2015/10/09 — issue #92

Gamedev.js Weekly #92

Articles

Business skills for freelance developers
I'm going to look at six key business skills that I believe all freelancers need. Some of these you may have used in a previous job, if you were an employee, while others you may have to learn from scratch.
Rachel McCollin at Tuts+ Business

On Indiepocalypse: what is really killing indie games
As you might have heard, indie games are heading towards the extinction, despite the fact that we’re now seeing more indie games released than ever.
Sergey Galyonkin at Medium

What design lessons can we learn from crossy road?
Having reached the significant milestone of 100 million downloads last week, I’d like to take a look at some lessons in design that we can learn from what is one of the most successful mobile games of the last few years.
Jair McBain at Gamasutra

Fact: people love space cows
Unsung Heroes Competition PocketGamerCoUK vote-winner grabs the public’s heart and an iPad.
Scott Johnston at Spil Games

Super Mario Maker crushed my dreams of making video games
I'd dreamed about making Nintendo games since I was 6 years old, but when the company gave me the chance to prove a game design genius lived under my skin, I flopped.
Sean Buckley at Engadget

When artificial intelligence in video games becomes... artificially intelligent
Artificial intelligence in video games helps bring virtual worlds to life; it lurks beneath the surface, determining the way a player interacts with a game. As the brains of a game, AI engages our brains.
Kris Graft at Gamasutra

Jam favorites: JS13KGames Jam
Some fantastic JavaScript games with tiny file sizes!
Jupiter Hadley at Gamejolt Fireside

Tutorials

Phaser texture atlas tutorial – how to make awesome sprites from scratch
There are plenty of sites where you can find free images for your games, but sometimes it can be difficult to find what you’re looking for.
Kristen Dyrr at GameDev Academy

Snake game using Cocos2d-x HTML5
Learn how to create true cross platform 2d game that works with same source code on mobile web and desktop using Javascript.
Meir Yanovich at Cross Platform Game Development Tutorials

Give your HTML5 game menu a nice bounce effect with Phaser
I decided to add a little universal “menu” icon at the bottom of the screen which moves a group with menu items some pixels to the top.
Emanuele Feronato's blog