Issue 002
This is the second issue of the Web Game Dev Newsletter 🚀
You can read it on webgamedev.com, it looks better with icons!
🔥 Headlines
2 node-based shader graph editors got released: NodeToy, a platform to create, fork, share, and export shader effects to GLSL, or to Three.js and React Three Fiber via a NodeToy URL in your components. If NodeToy is a little too platform-y for you, you will like Alma by Emil Widlund, a similar tool to create GLSL shaders via a neat UI that lets you jump right into a graph playground without any account.
It looks like we may be getting WebGPU in Chrome desktop sometime around May 2022!
SvelteKit hit version 1.0, which is the perfect opportunity to bring your attention to Threlte, the equivalent of React Three Fiber in the Svelte world. Thanks to the way Svelte works, you can animate Threlte objects directly instead of manipulating the underlying Three.js object via refs like you would do in R3F. The version 5 of Threlte got released recently with some major changes, including an API that's closer to R3F, but the docs are still transitioning to the new paradigm. Note that Threlte has built-in support for the Rapier physics engine!
Anderson Mancini hosted a Three.js event on Twitter Spaces with Bruno Simon, N8, and Nicolas Carvajal.
There is now an experimental API to bring up a WebXR System Keyboard on Meta Quest.
🎓 Learning
- ✍️ A visual explanation of shaders by Dan Hollick.
- 🎬 An introduction to Threlte (v4) by Joy of Code. Available in text version.
✨ Games & Demos
- Venge by OnRush Studio. Probably the most impressive full-fledged web game I have seen so far.
- Arcade Machine by Grischa Erbe to showcase Threlte.
- A Christmas game by Sébastien Lempens (press Space or click the glove icon to switch to digging).
- (WIP) A fantasy card game by Stephen Haney.
=> See more on the ✨ Games & Demos page.
As a bonus, Blender published Charge, a beautiful 4-minutes open movie.
Join the fun in the Web Game Dev Discord server!