Gamedev.js Weekly #98

If you have anything you want to share with the HTML5 game development community please let me know by sending an email to andrzej.mazur@end3r.com.
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Articles

Using the Gamepad API in web games
The Gamepad API is a relatively new piece of technology that allows us to access the state of connected gamepads using JavaScript, which is great news for HTML5 game developers.
Charlie Walter at Smashing Magazine

WebVR: mixing HTML and WebGL
Over the past few years, it has become increasingly obvious that virtual reality is going to be revolutionary.
Michael Staub's blog

Meet Nina Freeman, the punk poet of gaming
Video games don’t have to be about death and warfare. Emotional, intimate and sexually frank, Nina Freeman’s relationship-led adventures are revolutionising the genre.
Keith Stuart at The Guardian

5 tips for designing great game characters
Game characters are key to a game’s success. Players relate to well-designed characters which makes the game experience feel real.
Scott Johnston at Spil Games

Full Circle: what devs want to know from publishers
In the first in a new series of interviews, we find out what a developer would ask a publisher.
James Batchelor at Develop Online

Players love endless runners, lucky you there’s an upcoming book about them
According to a research ran by deltaDNA, one of the best companies in game analytics, a game genre both male and female players like are is endless runner.
Emanuele Feronato's blog

Game Development 101: creating urgency
How fast should your plot points flow? What is the perfect balance of action and rest? These questions are all elements of pacing - the intensity of your game.
Michael Murphy at Black Shell Media

Google just open sourced TensorFlow, its artificial intelligence engine
Tech pundit Tim O’Reilly had just tried the new Google Photos app, and he was amazed by the depth of its artificial intelligence.
Cade Metz at Wired

Tutorials

Creation of an HTML5 game like Radical using Phaser and Arcade Physics – step 1
Today it’s the time of Radical by BeaverTap Games, the guys behind Mikey Hooks which was also been covered in a series of tutorials.
Emanuele Feronato's blog

Texture formats for 2D games, part 1
When making a large scale 2D game like Swords and Soldiers II or Awesomenauts using the right texture formats can make a big difference for visual quality, video memory, loading times and download size.
Joost's Dev Blog

Game distribution
This article covers all you need to know about the ways in which you can distribute your newly created game into the wild. This includes hosting it yourself online, submitting it to open marketplaces and closed ones like Google Play or the iOS App Store.
MDN Games

Competitions

Node Knockout winners announced

Tools

Goo.js goes open source

AllegroJS, a HTML5 game making library

Videos

Talk at MediterráneaJS 2015 – Game development with JS and Phaser

Podcasts

a16z Podcast: artificial intelligence and the space of possible minds

Games

The Curse of Oak Island