Gamedev.js Weekly #122

Articles

Creating explorers not experts
When most people pick-up Phaser, the main thought going through their mind is "let's make a game". However when I code a game I find it virtually impossible to do this.
Richard Davey at Patreon

Best performance tips and tricks for your HTML5 Canvas games
I will go over some tips and tricks for improving the performance of rendering to the canvas, and debunk some myths about getting a higher FPS.
Firenibbler's blog

Why so many smart people aren’t happy
It’s a paradox: shouldn’t the most accomplished be well equipped to make choices that maximize life satisfaction?
Joe Pinsker at The Atlantic

How big a deal is it to get featured by Apple? This big
Mobile game developers are used to hearing that being featured by Apple offers a big boost to their downloads and, ultimately, to their success. But how big?
Christian Nutt at Gamasutra

Space Pirate Trainer studio on what VR devs can learn from Max Payne and Galaga
Space Pirate Trainer takes some of gaming’s most revolutionary mechanics and uses them to push the next generation of VR forwards.
Matthew Jarvis at Develop

Zynga now worth less than its own office building
After a long spate of difficulties with its product strategy and business model, the gaming company Zynga is now worth less than the office building in which it resides.
Halting Problem at Medium

Jobs

Senior game programmer at PlayCanvas
Looking for a top flight game programmer to lead an exciting WebGL game project.

Freelance JavaScript game and app devs at Photon Storm
Looking to bolster the team of freelancers with some new devs.

Tutorials

Create a HTML5 level select screen controlled by swipe – new features: bug fixes and animation when selecting locked levels
I wanted to add a new feature to make level thumbnails shake if the player selects a locked level.
Emanuele Feronato's blog

Super Pacman - Superpowers game development series #5
Learn creative development while revisiting video game history.
Michael Seyne at GitBook

Understanding HTML5 sprite animation with Phaser
While I can’t teach you how to create woderful sprite animations I can show you how to manage animations in your HTML5 games with Phaser.
Emanuele Feronato's blog

Tools

Pixi Tile Utilities with full support for isometric maps

Phaser Editor v1.1.3 is available

Demos

Smoke using perlin noise, tone maps, and blending

Heat distortion effect

Games

King of Thieves