Gamedev.js Weekly #39

Articles

Clay.io’s $550K funding taps into the growth of games on messaging apps
Kik Messenger may have been a lone wolf pushing HTML5 on mobile, but that’s made it the perfect partner for mobile games marketplace Clay.io.
Kia Kokalitcheva at Venture Beat

Why the Fire HD 6 is the Perfect Game Developer's Companion
The new Fire HD 6 is an excellent gaming device in disguise, as well as the ultimate digital companion for game developers.
Jesse Freeman at Amazon Mobile App Distribution Blog

The story behind Gear VR, and why Oculus wants to go mobile
Hands-on with the Gear VR is a surprisingly compelling experience - and much closer in capability to what you get when using a "real" Oculus headset than you might expect.
Christian Nutt at Gamasutra

Christer Kaitila Interview at TalkIndieGames
Christer Kaitila aka MCFunkyPants is an indie game developer and creator of 1GAM and charitygamejam. TIG talks to him about his work and indie game life.
TalkIndieGames

Creating Epic-Scale Games on an Indie Budget
The trick is to think of an epic-scale game as a small game with a lot of content.
George Moromisato at Gamasutra

14 Games That Will Inspire You To Make Better Color Choices
Indie game developers answer only to themselves. They are free to use aesthetics like color to express themselves. Here is a list of 14 colorful games-in random order- that use the property in cool ways.
Scott Johnston at Spil Games

Matchstick Brings Firefox OS to Your HDTV: Be the First to get a Developer Stick
The first HDMI streaming stick powered by Firefox OS has arrived. It’s called Matchstick and we’re looking for your help to create apps for this new device.
Shawn Bow at MozHacks

Visual revolution of the Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Before I tell you all about how we created such photorealistic assets, let us think about what makes it look real.
Andrzej Poznanski at The Astronauts blog

How to get every game on STEAM for free
This all started on September 4th, when we announced that we were releasing our game on Early Access.
Leszek Lisowski at Gamasutra

10x: Architecture at Clay.io
This is the first post in my new series 10x, where I share my experiences and how we do things at Clay.io to develop at scale with a small team. Also check out What We’ve Been Up To.
Zolmeister blog

Why And How To Hire A Game Designer
It’s common for a guy like me to be hired by a client, only for them not to really know why they did.
Tadhg Kelly at TechCrunch

Tutorials

Upgrading to melonJS 1.1
With the release of melonJS 1.1.0, is time to conduct a upgrade to this new version of the engine, packed with really nice features.
Andre Antonio Schmitz at Cian Games blog

Events

The Cardinal Game Jam

Competitions

Games 4 Doge, a contest to promote use of Dogecoin in games

Tools

Kiwi.JS 1.1.1 reporting for duty

Resources

Full list of Firefox OS devices

Mobile HTML5 Game Development - Design for Performance slides

CodinGame - programming games

Tilemap implementation for Phaser

Chess UI based on the HTML5 Canvas