2024/02/09 — issue #527

Beta releases, CSS-only games, and Moai Alley

Articles

Disney invests $1.5B in Epic Games, plans new “games and entertainment universe”
Major move continues Disney's decadeslong up-and-down relationship with gaming.
Kyle Orland at Ars Technica

What happened with the Web Monetization API?
I was pretty hot on it for a minute. I wanted it to succeed and thought it had the bones to make it. Coil was the main startup trying to push it. They did the right thing by just making it work first, showing there is interest, then pushing to get it standardized.
Chris Coyier's blog

The impact of 16,000 games industry layoffs, in one chart
Game developers share personal stories of how the 2023-2024 layoffs have affected them.
Ted Litchfield and Wes Fenlon at PC Gamer

Game developers, don't give up on your bad sketches
Generative AI art tools make it easy to whip up images for concepts and storyboarding. But don't throw out your pen and paper just yet.
Bryant Francis at Game Developer

Tutorials

Build a HTML5 game like Watermelon Game using Phaser and Box2D powered by Planck.js – step 2: adding delays and explosions
I wanted matches to create a little explosion, pushing away the balls near the center of the explosion. It’s not necessary, but I want merging balls to merge with some kind of explosion effect.
Emanuele Feronato's blog

JiGS, Drupal and Content Modelling
Today I want to discuss Content-driven development based on Drupal's Content Modelling, the foundation on which JiGS in-content engine is built.
Techbot at E=MC23