Issue #650 - June 19th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Vampire Survivors dev 'reviewing' Fortnite collab after Epic's AI announcement
Poncle voiced its doubts mere hours after the collaboration's announcement.
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

Pokémon Go players unwittingly contributed to tech with military drone uses
The repurposing of Pokémon Go data for AI training continues to draw scrutiny.
Jeremy Hsu at Ars Technica

Steam Controller demand is so high that new reservations won't be fulfilled until 2027
The queue system has been tweaked to give more useful shipping estimations, but they're not encouraging.
Shaun Prescott at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

Fish pond workshop with PixiJS
We are going to build a virtual pond and fill them with a number of colorful fishes. In the process, we will be learning about basic manipulation of Sprites, TilingSprite and Filter, specifically the Displacement Filter.
PixiJS Tutorials
 

Competitions:

Countdown to js13kGames 2026
 

Tools:

Do new players understand your onboarding?
Get fresh playtests from real players and see whether your tutorial, controls, first minutes, and core mechanics actually make sense before you launch.

Rivalis - open-source real-time framework for Node.js

Phaser 4.2.0 released: Mesh2D, Stencil Rendering and AlphaStrategy
 

Demos:

Mediterranean drift

Sub-quantum cellular automata

Dweet of the week: untitled
 

Videos:

Chong-U: vibe coding an entire Street Fighter game with AI (Cursor, Codex, Opus 4.8)

The PrimeTime: the craziest coding contest ever
 

Games:

In the Hall of the Gear Machines

Draft Punks

Orb Knight
 

Issue #649 - June 12th 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:

Introducing the Web Games Industry Market Map (2026)
The Map is accompanied by a description of the 120+ companies, key market players, and essential services.
Playgama's Wiki

Why a Neo Geo port of Doom is functionally impossible
Sprite-based graphics architecture makes first-person 3D a challenge.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

Rebellion's Atomfall is being turned into a TV series
Two Brothers' Harry and Jack Williams are leading the adaptation.
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

An ‘actual burning of Alexandria moment’: RPG Maker users scramble to preserve 14 years of important resources
An unquantifiable amount of RPG Maker resources are now at risk of being lost forever as a result of RPG Maker Forum's closure.
Lewis Parker at Kotaku
 

Tutorials:

Catlantean 3D - making graphics like it's 1993
Catlantean 3D is a side-project I've been slowly building in my spare time for over a year, and I intend to release it on Steam next year.
Marko Stanic's blog
 

Tools:

Watch real players get stuck in your game
Play2Review gives you recorded gameplay, voice commentary, and structured surveys so you can spot confusion, frustration, and player drop-offs before launch.

MiniPixelFont generator
 

Demos:

Dot grid

Sand bottle

Dweet of the week: generative scene
 

Games:

Kobots

Weeds and Wires

Machine Disco
 

Issue #648 - June 5th 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:

How the Replaced devs fixed display bloat with a stylish gadget
The Wingman was 'born out of design necessity.'
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

Valve confirms Steam Machine will ship this summer
The company also confirmed that its standalone VR headset will arrive in that same timeframe.
Zack Zwiezen at Kotaku

Netflix's FIFA replacement hopes to reboot the franchise during the World Cup
The kick the series needs.
Giovanni Colantonio at Polygon

September becomes a pile-up as publishers swerve to avoid GTA 6
Publishers sometimes talk themselves into believing their game doesn't directly compete with others – but four big hitters in ten days spells commercial chaos.
Rob Fahey at GamesIndustryBiz
 

Tutorials:

Using Godot 3 C# for web export for game jams
To save others time I made a tutorial for using C# + Godot 3 for web export, since I had some trouble figuring out how to do it.
Enigma2728 at Reddit
 

Competitions:

Where's My Oats

LittleJS Game Jam 3

Gamedev.js Jam 2027
 

Tools:

Bitmap Font Generator

Easel May update: spaces and shapes
 

Resources:

Participate in a JetBrains Survey to Help Shape Game Development
JetBrains is running a short survey to understand the workflows, tools, and challenges of game developers today. You’ll get the chance to win one of five USD 50 Amazon Gift Cards or a one-year All Products Pack subscription for personal use.

