Issue #641 - April 17th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Stop Killing Games delivers 'absolutely incredible' hearing in European Parliament
'There was no [parliament member] that wasn't responding positively.'
Andy Chalk at PC Gamer

What leaked “SteamGPT” files could mean for the PC gaming platform’s use of AI
AI tools could help moderators sift through mountains of suspicious incidents.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

Hades devs: accidentally inventing a subgenre was 'surreal'
Did the gods themselves play a role in the success of the Hades series?
Bryant Francis at Game Developer

44% of games industry professionals have considered leaving the industry as a result of redundancies
New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.
Sophie McEvoy at GamesIndustryBiz
 

Tutorials:

Letting bots learn to move like players
How I used input simulation to build navigation graphs for a chaotic multiplayer shooter.
Rémi Vansteelandt at Substack
 

Competitions:

Gamedev.js Jam 2026 start and theme announcement

Ludum Dare 59 lives (me too), countdown to 64
 

Tools:

Phaser 4.0.0 released

Migrating from Phaser 3 to Phaser 4

New ad format supported by Playgama: advanced banners
 

Demos:

Mitosis

Neonoise

Dweet of the week: the spine
 

Games:

Brighten Up

Beam Moo Up
 

Issue #640 - April 10th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
If you have anything you want to share with our community please let me know by replying to this email, thank you!
 

Articles:

Video game devs explain how pausing works and sometimes it gets weird
Developers provide some insight into how they all make games stop and start when you press a button.
Zack Zwiezen at Kotaku

How to build a real business on Roblox in 2026
What operators miss when they treat Roblox like “just another platform.”
Deconstructor of Fun

Split Fiction dev Hazelight Studios accrues 50M total sales
It Takes Two is responsible for 30 million of those sales.
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

Playing Wolfenstein 3D with one hand in 2026
Over three decades later, this historical curiosity has more than a few rough edges.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica
 

Tutorials:

Creating fake 3D characters in a 2D engine
How I've created a somewhat 3D looking top-down shooter without using a 3D engine.
Rémi Vansteelandt's Substack
 

Competitions:

YouTube Playables challenge in Gamedev.js Jam 2026
 

Tools:

Crashcat - physics engine for JavaScript

Pompelmi - file upload security for Node.js

MemPalace - highest-scoring AI memory system ever benchmarked
 

Demos:

Pylon terrain

String theory

Dweet of the week: Easter eggs
 

Games:

Sticker Truck

Rowdle
 

Issue #639 - April 3rd 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

CSS is DOOMed
No, CSS is awesome. CSS is better than ever and it is only getting better. And that is why I built DOOM in CSS. Why? Because I wanted to find the limits of what a browser can do.
Niels Leenheer's blog

Doubling gCPM for a web games portal: Lagged.com case with Playgama
Valeria Svistunova explains how a new distribution and monetization model helped Lagged.com significantly increase revenue per play.
Valeria Svistunova at Playgama

GameBot - AI slop app
All these awful slop apps start off with a promise. The promise that "GameBot" makes is to "Turn Ideas into Playable Reality".
Brian Douglas' blog

Stormgate rushing offline mode after losing server access to an AI company
The Stormgate team is attempting to patch an offline mode before the server provider pulls the plug at the end of April.
Diego Argüello at Game Developer
 

Tutorials:

Make a block-stacking game with Construct 3
We will make a simple (but very entertaining) game about stacking blocks and knocking them down.
Caleb Cornett at Awesome Inc
 

Competitions:

Deploy to Wavedash challenge in Gamedev.js Jam 2026

Build it with Phaser challenge in Gamedev.js Jam 2026
 

Tools:

Announcing Babylon.js 9.0

RetroZone: CRT and scanline effects for HTML5 games

Easel is now an expression language
 

Demos:

Kinetic

Draggable kaleidoscope

Dweet of the week: piano keyboard
 

Games:

Ecaroh and the Invasion of the Dark Slimes

Asterogue launches on Steam
 

Issue #638 - March 27th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Gamers react with overwhelming disgust to DLSS 5’s generative AI glow-ups
Nvidia’s next frame-gen tech goes way beyond upscaling, and not in a good way.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

Organiser of Reboot Develop issued with bankruptcy order, underlining fears over event's future
Dubrovnik venue confirms that celebrated Croatian development conference will not be returning in 2026.
Jon Hicks at GamesIndustryBiz

Fortnite back on Google Play worldwide after Epic and Google settle
The settlement took place in early March, months after a federal court cast doubts on the terms.
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

It's brutal out there: Deus Ex and Unreal composer says he's submitted 50 resumes and gotten one interview in the last year
AI's impact on audio production has, of course, become a hot topic in the game music world.
Wes Fenlon at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

How to handle complex logic in GDevelop 5: the finite state machine
This tutorial will show you how to structure your project in a way that encapsulates the logic of your player (enemies or other dynamic objects).
GDevelop documentation
 

Tools:

