Issue #670 - November 6th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

My game plays itself so I don't have to
How an automated demo mode for a procedural top-down shooter evolved into a full testing suite, capable of detecting broken levels, running entire campaigns, catching crashes and benchmarking performance without manual playtesting.
Rémi Vansteelandt

The number of game pages doubles on itch.io as AI games flood the store
Itch.io reports that the number of new game pages created daily has doubled in just two months, with generative AI suspected of driving the surge, while downloads and sales have not seen a corresponding increase.
Imran Khan at Game Developer

Valve changes Steam submission rules amid growing game approval delays
A surge in Steam submissions has pushed game approval times from the usual 3-5 days to as many as 12 business days, causing some indie developers to miss their launch dates. Valve has introduced a new release checklist to reduce failed reviews and speed up approvals.
Jay Peters at The Verge
 

Tutorials:

Spreading liquid with Three.js
A detailed walkthrough of creating an interactive liquid-spreading effect using Three.js, fluid simulation, height maps and fragment shaders, based on a real-world cosmetics website project, with a playable demo.
Misaki Nakano at Mofu

A hundred ships in a browser tab, and the four things that stopped it
An engineering postmortem from the browser MMO Zero-G explaining how battles involving over 100 ships exposed server crashes, excessive WebSocket broadcasts and memory pressure, and how the team successfully tested engagements with 150 ships.
Zero-G Engineering
 

Events:

Since AI Hackathon 2026

Dutch Game Week 2026

Graphics Programming Conference 2026
 

Competitions:

Godot Wild Jam #99

2026 Epic AI MegaJam

Tiny Loop Jam 2026
 

Tools:

JetBrains Rider for Godot: one IDE for GDScript, C#, and C++
Explore Rider's support for Godot: GDScript editing, debugging, scene navigation, C# tools, and C++ GDExtensions. Rider is free for non-commercial use.

Aqueous - lossless recompression for already compressed files

Easel now has tilemaps

Three.js r187 released
 

Resources:

Scanned objects GLB - 1,000+ downloadable 3D models

Three-GPU-Pathtracer - GPU-accelerated path tracing for Three.js
 

Demos:

Fold

Prism currents

Dweet of the week: soap bubble
 

Games:

Triple-A Minesweeper

SLYCE

Keepyboo

RoadRival

Glorious Dig
 

Issue #669 - October 30th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Snapchat now supports PlayCanvas games
PlayCanvas games can now run directly inside Snapchat using Web Lenses. Learn how to build, package and publish HTML5 games as Lenses, with examples of the first PlayCanvas games available on the platform.
Will Eastcott at PlayCanvas

The Quake fan who built the map editor everybody uses
The story of Kristian Duske and TrenchBroom, the open source level editor that started as a personal project in 2010 and became a favorite among Quake mappers and developers of modern retro shooters.
func_arena

Isometric Warsaw: how I built a pixel-art map of the whole city with AI agents
How a developer used AI coding agents and open geographic data to build an interactive, browser-based pixel-art map of Warsaw, featuring nearly 200,000 buildings, public transport, changing seasons and even a flight simulator.
Bedirhan Yıldırım

SOFTGAMES turns 20: we're just getting started
From a school project to one of the leading instant games companies, SOFTGAMES celebrates 20 years in business and looks back at its journey through browser games, HTML5 and mobile platforms, now reaching around 2.5 million daily players.
SOFTGAMES

Songs of Hyrule: from a fan's idea to a Three.js mini-game in a few days
A behind-the-scenes look at building an interactive Ocarina of Time experience in Three.js, complete with playable notes, song recognition, a song book and animated fairies, all running directly in the browser.
Thibaut Lefrançois at Codrops
 

Tutorials:

Build a HTML5 gravity-flipping platformer like Gravity Duck with Phaser 4 and TypeScript
A step-by-step guide to recreating the classic Gravity Duck platformer using Phaser 4, TypeScript and Arcade Physics, covering gravity flipping, moving hazards, enemies and all 40 levels, with playable examples and source code.
Emanuele Feronato
 