Demos:

Fibi sphere

Compiled ∃ test

Dweet of the week: ex nihilo
 

Games:

Rage Against The Sapiens

Heck Tech

Codepath()
 

Issue #647 - May 29th 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:

20 years of blogging: a two-decade journey through web gaming history
I want to use this milestone to look back at the incredible, volatile, and fascinating evolution of web gaming from 2006 to today; a history that this blog has had the privilege of documenting step by step.
Emanuele Feronato's blog

Global Game Jam launches micro-grant program to support indies and emerging talent
The non-profit organization wants to unite indie studios with aspiring professionals by facilitating paid micro-projects.
Chris Kerr at Game Developer

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney dunks on Gabe Newell raising Steam Deck prices while flaunting $500 million super yacht
Then people turned around and dunked on Sweeney for laying off 1,000 employees.
Ethan Gach at Kotaku

Xbox delays Fable reboot to steer clear of GTA 6 and other 2026 games
The fantasy RPG is now expected to launch in early 2027.
Austin Manchester at Polygon

Windows’ classic 3D Space Cadet pinball is getting a physical re-creation
But there are some real-world constraints that virtual pinball could easily ignore.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica
 

Tutorials:

How web games get millions of plays on YouTube
Playgama, the #1 YouTube Playables distributor with 100M+ gameplays, shares a detailed guide to launching your game successfully.
Playgama Platforms

Tools:

Phaser Desktop: a game-making workstation

PlayCanvas' SuperSplat: software attribution, collision generation and GPU-powered histogram
 

Demos:

Dreamwave galaxy

Shadow play

Dweet of the week: daydream
 

Games:

Bauhaus Builder

BUILDOBAN

Robo Dance
 

Issue #646 - May 22nd 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

"People want MMOs, and the sales of New World proved it" - Cryptic Studios head Jack Emmert on why MMOs are ripe for reinvention
"I think that the idea that the MMO crowd doesn't exist is belied by the number of players who are still in World of Warcraft".
Lewis Packwood at GamesIndustryBiz

LATAM indie devs lay out how to improve your text animation
Want people to read your text? Juice it up.
Bryant Francis at Game Developer

The internet reacts to the end of Bungie’s sci-fi MMO Destiny
Saying it's the end of an era feels like an understatement.
Ethan Gach at Kotaku

Everyone’s a loser in Strait of Hormuz game that simulates global crisis
The game asks players to find the least worst options for a shipping chokepoint.
Jeremy Hsu at Ars Technica
 

Tutorials:

HTML5 game Spears N’ Coins with Phaser 4.1 and TypeScript: a tiny endless runner like Dashy Panda
Collect stuff and avoid spikes. It’s Dashy Panda‘s gameplay, and I just built a HTML5 game with the same mechanics called Spears N’ Coins.
Emanuele Feronato's blog
 

Tools:

GameMaker launches GMRT: the runtime professional developers have been waiting for

Three.js r184 released
 

Demos:

Yotta

Parallelizable cloth simulation

Dweet of the week: VHS
 

Games:

Dynamine
 

Issue #645 - May 15th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Video codecs are a nightmare for game developers, but there's no solution in sight
Developers sometimes take extraordinary measures to make videos play in video games.
Diego Argüello at Game Developer

"The old school publishing model is dead" - Silver Lining Interactive joins the new wave of pick and mix publishers
"It's the most open market I've ever seen, where anyone can do whatever they want," says founder Luke Keighran.
Lewis Packwood at GamesIndustryBiz

The workers behind MTG Arena say success hasn’t protected them from instability
Organizers speak out ahead of a pivotal June election.
Corey Plante at Polygon

Baldur's Gate 2 almost had a 'time travel plot', letting you visit an alternate future where BG1's main villain rules the Sword Coast
Sadly Sarevok never got his do-over.
Fraser Brown at PC Gamer
 

Tutorials:

WebGL and Three.js: building 3D web experiences that actually perform
We are going to cover the full pipeline from scene setup to deployment, with specific optimization techniques we use in our own projects - including work that feeds into our Adellion Forge asset pipeline.
Simplified Media
 

Competitions:

Gamedev.js Jam 2026 winners announced

Best entries from the Challenges in Gamedev.js Jam 2026

New Gamedev.js Jam 2026 t-shirt: Machines
 

Tools:

GemShell - HTML5 games to native apps

PixiJS 8.17 released
 

Demos:

Grid run

Modern visual

Dweet of the week: organic spiral
 

Games:

