Gamedev.js Weekly #81

Articles

Making great VR: six lessons learned from I Expect You To Die
I believe that after a massive flurry of VR hype in 2016, VR devices will be on the market indefinitely.
Jesse Schell at Gamasutra

Why the full-time indie game development dream is dead
It's rough, but the problem is that the supply of game developers and games is steadily increasing to the point that most additional games added to the app stores don't matter.
Carter Dotson at Pocket Gamer

125 things I learned while developing games
I'm not that good at making constructive stories, so I'll provide you with a handy bullet-list about stuff I've learned over the past few years.
Steven Honders at Gamasutra

Augmented Reality in the browser with AweJS
Augmented reality is a neat concept. We take a view of the world around us and supplement it with images, text, sound and video.
Patrick Catanzariti at Sitepoint

22 games represent the best Unsung Heroes
The Unsung Heroes Competition has reached the semi-final stage with 22 games being selected to go to a public vote before the judges come to a decision about the winner.
Scott Johnston at Spil Games

Making and selling visual novels and dating sims
Although both visual novels and dating sims have been gaining popularity in western markets, many people still don't know exactly what they are or, more likely, have the wrong idea about them.
Celso Riva at Gamasutra

Announcing the Amazon cross-platform mobile ads API
We are excited to announce that our new Amazon Cross-Platform Mobile Ads API Plugin is now available for Unity, Cordova, Adobe AIR and Xamarin.
Jesse Freeman at Amazon Developer

Kongregate's new Launchpad program aims to take web games mobile
Online game platform Kongregate is now getting deeper into the publishing game with Launchpad, an incubator program for indie game makers aimed at helping them design, fund and promote their game on the web.
Alex Wawro at Gamasutra

Learning to love the narrative puzzle
Narrative puzzles don't need to be convoluted, but rather, they require a more conscientious and responsible game design strategy.
Clara Fernández-Vara at Game Design Aspect of the Month

Tutorials

I open-sourced my Phaser-powered HTML5 game
Building CanyonRunner was a tremendous amount of fun, thanks largely to Richard Davey's excellent Phaser framework. Along the way, I was assisted by many helpful Phaser community members and developers, so I wanted to give back.
Zack Proser's blog

The hexagonal concept behind iOS blockbuster Down The Mountain
I already showed you how to create the prototype of another game made by Umbrella guys, the funny Boom Dots, and this is the time to have a quick look at their new blockbuster, Down The Mountain.
Emanuele Feronato's blog

A beginner's guide to coding graphics shaders: part 3
Having mastered the basics of shaders, we take a hands-on approach to harnessing the power of the GPU to create realistic, dynamic lighting.
Omar Shehata at Tuts+ Game Development

Arduino NodeJS RC car driven with the HTML5 Gamepad API
We constantly see developers pushing the limits of JavaScript; mobile and desktop applications, 3D games and so much more... but it’s a different story to connect a USB racing wheel to the browser and read it with the HTML5 Gamepad API and drive a Radio Controlled toy car through WebSockets and a NodeJS server.
Mate Marschalko at WebOnDevices

Tools

OortOnlineGL, an online WebGL benchmark application

Resources

12 pixel art masterpieces for your inspiration

Demos

Endtime - procedurally generated world with day and night cycle

Podcasts

How to self-promote without feeling like a loser

Games

Tasty Carrot