Issue #660 - August 28th 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:

W4 Games raises $18M to expand its international team
W4 Games has also signed a multi-year strategic partnership with Tencent to scale its business and the Godot ecosystem in Asia.
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

Roblox officially cracks down on doomscrolling-reward games after controversy
Roblox has taken a stance against "doomscrolling" by restricting games that reward ongoing media feed consumption.
Elijah Gonzalez at Polygon

Playgama launches Wrap to help developers run games outside app stores
Wrap turns HTML5 games into standalone websites with their own domains, monetization, purchases, SEO, and player analytics.
Jolie Feld at GamesBeat
 

Tutorials:

Exploring procedural geometry with Three.js and WebGPU
A deep dive into building a flexible Three.js Geometry Painter with WebGPU and TSL, from surface picking and procedural geometry to custom shaders, lighting, and post-processing.
Chiro Visuals at Codrops

How to build immersive 3D web experiences in 2026
WebGL development can make the web feel alive or tank your load times. Learn how to build immersive, high-performance 3D web experiences in 2026.
MDX
 

Competitions:

js13kGames 2026 is halfway through
 

Tools:

ZzFX Studio - algorithmic chiptune tracker

W-XR - lightweight WebXR scene with W renderer

NixieFX - full-featured Three.js particle editor
 

Demos:

Air hockey

Voxel city generator

Dweet of the week: looking up
 

Games:

Gold City

Movie Cast

Now THAT'S a Big Dragon! released
 

Issue #659 - August 21st 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:

Godot adoption is rising: what are devs getting out of the engine?
Godot's 'lightweight' features are a major reason why devs are sticking with the open source engine.
Bryant Francis at Game Developer

The opportunity cost of Sony's live service pivot is enormous
The cost can't be measured only in money; what's the price tag for some of Sony's biggest studios being missing in action for much of the PS5 era?
Rob Fahey at GamesIndustryBiz

Developer Cold Iron Studios shuts down cloud version of $60 game with no refunds
A reminder of the perils of digital ownership.
Scharon Harding at Ars Technica

Still more GTA 6 details from the latest leaked video: traffic cameras, car trackers, and drivers that put up a fight
With each leaked video we learn a bit more about the game.
Christopher Livingston at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

Relighting images with depth maps and Three.js
Explore how depth maps, TSL, and WebGPU can be combined to turn flat 2D images into dynamic surfaces with realistic lighting, surface detail, and self-shadowing.
Dominik Fojcik at Codrops
 

Tools:

Open SA - a from-scratch, high-performance WebGPU engine compatible with RenderWare (GTA San Andreas)

Defold 1.13.1 released
 

Resources:

Gamedev.js Survey 2026 is open - you can fill the form directly here
 

Demos:

Verity engine

Circle pattern animation lighten

Dweet of the week: plastic
 

Games:

LittleJS Arcade
 

Issue #658 - August 14th 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:

Unity records "best quarter in history" following continued success of Vector AI
AI-driven advertising and user acquisition platform boosted Grow Solutions revenue by 35% to $389 million during Q2.
Sophie McEvoy at GamesIndustryBiz

Fallout 3 dev excited for the remaster because the original game’s visuals were ‘100 percent not what we intended’
According to longtime game developer Nathan Purkeypile, Bethesda's open-world RPG was 'super tech constrained'.
Zack Zwiezen at Kotaku

Coffee Stain bullish despite underperformance of Deep Rock Galactic spinoff
Meanwhile, the company's popular Roblox title, Welcome to Bloxburg, generated $2.1 million during Q1.
Chris Kerr at Game Developer

If you're not paying attention to retro game recompilations, you're missing the most exciting thing in gaming right now
Forget all the new games coming out in 2026. Newly shiny old games are where it's at.
Wes Fenlon at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

No build step, no bundler: 11 things that broke shipping Three.js into an iframe
Two 3D games, real ones with physics and shadows and a mascot, that have to load inside an iframe on somebody else's page, on whatever laptop a school district bought in 2019, with no build step, no bundler, and no framework.
Kentog751 at DevTo
 

Events:

The Poki Party at Gamescom 2026 on August 26th
 

Competitions:

js13kGames 2026 has started!

