v5.5.0 by Jorrit Rouwe
• 🤺 Rapier 2025 review and roadmap by Sébastien Crozet
• SimonDev’s KTX Tool (tweet) – Optimize and re-export GLTFs with KTX2 textures by SimonDev
• meshoptimizer v1.0 by Arseny Kapoulkine
• 🦾 Hunyuan 3D Studio (global launch announcement) – Actually good AI-generated models by Tencent
• Fullscreen on iOS workaround (actually works) by Mikhail Novikov from Playgama

🎬 Videos

• 🎓 One Formula That Demystifies 3D Graphics by Tsoding
• Why Iwo Plaza Created TypeGPU with Iwo Plaza on the Syntax podcast (!!)
• Creative Web Development with Three.js and Blender by Andrew Woan
• I Had to Cut Real Holes Through 3D Walls (three-mesh-bvh) by Wawa Sensei
• Create a 3D Multiplayer Game with TresJS by Alvaro Saburido
• What’s New in Blender 5.0! Official Overview by Jonathan Lampel
• Best Practices for Unity Web development by Unity

✍️ Articles

• What’s New in WebGPU (Chrome 144) by François Beaufort
• 🎓 No Graphics API by Sebastian Aaltonen
• 🎓 A Silly Diffuse Shading Model by Nikita Lisitsa
• 💡 Game design is simple, actually by Raph Koster
• How To Convert GLSL Shaders to TSL by Dan Greenheck
• 10 Noise Functions for Three.js TSL Shaders by Dan Greenheck
• Fragments.supply – Free and paid TSL shaders and articles by phobon
• Pixel-to-Voxel Video Drop Effect with Three.js and Rapier by Junichi Kasahara
• Event-Driven Gameplay in ExcaliburJS by Justin Young
• Sprite Fusion Tile Attributes in Excalibur.js by Justin Young
• Construct in 2025: Year in Review by Ashley Gullen
• 🎾 Golfing a 2D physics engine in JS by MaximeEuziere
• 🏗️ Multitap Blog (netcode and architecture articles) by chrisfarms
• From Hobby to 67 Million Gameplays on Poki in 2025 by Artem Lanin

🎮 Games

• Hill Climb Racing Lite by Fingersoft – Re-experience Hill Climb Racing, now built for the web!
• Slice Master by PlayCalm – Watch out, this is one sharp knife.
• No Pain No Gain by Rike Games – Build a trap, break a dummy, build more traps, break it more.
• Count Control Legends by Jungle Tavern – 67 got nothing on this game!
• Party Time by Peeps* – Play lots of colorful and fun mini games.

• 99 Nights in the Forest Online by Elanra Studios – Spend 99 nights in a haunted forest with your friends.
• Meeland.io by Stishka – Buy and collect pets, earn income, and buy upgrades.
• SuperWEIRD by Luden.io – Quirky 2.5D management game with robo-workers fighting a monster.
• Extreme Drifter by Wanted 5 Games – Drifting game in which you must avoid hitting walls and obstacles.
• Funny City: Gopniks by GoGoMan – Humorous and stylized open-world action game.

• OVIVO by IzHard – Minimalistic puzzle platformer in black and white.
• The Shadow of the Czar by James C Kane – Play a detective in a cinematic Gaussian splatting world.
• Sentiel by Sinica – NieR: Automata-inspired adventure RPG.
• Faceminer by Wristwork – Premium surveillance simulation game. The VR version is free.
• Choremaster by Fer Factor – Cozy vacuum cleaning game.

• Napoleonic.io by yp3d – Epic open world battles on land and sea.
• CubeWar by David Heckhoff – Strategic multiplayer game with cute cube avatars.
• SlotRunner by Sector 32 – Work-in-progress racing game with a cool dither filter.
• Tears of Arcadia by Anton Chuev – Steampunk strategy and tower defense game.
• Pawsome Elements by Philip and Georgii – Dog-themed strategic card game.
• IsoCity by Andrew Milich (source) – Sim City-like game vibe-coded in a few days.

✨ Demos

• Bruno Simon’s Portfolio (repo) by Bruno Simon – Incredible new portfolio from the creator of Three.js Journey
• Elemental Serenity (video, repo) by SahilK027
• Mr. Panda’s Psychologically Safe Portfolio (repo, article) by Andrew Woan
• Infinite Terrain (source) by .mesq

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