Competitions:

Game Off 2026

GDevelop BIG Game Jam #10

Official Unity Game Jam 2026
 

Resources:

Steerkit - JavaScript steering behaviors for autonomous characters

Playgama launches AI Game Index to rank coding agents by real player engagement

Meta Connect recap: Horizon Create and Horizon Studio
 

Demos:

Pure (S)CSS synthwave rain

Procedurally generated landscape

Dweet of the week: smoller glass ball
 

Games:

Weball

The Tower is Jammed

Skelestorm

One Fairway Golf

FreeCell Two Decks
 

Issue #668 - October 23rd 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

SpringTale: a roguelike platformer MMO built with Phaser and Colyseus
Edward Vercoe talks about building a shared-world roguelike MMO solo with Phaser, Colyseus and TypeScript, combining procedural maps, permadeath and persistent multiplayer.
Phaser News

Moonlighter developer delays public playtest of next game over concerns of AI cloning
Digital Sun Games has scaled back the public playtest of its upcoming game ReVamp over concerns that generative AI tools could be used to rapidly reverse-engineer and clone the game before release.
Bryant Francis at Game Developer
 

Tutorials:

NacatamalOn HTML5 SameGame powered by samegame-engine, a headless TypeScript class
See how the same headless SameGame engine can move unchanged from Phaser 4 to NacatamalOn, a TypeScript web renderer inspired by the visual style of consoles from the SNES to the GameCube.
Emanuele Feronato

Keeping a JavaScript game engine and its Swift twin in lockstep
How Composition keeps browser and iPhone versions of the same deterministic game simulation synchronized tick-for-tick using integer arithmetic, seeded randomness and automated parity tests.
Composition

Typography that leaves a trace: building scroll-driven ghost trails with GSAP
A walkthrough of creating rippling letters and scroll-driven ghost trails with Canvas 2D, GSAP and Three.js.
Robert Aperios at Codrops
 

Events:

NRG 2026 - Retro Games and Demoscene Festival

Steam Next Fest - October 2026
 

Competitions:

20 Second Game Jam 2026

Solo Dev Jam 13

Backseating Allowed Jam 2026
 

Tools:

LittleJS 1.28.0 - cameras, screen shake and Box2D platforms

New in PlayCanvas Editor: a new projects home, and projects over MCP

Construct 3 r507 beta released
 

Resources:

Pixel RPG Object Actions: 60 one-shots

Bored Blocks - HTML5 block puzzle idle game + full source code
 

Demos:

CSS orbital sphere

Shadow illusion

Dweet of the week: silent dunes
 

Games:

xFPS

Mine Together

Shople

Click Bait

Halloween Games Online
 

Issue #667 - October 16th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Chasing the moment: making a short film for the browser with Three.js and GLSL
A behind-the-scenes look at Chasing the Moment, a cinematic web experience where Three.js and GLSL are used as the set, camera, lighting, and effects for a short film that plays entirely in the browser.
Canberk Polat at Codrops

How to modernize an online game that millions still play
A practical look at modernizing long-running games without breaking years of shipped content, workflows, player habits, and unexpected behaviours that have become part of the experience.
Aliaksandr Zhorau at Software Engineering Daily

Playgama launches a suite of tools that lets AI agents analyze, refine, and update games on their own
Playgama is expanding its agentic game-development tooling with a loop where AI agents can publish browser games, analyze real player data, improve the game, and deploy an updated build.
Sam Smith at GamesBeat

Introducing Xbox Labs
Microsoft introduces Xbox Labs, a new initiative exploring emerging game technology including compatibility, decompilation, preservation, AI-assisted creation, and bringing games to new platforms through technologies such as WebAssembly and WebGPU.
Asha Sharma at Xbox Wire
 

Tutorials:

Understanding Phaser's EXPAND scale mode
Learn how Phaser's EXPAND scale mode can fill screens of different shapes without black bars or cropping while keeping gameplay dimensions consistent through a fixed world area and camera zoom.
Emanuele Feronato's blog
 

