Issue 001
Welcome to the first issue of the Web Game Dev Newsletter!
You can read it on webgamedev.com, it looks better with icons!
🔥 Headlines
Three.js 147 got released and everybody is in love with the pixel postprocessing effect.
We've got 2 new work-in-progress projects to bring scene changes back to React Three Fiber source code: React Three Editor by Nikhil Saraf, and a proof of concept by DOUGES which uses Deno and ts-morph.
Great news for WebXR developers: Meta Quest browser now supports immersive navigation, which means you can now change same-origin URL routes within a WebXR session (yep, that was surprisingly not possible before). This is a step forward for metaverse experiences, and also opens up interesting ways to build XR games around traditional URL routes (like seamlessly going from /my-house to /worldmap or /arena). It is also now possible to send a link from desktop or mobile to Quest headsets, to not have to type URLs.
🎓 Learning
- 🎬 How Big Budget AAA Games Render Clouds by SimonDev. You will never look at clouds the same after that.
- 🎬 Continuity of Splines by Freya Holmér. A beautiful in-depth explanation of splines (such as Bézier curves).
- 🎬 100+ JavaScript Concepts you Need to Know by Fireship. A quick overview of all things JavaScript.
- ✍️ The magical world of Particles with React Three Fiber and Shaders by Maxime Heckel. If you like this article, check out his previous one, The Study of Shaders.
✨ Games & Demos
- Narrow One by Pelican Party. A capture-the-flag Three.js archery multiplayer game.
- Slow Roads by anslo. Buckle your seatbelt and cruise around an infinite procgen Three.js landscape.
- Space Pod by jin for the M3 metaverse community (live demo). It uses PlayCanvas.
- (WIP) WoW-based card game by Brian Breiholz. It uses React Three Fiber, Miniplex, and the Needle Engine.
- (WIP) Hello Worlds by Kenneth Pirman, who is building gigantic React Three Fiber worlds so you don't have to.
- (WIP) RaycastVehicle for Rapier by Isaac Mason, for all your car physics needs.
💬 Highlights from our Discord
We had the first Web Game Dev video meetup on December 10th 2022! Here is a recap:
- I talked about webgamedev.com and how I am dedicating 2023 to keep learning and writing about gamedev full-time to help other folks who are transitioning from web development.
- anxpara presented Wayfinder, an animation tool that augments any CSS animation engine, providing a waypoint-centric approach to moving elements around pages.
- Nathan Pointer presented his gorgeous three-landscape demo and talked about technical challenges.
- Hamza Kubba showed his futuristic city-spaceship-battle game and some of the tricks he's used, like fake projectile lighting, and an AI that's based on player line of sight.
- Brian Breiholz gave us a big slap in the face with his WoW-influenced card game.
- Hendrik Mans presented Bigby, a Three.js game framework based on plugins, and how it relates to Miniplex.
- N8 took us for a tour of his procgen infinite office, and talked about performance optimization and effects.
Join the fun in the Web Game Dev Discord server!