2015/08/14 — issue #84

Gamedev.js Weekly #84

Articles

The js13kGames 2015 competition has started
The next, fourth edition of the js13kGames competition just started – you have a whole month to create an HTML5 game in only 13 kilobytes.
End3r's blog

Quake for Oculus DK2, Direct Mode
The game looks absolutely gorgeous in the DK2, even after all those years. The run speed is still ridiculous, but somehow I don't get sick playing it in the Rift.
Phoboslab's blog

Procedural generation and emergent narrative #3: Murder we wrote
This is the third part on a series of articles about emergent narrative and procedural generation.
Luis Diaz at Gamasutra

The end
Sometimes being in videogames feels like being a bystander at an apocalypse cult meeting.
Rob Remakes' blog

Incomplete testing punished by users
Testing is critical to a game’s success. A technical slip can spell disaster.
Scott Johnston at Spil Games

The exceptional beauty of Doom 3's source code
This is a story about Doom 3’s source code and how beautiful it is. Yes, beautiful. Allow me to explain.
Shawn McGrath at Kotaku

Honest tales from the trenches of AAA game writing
Writing for video games is perhaps the most romanticized discipline in the video game creation process.
Bryant Francis at Gamasutra

Blend4Web, NASA and the Curiosity Rover
To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of Curiosity, the famous Mars rover, landing on the red planet, NASA has developed a web application to reflect the most prominent moments of this space mission.
Blend4Web's blog

Kickstarted game's commercial failure pushes developer to bankruptcy
After a successful Kickstarter that brought the team more than $72,000 and a community of nearly 2,400 backers, it failed to sell enough copies on the open market.
Charlie Hall at Polygon

With Ouya's demise, is the dream of the microconsole dead?
There’s something inherently appealing about the idea of an open game console.
Kris Graft at Gamasutra

Tutorials

Phaser HTML5 game tutorial: build a Pong game 1: project setup
On November 29, 1972, Atari launched it’s first game called Pong. By today’s standards it was a simple two dimensional game that simulates table tennis.
Zeke Chan's blog

Have ads rolling on your Apple and Android apps without a single line of code with FGL Enhance
They are revolutionizing mobile gaming with a service which allows you to include ads in your apps without writing even a single line of code.
Emanuele Feronato's blog

Re-creating Megaman 2 using JavaScript and WebGL
I’m recreating Megaman 2 for NES from scratch in JavaScript using WebGL and write about my discoveries as a newbie game programmer.
Pontus Alexander at Medium

HTML5 Down The Mountain game prototype made with Phaser: actually going down the mountain
After a brief intro about the hexagonal concept behind the game and some basic player movement now it’s time to show you how to actually go down the mountain, with the mountain scrolling like in the original game.
Emanuele Feronato's blog