Craftpix Indie Jam #1-2026 starts September 2nd
 

Tools:

BroMetal for js13k

Sprite Fusion's pixel art generator
 

Demos:

Strings

Celestial transmutation

Dweet of the week: abstract forest
 

Games:

The Sole Surviving Sanitation Specialist of the Blue Giant

Snail Walk: Step Tracking Survival Fitness Game
 

Issue #658 - August 14th 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:

Unity records "best quarter in history" following continued success of Vector AI
AI-driven advertising and user acquisition platform boosted Grow Solutions revenue by 35% to $389 million during Q2.
Sophie McEvoy at GamesIndustryBiz

Fallout 3 dev excited for the remaster because the original game’s visuals were ‘100 percent not what we intended’
According to longtime game developer Nathan Purkeypile, Bethesda's open-world RPG was 'super tech constrained'.
Zack Zwiezen at Kotaku

Coffee Stain bullish despite underperformance of Deep Rock Galactic spinoff
Meanwhile, the company's popular Roblox title, Welcome to Bloxburg, generated $2.1 million during Q1.
Chris Kerr at Game Developer

If you're not paying attention to retro game recompilations, you're missing the most exciting thing in gaming right now
Forget all the new games coming out in 2026. Newly shiny old games are where it's at.
Wes Fenlon at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

No build step, no bundler: 11 things that broke shipping Three.js into an iframe
Two 3D games, real ones with physics and shadows and a mascot, that have to load inside an iframe on somebody else's page, on whatever laptop a school district bought in 2019, with no build step, no bundler, and no framework.
Kentog751 at DevTo
 

Events:

The Poki Party at Gamescom 2026 on August 26th
 

Competitions:

js13kGames 2026 has started!

Craftpix Indie Jam #1-2026 starts September 2nd
 

Tools:

BroMetal for js13k

Sprite Fusion's pixel art generator
 

Demos:

Strings

Celestial transmutation

Dweet of the week: abstract forest
 

Games:

The Sole Surviving Sanitation Specialist of the Blue Giant

Snail Walk: Step Tracking Survival Fitness Game
 

Issue #657 - August 7th 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:

Devolver wants to delist because indie publishing is not 'compatible' with public trading
The indie publisher claims public trading has created a 'valuation disconnect that does not take account of the lifetime and long-tail revenue delivery inherent in the video games business.'
Chris Kerr at Game Developer

Roblox tanked $9 billion in a single day after the company admitted it was directing fewer kids toward viral games that ‘emphasize short-term monetization’
Wall Street seems unhappy about improvements to the Roblox recommendation algorithm.
Ethan Gach at Kotaku

Former Icelandic minister joins Fenris Creations to lead new AI partnerships
Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir discusses how she intends to "contribute to the changes AI is bringing" by conducting autonomous AI research in Eve Frontier.
Sophie McEvoy at GamesIndustryBiz

Monetizing a web game on a standalone website: the RocketGoal and Playgama Ad case study
In six months, the game generated over 65 million ad impressions with viewability above 90%.
Mobidictum
 

Competitions:

js13kGames 2026 starts next week

Devvit Gaming Hackathon winners

Girly Game Jam #4 starts today
 

Tools:

LittleJS13k - special js13k branch of LittleJS

Easel update: hotspots and nine slicing
 

Resources:

Help improve Gamedev.js Survey 2026 - provide feedback to questions and answers!

Wavedash Creator Fund
 

Demos:

Ocean shader 6-scene day cycle

Bioelectric consciousness engine

Dweet of the week: drainage vortex
 

Games:

Retro Raid

Underground Football League

Fantasy Online 2
 

Issue #656 - July 31st 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:

Unity brings dedicated engine support to Netflix Games
The engine maker said it wants to help developers produce titles for Netflix's multi-platform ecosystem.
Chris Kerr at Game Developer

Game devs put together an Itch.io bundle of over 100 games with proceeds going to help laid-off colleagues
The Game Industry Hardship Fund bundle contains over 100 games and will be on sale for the next two weeks.
Ash Parrish at Kotaku

"I learnt a tonne about enamel pin manufacturing" - Brigador developer Stellar Jockeys on the secrets of selling video game merchandise
Studio head Hugh Monahan tells us why T-shirts and posters are a bad idea, why pins are a solid bet, and why it's a bad time to be selling lighters internationally.
Alex Forbes-Calvin at GamesIndustryBiz

New AMD Linux patch boosts low-end gaming performance on Steam Deck
Improved efficiency in EPP mode leads to ~32% jump in “1% low” frame rates.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

Star Wars will also be coming to D&D, and I'm worried Hasbro's trying to turn a TTRPG into Magic: The Gathering again
Secret draconic lair.
Harvey Randall at PC Gamer
 

Competitions:

js13kGames 2026 starts in 13 days
 

Tools:

Voxby - synth music tracker built on SoundBox

PhaserJSX: a React-like JSX UI framework for Phaser 4
 

Demos:

Strings

CampFire

Dweet of the week: welcome to the Matrix
 

Games:

The Boop-Ity Suit

A Wish for Another Chance
 

Issue #655 - July 24th 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:

What developers can learn from this generation of game criticism
Hour-long video essays analyzing game design are garnering millions of views. What can developers learn and utilize from the format?
Tim Brinkhof at Game Developer

Hackers quickly prove that Neo Geo Doom ports are not “impossible”
Clever coding and graphical compromises get a classic game on more classic hardware.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