Wonderland Engine 1.6.0: meshlets and SSAO

Phaser 4 Release Candidate 7: light, noise, and color

Announcing TypeScript 6.0
 

Demos:

Geeko-swaying

Dark cubes reflections

Dweet of the week: 3D gears
 

Games:

Scores

Piroot - wishlist on Steam
 

Issue #637 - March 20th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Why did Fingersoft use Defold to bring Hill Climb Racing to Poki?
We invited Shiho Kaneko from Fingersoft, to tell us about their adventure with Defold to create Hill Climb Racing Lite for Poki.
Paweł Jarosz at Defold

VR app Meta Horizon Worlds will no longer be playable in VR
Meta's vision of the metaverse is going flatscreen.
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

Nintendo could be forced to shed ine of its biggest anti-consumer practices
An EU law comes into force next year that demands portable devices have replaceable batteries.
John Walker at Kotaku

Parker Brothers canonized the wrong version of Monopoly
The original Landlord’s Game was designed to warn players about wealth inequality. The version that survived did the opposite.
Corey Plante at Polygon

The big debate: what role should AI have in video game narrative?
A games writer and an AI game creator sit down for a serious talk.
Lewis Packwood at GamesIndustryBiz
 

Tutorials:

I built the best virtual joystick for PhaserJS, then went to bed
Lately I’ve been building a lot of games, and for one of my mobile projects I wanted the controls to feel great. At some point I realized I needed an on-screen joystick.
Renato Cassino at Medium
 

Tools:

RetroZone - retro CRT and vector display engine

Mystral Native.js - native WebGPU JS runtime with SDL3
 

Demos:

Box flow system

Bioluminescence

Dweet of the week: win95 dialog colour blank
 

Videos:

Peter Yang: Zero to shipped game with Claude Code in 20 minutes

Tsoding: One formula that demystifies 3D graphics
 

Games:

Blumgi Slime
 

Issue #636 - March 13th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

OpenAI built a tactical RPG with Phaser
OpenAI showcases their stunning new GPT 5.4 model by creating a turn-based tactical RPG with Phaser.
Phaser News

Building a new Flash
I don't know where to start with this but yeah I'm making flash if flash was built in 2026.
Bill Premo at Newgrounds

LEGO's 0.002mm specification and it's implications for manufacturing
A 2x4 LEGO brick manufactured in 1958 will snap perfectly onto a brick molded this morning in Denmark, China, Hungary, Mexico, or the Czech Republic.
Brad Hirayama at The Wave

Creating a successful Steam page is like ski jumping
One colorful metaphor-and plenty of actionable advice-on creating a successful Steam page.
Danielle Riendeau at Game Developer

Roblox and Minecraft players are less likely to play traditional AAA video games
Ben Porter from Newzoo explains that the player base has very little overlap with mainstream hits such as Assassin's Creed: Shadows and Ghost of Yōtei.
Lewis Packwood at GamesIndustryBiz
 

Tutorials:

NoJS 3 - the dawn of Flappy Bird
Making a Flappy Bird clone using pure HTML and CSS, no JavaScript.
Gurveer Arora at Scott Logic
 

Competitions:

Open Source challenge in the upcoming Gamedev.js Jam 2026
 

Tools:

JSNES 2.0 released

Kigen Color Generator
 

Demos:

Highlight

Polygon monolith

Dweet of the week: bulging checkerboard illusion
 

Games:

SN@KELIKE

Now THAT’S a Big Dragon! - demo released today
 

Issue #635 - March 6th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
If you have anything you want to share with our community please let me know by replying to this email, thank you!
 

Articles:

Computer run on human brain cells learned to play Doom
Cortical Labs hopes neuronal chips will do much more than shoot pixelated demons.
Andrew Paul at Popular Science

Next-gen Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix, will play PC games
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says hardware demonstrates its "commitment to the return of Xbox".
Sophie McEvoy at GamesIndustryBiz

Slay The Spire 2 is absolutely crushing it with 400,000 concurrent players and a 97 percent positive rating on Steam
And yes, it deserves to be.
Ethan Gach at Kotaku

Google cuts fees for mobile apps and games
Fortnite is set to return to Google Play as Epic settles worldwide legal disputes - though a revised US court injunction settlement is still pending.
Craig Chapple at PocketGamerBiz
 

Tutorials:

A series of tricks and techniques I learned doing tiny GLSL demos
I'll take you along a journey of learning experiences.
Clément Bœsch's blog
 

Tools:

Defold-wave - native Defold extension that simulates waves

Easel Feb 2026 update: galleries, existential coalescing, and slow motion
 

Demos:

Highlight

Deco tile pattern

Dweet of the week: FDTD electromagnetic sim
 

Videos:

Design Diary: 10 ways to improve game feel

Sos Sosowski: How to switch to Linux as a game developer
 

Games:

Stardust Exile

Zero-G update: incursion and the first 1000
 

Issue #634 - February 27th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
If you have anything you want to share with our community please let me know by replying to this email, thank you!
 

