Newsletter – Issue 030

🔥 Headlines

😺 Crashcat is Isaac Mason’s new physics engine. With rigid body simulation, raycasts, shapecasts, constraints, and CCD, it’s a tree-shakable and library-agnostic pure JavaScript engine. See how it compares with other engines on Isaac’s benchmark demo page. And check out Navcat for your pathfinding needs if you haven’t already!

Electrobun – the Bun alternative to Electron – now supports wgpu, the Rust WebGPU API (announcement). This bridges the gap between JS and native WebGPU runtime via adapters. See the Three.js and Babylon.js examples. If you give it a shot, please share your experience on our Discord!

Three VFX (repo) is a feature-packed GPU-accelerated particle system with support for React Three Fiber, TresJS, Threlte, and vanilla Three.js by Alex and me. It supports emitter shapes, physics and collisions, Bezier curves, soft particles, attractors and vortices, trails, flipbooks and textures, and much more.

WebGPU support is at 84% on Can I Use. Depending on your audience and requirements, you might be able to drop WebGL support by the end of this year or next year. In the meantime, please use a WebGL fallback!

⭐️ Sponsors

VIVERSE gives developers powerful tools to bring interactive 3D and XR experiences to life directly in the browser, with free hosting, multi-engine support, and monetization tools. With our Creator Program, we’re investing in the next generation of creators who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the browser. Join the VIVERSE Discord.

The VIVERSE Partner Program is live! In addition to our Creator Grants, any developer can now earn on VIVERSE based on engagement. No ads, no rev shares, no exclusive contracts, just generous compensation well above competitor rates!

Poki makes the best web games shine! With 90M+ players and 1B+ monthly gameplays, we focus on games that load instantly, feel great to play, and work seamlessly on any device. We believe the beauty of the web is simplicity, so we offer a frictionless experience players love coming back to, built to grow games for the long run and earn more across their full lifetime.

• Share your game to get free, unlimited playtests with real players.
• Start play testing on Poki with the #showcase post on Discord.
• Learn more about Poki in this video.

CrazyGames is revolutionizing web gaming, connecting over 3,000 developers with 40+ million players monthly. Our platform supports both ads and in-app purchases, paying out millions in revenue share to developers each year while fostering one of the most vibrant player communities worldwide. Publish your game on CrazyGames!

Benchmarks are now live in the Developer Portal! Visualise your performance in key areas against the Top 20%. Check the new charts on the developer dashboard to understand your metrics and drive improvement.

💼 Jobs

Ready to build Instant Games at a massive scale?

SOFTGAMES is hiring a Senior HTML5 Games Developer to push TypeScript and PixiJS to their limits. You will profile, optimize, and scale Instant Games played by millions daily across global platforms. Remote-first. High ownership. No crunch. Take the lead.

🏎 Engines

• Three.js r183 – changelog, migration guide – That’s a big one!
• TresJS Cientos 5.4.0 – useBVH, MapControls touch/mouse customization
• PlayCanvas Engine v2.16.0 – Paint, generate, and edit splats
• Phaser Editor v5 Beta and its new flexible licensing
• PixiJS v8.16.0 – Canvas renderer, tagged text, text improvements
• Babylon.js v9 should be released in about 2 weeks – see their Twitter for feature previews
• Wonderland Engine 1.5.2 and 1.5.3, Wonderbricks open sourced
• Construct Beta r469 – 3D model plugin, dynamic sampling

🛠 Tools

• TSL Graph – Node-based editor to create TSL shaders by Bhushan Wagh
• React Native WebGPU – React Native implementation of WebGPU using Dawn by William Candillon
• Hytopia Game Engine (uses Three.js) is now open source, by ArkDev - Hytopia
• r3f-gamedev – A collection of minimal useful patterns for game development with React Three Fiber by me
• Unity Build Optimization for Playgama – Optimize Unity WebGL builds automatically by Playgama
• GLTF/GLB Viewer – VS Code extension by OHZI Interactive Studio
• 📡 WebTransport is part of Interop 2026 (support added in Safari 26.4 Beta) by WebKit
• 🏃‍♂️ Universal Animation Library 2 – 130+ CC0 animations by Quaternius
• 🔈 ZzFX – Tiny JavaScript Sound FX System by Frank Force

🎬 Videos

• 🎓 Fast as Hell: idTech8 Global Illumination by Tiago Sousa
• 🎓 How AAA Games Fake Destruction by Next Level Game Art
• ⚡️ How to optimize (almost) anything by SimonDev
• Performance - Portfolio - Devlog 13 by Bruno Simon
• Creative Web Development with Three.js and Blender by Andrew Woan
• Why I Love WebGPU With Three.js by Robot Bobby
• React at 120FPS: When to Loop by Krispy
• 3 React Three Fiber Mistakes I’ll Never Make Again by Wawa Sensei
• I Recreated Akira as a 3D Web Game (demo) by Cortiz
• Anime Water Shader in Three.js (demo, repo) by Cortiz
• Energy Shield Effect in ThreeJS (demo, repo) by Cortiz
• How to add TresJS to your Nuxt project by Alvaro Sabu
• Phaser Games Showcase 2026 by Phaser

✍️ Articles

• 🎓 Surfel-based global illumination on the web by Jure Triglav
• 🎓 Modernizing The VFX Methods of Diablo 3 by Nick Seavert
• 🎓 Shaders. by Dan Hollick
• 100 Three.js Performance Tips by Jocelyn Lecamus from Utsubo
• OpenAI built a Tactical RPG with Phaser by Phaser
• 💰 Picking a monetization partner as a publisher by PaulPlay
• Poki’s 2025 milestones and future goals by Michiel van Amerongen

🎮 Games

• Hook 2 by Maciej Targoni – Minimal puzzle game about unhooking the hooks!
• Alphaputt by Sennep – Putt your way through the alphabet in this beautiful golf game.
• Voodoo Detective by Short Sleeve Studio – A humorous point-and-click adventure.
• OVIVO by IzHard – Minimalistic puzzle platformer in black and white.
• To the Limbs by A Number From the Ghost – Explore a surreal world and its interactive music.

• Speed Stars by Luke – Athletics game with wonky physics. Run fast git gud!
• Metamon by StoreRider – Beat, collect, and evolve monsters to grow your team.
• Diva Makeup Studio by Happylander – Mix your own colorful make-up palettes.
• Snow Riders by Sleepless Games – Hit the slopes with 90s energy.
• You Monster! by Shoom Games – Consume to become the biggest of them all!

• Draw Climber by Voodoo – Quirky physics-based racing game in which you draw your character's legs.
• Fish Orbit – Casual fishing game where you throw your line as far as possible.
• Mage Tower Idle Defense by JellyBeans Studios – Protect your mage tower against invading monsters!
• Crazy Flips 3D – Timing is everything to land your flips perfectly.
• Dominators: Fighting Dinosaurs by dennatolich – Upgrade your dinosaur to fight waves of enemies.

• Stardust Exile by apseren – Space RTS with known stars, planets, and their real characteristics.
• Ace Fighters by Alex (devlog thread) – Ace Online tribute aerial combat game.
• Freestyle by Taq Karim – Daily rhyming word game.

✨ Demos

• Three Quake (repo) by mrdoob
• Three Descent (repo) by mrdoob
• Hex Map Toy (article, repo) by Felix Turner
• Namek by Ricardo Oliva Alonso
• CSS Terrain Generator by Layoutit

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