RAMageddon is even ravaging retro gaming hardware makers: ‘this is vastly different to everything else we’ve ever seen’
The makers of Evercade are buying up every component they can way in advance.
Ethan Gach at Kotaku

Modding wizard creates Grand Theft Auto multiverse that lets players travel instantly between Rockstar's first three games: 'We got inter-GTA portals before GTA 6'
"The other game is actually running behind it, it's not a video or a captured window," says mod creator.
Rick Lane at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

Build a HTML5 game like Geometry Dash using Phaser 4 and TypeScript, with a simple custom physics engine
In Geometry Dash, the cube spins through the air and always lands flush on a flat side. It looks like careful rigid-body physics. It isn’t, and the real trick is much simpler.
Emanuele Feronato's blog
 

Competitions:

Last days to join Wavedash Summer Game Jam
 

Tools:

Pixelfalls - modern retro game engine

Phaser 4.2 released
 

Demos:

The life of a singularity

Dithering Perlin squares

Dweet of the week: psychedelic trippy
 

Games:

The Stars of Nelrand

Connect Cars
 

Issue #654 - July 17th 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:

Why releasing games on the web could be right for your studio in 2026
Browser-based games offer a huge audience without storefront restrictions, and can serve as a source of both recurring revenue and platform to explore new markets.
Romy Halfweeg at GamesIndustryBiz

The goal of design is to efficiently communicate ideas
Revisiting Stone Librande's classic One Page Designs GDC talk, for a dose of the good stuff.
Danielle Riendeau at Game Developer

GameStop CEO says physical games are ‘totally irrelevant’
Ryan Cohen also claims that if GameStop and eBay merged it could create a $1 trillion business.
Zack Zwiezen at Kotaku

GTA 6 leaker has been trolling straight out of prison after hospital stay
Arion Kurtaj claims to have access to a burner phone.
Patricia Hernandez at Polygon
 

Tutorials:

Orchestrating enemy AI in a top-down shooter
How I built a complex enemy AI without maintaining spaghetti code.
Rémi Vansteelandt at Substack
 

Tools:

A-Frame 1.8.0: catching up on ThreeJS

Playgama's how-to: raising HTML5 game’s revenue by 10–40% with Advanced Banners
 

Demos:

Blob

Chromophilic

Dweet of the week: Skydreams JS1024 Demo
 

Games:

Roll & Reload

PunFiction
 

Issue #653 - July 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:

Xbox layoffs: jobs lost at Obsidian, Bethesda, Id and Zenimax Online Studios
WARN notice confirms 213 jobs cut at ZeniMax Online Studios in Maryland, 52 Obsidian developers let go in California.
Jon Hicks at GamesIndustryBiz

Wing Commander IV and the FMV future that never quite was
ArsGames takes a look at the time Chris Roberts more or less made a whole movie.
Lee Hutchinson at Ars Technica

PC ports of old console games are the new AI vibe coding battleground
With projects like Donkey Kong 64 Recompiled, human programmers stake a claim on the art and science of retro game recompilation.
Wes Fenlon at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

Web Game Monetization: ad formats, in-game purchases and balanced user experience
Valeria Svistunova, Head of Monetization at Playgama, breaks down how to approach web game monetization in 2026, covering ad logic, in-game purchases, the differences between web and mobile monetization, and how various game genres should implement it.
Valeria Svistunova at Mobidictum
 

Competitions:

Playgama AFK Summer Jam
 

Tools:

Introducing Babylon Lite

Phaser Game Agent MCP: use Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot and more to build games
 

Demos:

Bioluminescent tree

Baroque sunset

Dweet of the week: untitled
 

Games:

The Sundry

Operation Knockback

Not a Trolley Problem
 

Issue #652 - July 3rd 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:

Defold in the middle of 2026 - a summary
The first half of 2026 has been an important period for Defold.
The Defold Foundation

Trolling, memes, and petitions: the fallout over PlayStation killing game discs is everywhere
Even Trevor Noah is posting about it.
Ethan Gach at Kotaku

Godot to ban (almost all) AI coding contributions
Godot will still allow AI assistance like 'code completion, regex, or find and replace.'
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

Creator-distributed discount codes drive massive uptake of game storefronts, according to new Tebex data
Over 80% of players using creator codes are new to the platform; influence overwhelmingly concentrated on top creators.
Jon Hicks at GamesIndustryBiz
 

Events:

WAWTech Summer conference - July 18th in Warsaw, Poland
Grab one free ticket in the #events channel on our Discord.
 

Tools:

190+ indie games have used Play2Review
190+ indie games have used Play2Review to collect recorded sessions, voice commentary, and survey-based feedback from real players during development.

Easel June update: simple vs easy
 

Demos:

Liquid gooey orb shader

Not a Mobius knot

Dweet of the week: js1024 2026 started
 

Games:

Just a Little Longer

Junkbot Repair

CRAB MUSIC