Articles:

I taught my dog to vibe code games
The key to making this work is telling Claude Code that a genius game designer who only speaks in cryptic riddles is giving it instructions, add strong guardrails, and build plenty of tools for automated feedback.
Caleb Leak's blog

Contractor management platform Mellow launches new indie support program
Offers six months of full access to recruitment and management tools for $1 per contractor per month.
Sophie McEvoy at GamesIndustryBiz

New York sues Valve for enabling “illegal gambling” with loot boxes
The ability to resell Steam items for real value is key to the state’s case.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

Enclave Games in 2025, and plans for 2026
Last year was quite similar to the previous one as unfortunately no new games were released, but at least it was quite similar to the previous one as all the usual events and activities were organized more or less on time.
Andrzej Mazur at Enclave Games

It looks like Netflix won't be acquiring Warner Bros. Games after all
The streamer has exited the race for entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery following a new bid from rival Paramount Skydance.
Chris Kerr at Game Developer
 

Tutorials:

Build a highly customizable mobile friendly HTML5 level selection screen
Controllable by tap, swipe and mouse wheel, written in TypeScript and powered by Phaser.
Emanuele Feronato's blog
 

Competitions:

js13kGames 2025 t-shirts shipped
 

Tools:

Phaser PixUI - open-source UI library for pixel art games

Wonderland Engine 1.5.3 with AR Templates released
 

Demos:

OctaVase

Elevator visual

Dweet of the week: café wall illusion
 

Games:

Cannon Balls
 

Issue #633 - February 20th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
If you have anything you want to share with our community please let me know by replying to this email, thank you!
 

Articles:

The rise of productivity games on Steam
Breaking down what we can learn from a niche but mighty subgenre.
Jordan at Over Powered Game Marketing

Godot veteran says 'AI slop' pull requests have become overwhelming
Godot veteran Rémi Verschelde has expressed dismay at the number of "AI slop" pull requests being generated for the free, open-source engine by large language models.
Chris Kerr at Game Developer

Remake specialist Bluepoint Games, co-developer of God of War Ragnarok, shut down by Sony
70 staff to lose jobs; Playstation Studios head Hermen Hulst blames "increasingly challenging industry environment".
Jon Hicks at GamesIndustryBiz

RAM shortage hits Valve’s four-year-old Steam Deck, now available “intermittently”
Forget launching new stuff - Valve is even having problems with existing hardware.
Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica
 

Tutorials:

Simulating rotating gravity and perimeter based movement like in Be Brave, Barb game with Phaser, without any physics engine
The heroine walks along the outer perimeter of floating shapes, rotates naturally at corners, and when se jumps, gravity shifts direction depending on the side she’s attached to.
Emanuele Feronato's blog
 

Tools:

Phaser Editor v5 Beta now available

AutoSprite - AI spritesheet generator
 

Resources:

The beautiful paper map for OpenMW

Humble RPG Bundle: Fallout tabletop mega bundle by Modiphius
 

Demos:

Memento mori

Knight murmurations

Dweet of the week: color waves
 

Videos:

JSLegendDev: I tried 3 web game frameworks (Kaplay, Phaser, Excalibur) so you don’t have to

Daivuk: How I made a shooter game in 64 KB
 

Games:

Three.js Descent
 

Issue #632 - February 13th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
If you have anything you want to share with our community please let me know by replying to this email, thank you!
 

Articles:

Countdown to Gamedev.js Jam 2026 and call for partners
In exactly two months from now the seventh edition of Gamedev.js Jam, the online web game development competition, will begin.
End3r at Gamedev.js

Party like it’s 2001: Diablo II gets a new expansion, new playable class
Alongside new endgame content, Blizzard says the Warlock is coming to other Diablo games soon.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

The biggest gaming series are going indie, could it save the games industry?
Gaming's biggest publishers are leaning on indie studios to freshen up their most valuable games.
Giovanni Colantonio at Polygon

Highguard's high-profile mistakes should be a lesson for other developers
Wildlight's game might not deserve the internet vitriol, but its missteps have left it in a tough spot – and provide a stark warning to others.
Rob Fahey at GamesIndustryBiz
 

Tutorials:

Reducing Tiled maps to optimized collision rectangles with greedy merging
A collision layer exported from Tiled is essentially a dense grid: one value per cell, even when large contiguous areas represent the same solid structure.
Emanuele Feronato's blog
 

Events:

React Summit 2026: join thousands of React devs from around the world
Amsterdam and Online – 12 and 16 Jun 2026. Inspiring talks, Amsterdam vibes, and unforgettable networking. Register now using promo code GAMEDEV (-10%).
 

Tools:

Fluorite Game Engine - first console-grade game engine fully integrated with Flutter

Unity Build Optimization Tool - cut 100 MB to 30 MB with one plugin
 

Demos:

Breathing shutter

Lorenz attractor - chaos and prediction

Dweet of the week: pool of blue dots
 

Games:

Woodlock

Trois-Rivières