Events:

Game Industry Conference 2026

GAConf USA 2026
 

Competitions:

Human Testing Jam

The Monster Bash
 

Tools:

New in PlayCanvas Editor: gravity scale, the Inspector, and splat budget mode

Defold adds support for Microsoft Xbox

Construct 3 r506 stable released

CSS cubic-bezier to Spine 4.2 curve converter

Pixel to 3D Batch Builder
 

Demos:

Sand bottle

Charms

Dweet of the week: zebra hills
 

Games:

Mona's Bug Bash

Tiefenrausch

UnderTen

Coronet Arcade
 

Issue #666 - October 9th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Introducing Playground: create and play custom games
Google introduces Playground, an experimental platform for creating, playing, and sharing custom games directly in the browser using text prompts, with no coding experience required.
Maryam Karimzadehgan at Google

A wild shift is happening in how games are being made and distributed
Anul Agarwal looks at how new AI models are enabling non-developers to build increasingly polished browser games with technologies like Three.js, while changing both development and distribution workflows.
Anul Agarwal at X

Valve will make $20 billion this year via Steam, and it owes developers big-time
With Steam reportedly on track for $20 billion in game sales this year, John Walker argues Valve could do far more for developers, from reducing its revenue cut to improving discovery and reviews.
John Walker at Kotaku
 

Tutorials:

Integrating ECS into existing mass-market games: a practical engineering guide
A practical guide to introducing Entity Component System architecture into established live games without rewriting the engine, covering legacy interoperability, scripting, migration, and engineering trade-offs.
Aliaksandr Zhorau at MCV/DEVELOP

Interlude: a starter for custom page transitions in Astro
A starter for custom GSAP-powered transitions using Astro's own client router, with 21 examples ranging from simple covers to WebGL effects built with Three.js and TSL.
Manoela Ilic at Codrops
 

Events:

Inside the first Three.js Conference in Paris

GDEX 2026

Roguelike Celebration 2026
 

Competitions:

js13kGames 2026 winners announced

Patch Notes v2.0

Trijam #393: the 3 hour game jam

Spooky 2D Jam '26
 

Tools:

PixiJS skills - official AI skills for PixiJS

PlayCanvas Engine v2.23.0 released

ForgeSprite sprite sheet cutter

Riggy Spine JSON validator

Data-driven games: Easel October 2026 update
 

Resources:

What 45K+ browser games reveal about the market

Awesome AI-built games - a curated list of vibe-coded games
 

Demos:

The core

Sliced gooey text

Dweet of the week: reversiology
 

Videos:

Jupi Plays Indie Games: all the games from js13kGames 2026, part 2 (also part 3 and part 4)

Zanzlanz: how I released a game that has no assets
 

Games:

The Old Coin

Star Hop

Master Blaster
 

Issue #665 - October 2nd 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

You can now play Halo CE in your web browser
An unofficial port of the original Halo: Combat Evolved now runs directly in the browser, including the campaign and multiplayer support.
Sam Woods at TheGamer

42% of the games from last year's Vibe Jam are already offline
A look at more than 2,000 Vibe Jam entries shows how quickly experimental web games disappear, and why static hosting tends to survive much better than custom domains and server-dependent projects.
Michael Scheiwiller's blog

Launching mobile FPS on HTML5 platforms and a standalone website: Hazmob FPS and Playgama deep dive
The team behind HTML5 FPS Hazmob shares its journey from reaching 1.2 million monthly play sessions on MSN to running its own standalone website, which now draws about 120,000 visits a month.
Mobidictum
 

Tutorials:

WebXR tutorial: getting started with Three.js and no game engine
Learn how to turn a Three.js scene into a browser-based VR experience, add controller and hand input, and get started with WebXR without Unity, an app store, or a native build pipeline.
NewsNix

The file is in your ZIP, why does itch still return 403?
A practical look at why HTML5 games can request a different path from the one actually stored in their ZIP, and how Asset Match can uncover capitalization, path, and missing-file problems.
Pebblefold at itch.io
 