8-Bit Tennis
 

Issue #644 - May 8th 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

Indie games have built a thriving economy in territory traditional publishers abandoned or ignored
Godot's growth figures and Steam revenue data show that far from being a sideshow, indie gaming is a slow-burning revolution.
Rob Fahey at GamesIndustryBiz

Google DeepMind partners with EVE Online for AI model testing
Move comes as CCP Games spends $120M to go independent, rebrands as Fenris Creations.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

True permadeath: you can never play this game again if you let its immortal snail assassin touch your mouse pointer
The meme where a killer snail slowly but relentlessly pursues you is coming to your desktop.
Christopher Livingston at PC Gamer

'Not-for-profit' biz models can make for better showcases, say Triple-i Initiative organizers
Focusing on covering costs instead of profits can build a better marketing engine.
Bryant Francis at Game Developer
 

Tutorials:

How to publish your web games on Xiaomi Game Center and access a new audience beyond saturated platforms
We’ll explore all the basics of distributing and publishing web games to Xiaomi Game Center and share results after testing 600+ games to give you a hint at which titles are best suited for this platform and what you can expect in terms of revenue.
Pavel Polovinka at Playgama
 

Tools:

Easel with the physics engine with incremental rollback

Phaser Editor v5 is here: AI integration and full Phaser 4 support

Defold 1.12.4 released
 

Demos:

GameBoy

Another world

Dweet of the week: forest with lakes
 

Games:

Tiny Towers

The Red Pearls of Borneo
 

Issue #643 - May 1st 2026

Weekly newsletter about Web Game Development.
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Articles:

'We've been a little bit too romantic:' Ustwo CEO says lowering development costs is now paramount
How the Monument Valley studio will be charting a path forward on PC and consoles.
Chris Kerr at Game Developer

I’m tired of sneaking through tall grass in games
A lot of time in games like Assassin's Creed or Horizon Zero Dawn I'm just rolling from one patch of tall grass to another and I'm getting bored.
Zack Zwiezen at Kotaku

Roblox reports strong Q1 growth, revises full-year forecast due to new saftey measures
Average DAUs rose 35% YoY to 132 million, while monthly unique payers increased 52% to 31 million.
Sophie McEvoy at GamesIndustryBiz

What my zen week with a virtual power-washer taught me about gaming – and life
Some of the most popular simulator games are outlandishly boring. But curiously, it’s satisfying to complete pointless tasks when the stakes are so low.
Imogen West-Knights at The Guardian
 

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:

Almost 500 games submitted to Gamedev.js Jam 2026
 

Tools:

Slowmo - slow down, pause, or speed up time of any web content

Phaser 4 renderer: faster, cleaner, and built for modern games
 

Demos:

Ball pool

Three.js hologram effect

Dweet of the week: Sierpinski metamorphosis - butterfly ant spider angel
 

Games:

John Mambo
 

Issue #642 - April 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:

Super Mario Galaxy Movie surpasses $755m globally, becomes highest-grossing film of 2026
Mario animated film franchise has surpassed $2 billion at the global box office.
Sophie McEvoy at GamesIndustryBiz

Microsoft is working to eliminate PC gaming’s “compiling shaders” wait times
Advanced Shader Delivery uses precompiled shaders for “console-like load times” across PC hardware.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

Nintendo is being sued by customers seeking tariff refunds
Two consumers based in the United States claim the Switch maker has unjustly benefited from tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
Chris Kerr at Game Developer

The Bafta games awards showed me again that honouring art over commerce is a win for all
From mega hit Clair Obscur to the genius Blue Prince, the winners at this year’s event help me refocus on why games really matter.
Keza MacDonald at The Guardian
 

Tutorials:

Phaser 4 HTML5 SameGame powered by samegame-engine, a headless TypeScript class
This time I built a headless SameGame engine written in TypeScript, ready for you to get from GitHub, then I launched the Phaser create-game app, let it build the template, updated to Phaser 4 and wrote my new SameGame version.
Emanuele Feronato's blog
 

Competitions:

Gamedev.js Jam 2026 ends in two days

Green Game Jam 2026
 

Tools:

Defold 1.12.3 released

Construct 3 r478 released

CopyPxl - AI bitmap font generator
 

Demos:

Floaties

Submerge

Dweet of the week: 3D vase spin
 

Games:

GOTO Town
 

Issue #641 - April 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:

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