Competitions:

LittleJS Jam 3

GameDev.tv Halloween Jam 2026

Wholesome Games Game Jam 2026
 

Tools:

SliceForge - game UI you can actually ship

Voxella Lite - voxel editing for Blender

Defold 1.13.2 released
 

Demos:

Realistic interactive pool water

Line 2 node material

Dweet of the week: symbiotic spirals
 

Videos:

Jupi Plays Indie Games: all the games from js13kGames 2026, part 1

Frank Force at Game Dev Advice: stop waiting for perfect, start shipping games
 

Games:

Smush Fighter

Dolly Parton Clicker
 

Issue #664 - September 25th 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:

A browser arcade in plain TypeScript: 8 classic games, 35 kB, no framework
A retro browser arcade featuring eight classic games built with plain TypeScript and Canvas 2D, with zero runtime dependencies and a complete build weighing about 35 kB gzipped.
Minjia Hu at DevTo

10M gameplays in two months: how BMG: Ragdoll Car Race scaled on YouTube Playables with Playgama
The HTML5 game BMG: Ragdoll Car Race reached 10 million play sessions in two months on YouTube Playables. The story breaks down exactly how it got there and follows the journey of its solo developer at Crimson Games.
Kate Ilicheva at Playgama

How we took a PixiJS map from 33.9 s to 3.0 s on a slow phone
A detailed performance postmortem explaining how a PixiJS city map cut its mobile loading screen from almost 34 seconds to 3 seconds through asset optimization, deferred loading, streaming, and careful GPU memory management.
Denshin Team's blog

Dueling industry surveys show Japanese game devs are embracing AI, while North American ones are still skeptical
New surveys show a sharp contrast in generative AI adoption, with 85.8% of surveyed Japanese developers reporting AI use compared with 36% of respondents to the 2026 GDC survey.
Ted Litchfield at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

Introduction to 3D Gaussian Splatting with Three.js
Learn how to capture a real-world object with a smartphone, export it as Gaussian Splatting data, clean it up, and display it directly in Three.js using its new WebGPU-powered 3DGS support.
Norihiro Narayama at ICS MEDIA
 

Events:

This Monday: JetBrains GameDev Day 2026 with Meta, AWS, Hytale, and more
Dive into game production workflows, from ECS migrations and Unreal profiling to AI, CI, version control, and debugging. Free to watch online.

JSNation US 2026 - November 16 in New York and online
 

Competitions:

Quantum Game Jam 2026 starts today
 

Tools:

Brainloot - project management for game teams

AnimGen - AI animation generator for game sprites

Spritesheets.ai - AI sprite sheet generator
 

Demos:

Hopf fibration

Puppet on strings

Dweet of the week: drawing a beating heart
 

Games:

Robot Rivals

ZigZag

EKO: Chapter 1
 

Issue #663 - September 18th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Roblox expands tools to help creators build, distribute games
Roblox plans to let creators distribute games as standalone apps across mobile, PC and consoles, while also bringing browser-based play and expanding its AI-powered creation tools.
Anzar Mehraj at Reuters

Draft of new EU law proposes sweeping restrictions on online games
The proposed EU KIDS Act could extend new child-safety rules to online games, potentially affecting retention mechanics, communication between minors and other users, age assurance, and monetization systems.
Andreas Lober at GamesIndustryBiz

The White House made a "Tetris" clone, the Tetris Company was not amused
The White House removed its Tetris-like "Build the Wall" browser game after The Tetris Company said it had not authorized or licensed the Tetris brand or intellectual property for the project.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica
 

Tutorials:

Introducing MTLX - MaterialX tools for the web
A look at MTLX, a pure TypeScript and JavaScript toolkit for parsing, validating, packaging, transforming, and previewing MaterialX files directly on the web and in Node.js.
Ben Houston's blog

Understanding raycasting in 2D games, and using it with a free commented open source JavaScript library
Learn how raycasting can handle vision cones, fog of war, bullets, collisions and more in 2D games, accompanied by a lightweight open source JavaScript library and ten interactive examples.
Emanuele Feronato's blog
 

Events:

Game production, unpacked: JetBrains GameDev Day 2026
Join developers from AWS, Meta, Hytale, and more for practical talks on game engines, AI, debugging, performance, tooling, and CI. Free online on September 28.

React Summit US 2026 - November 17-20 in New York and online
 

Competitions:

Defold Game Jam 2026
 

Tools:

ArmorPaint 1.0 is out after eight years in early access

PlayCanvas' SuperSplat Editor 3.0 rebuilt on WebGPU
 

Resources:

Built a game with AI? Get your first players and ad revenue with Playgama MCP

Best web game platforms for indie developers: where Bounty Board Arcade fits
 

Demos:

Fractal tunnel

Tides - a cinematic canvas ocean

Dweet of the week: ripple remix hi-res
 

Games:

Rectweave
 

Issue #662 - September 11th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

This official IKEA mod for Skyrim adds its famous Kallax shelf to hold your inventory
IKEA has released KALLAX STORAGEBORN, a free official Skyrim mod that turns its iconic shelving unit into a fully voiced companion capable of carrying your loot, complete with new quests, dungeons, items, and a shout.
Simon Batt at XDA

Seven terabytes of terrain that never exists
How browser-based space MMO Zero-G generates detailed planetary terrain client-side only where the player is looking, turning what could require terabytes of data into just a few megabytes in memory.
Zero-G

After years of company stalling, Blizzard workers win mega-contract that applies to all unionized teams
Blizzard workers have secured a contract covering 1,900 unionized employees across teams including Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and Hearthstone, with protections covering layoffs, remote work, wages, and AI.
Nathan Grayson at Aftermath
 

Tutorials:

Breaking the frame: building a real-time datamosh effect with Three.js
A hands-on exploration of how Three.js, shaders, motion vectors, feedback buffers, and codec-inspired techniques can turn a scene transition into a convincing real-time datamosh effect.
Niccolò Fanton at Codrops
 

Competitions:

More than 300 entries submitted to js13kGames 2026
 

Tools:

Knit of Shadows - free game-dev tools for fantasy environment art

GLB handoff samples

FrameSprite's free online sprite sheet generator
 

Demos:

Follow me sphere

Magnetic attraction

Dweet of the week: untitled
 

Games:

Opusfived

Lab Rats
 

Issue #661 - September 4th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Irish browser games start-up Entity raises $5M in funding for 'console-quality games for the new web era'
Dublin-based Entity has raised $5 million to build a browser gaming platform powered by WebGPU and WebAssembly, aiming to deliver console-quality games without downloads or installs.
Nicole Carpenter at Game Developer

How HeartBeast shipped a game in 4 months
Matt Hackett looks at HeartBeast's rapid development process and the lessons learned from prototyping, keeping scope small, using existing assets, and shipping fast.
Matt Hackett at Valadria

The games industry is stifled by a culture of fear
A workgroup hosted by Rami Ismail argues that risk-averse decision-making, trend chasing, and excessive reliance on market research are stifling creativity across the games industry.
Lewis Packwood at GamesIndustryBiz
 

Tutorials:

The depths of JavaScript: Minesweeper in 247 bytes
A deep dive into code golfing a functional browser version of Minesweeper down to just 247 characters of JavaScript.
Yui's blog

HTML5 game performance: holding 60 FPS on mobile
A practical guide to keeping HTML5 games running smoothly on mobile by avoiding hot-path allocations, reducing garbage collection, pooling objects, and keeping rendering costs under control.
NixieFX team
 

Competitions:

Less than 9 days to submit your entry into js13kGames 2026

Uplifting Game Jam 9
 

Tools:

Rapid.js - a lightweight WebGL 2D renderer

1BITDRAGON 5 released

Photon Fusion Multiplayer for Defold + sample 3D platformer
 

Demos:

Little creature

Low-poly neon village

Dweet of the week: uptown
 

Games:

Plant Shop

Clear Sequence