Engine anniversaries

Graphic with Mona celebrating Bevy and raylib's birthdays.

Bevy, the cross-platform game engine built in Rust, marks three years since its initial public release. The project lead has shared a retrospective on what the team accomplished and how it lined up with expectations, and the community is invited to contribute their own reflections.

RayLib, the minimalist engine that leaves the editor and tooling up to you, turns ten. An interactive, animated timeline now charts the project's history—from a forum post asking for a simple OpenGL library (answered with the now-iconic "As I couldn't find the lib I was asking for, I created it!") to its current popularity on GitHub.

Restorations and rewrites

@phoboslab

Wipeout, the high-speed PlayStation racer, is playable in your browser again. Dominic Szablewski (@phoboslab) got the original compiled on modern hardware, then went further: a nearly complete rewrite reimplementing rendering, physics, game loops, and UI. His extensive write-up covers the restoration process, and the result is live on the racetrack.

@id-Software

Alongside the recent PC and console remaster of Quake II, id Software has published the DLL source code for the 1997 classic on GitHub. The release is intended to help modders update existing mods and create new ones. A deep-dive article and the project README explain how the original codebase was adapted to support the remaster's features.

@chaosforgeorg

Jupiter Hell, the VHS-era turn-based shooter and successor to the open source roguelike DRL, now supports modding. Documentation and sample code are available on GitHub, with details in the Jupiter Hell 1.7 release announcement.

VCMI, the open source recreation of Heroes of Might and Magic III, has shipped version 1.3. The update focuses on quality-of-life improvements: scalable UI, touchscreen interfaces and gestures, and fixes to opponent AI.

Tools and middleware

@LordOfDragons

DEMoCap has reached version 1.0 after early access. The tool uses VR hardware for motion capture, offering a cheaper alternative to dedicated mo-cap rigs while letting actors see the scene in real time. Animations can be used in the accompanying Drag[en]gine engine or exported to Blender.

AMD has open sourced its FidelityFX SDK, which provides shader and runtime code for image-quality effects—super resolution, adaptive sharpening, ambient occlusion, and more—for DirectX 12 and Vulkan. The release aims to simplify integrating these effects into engines.

Jams and highlights

Upcoming jams to test your skills:

  • js13kGames (August 13 to September 13)—build a game in 13 kilobytes or less. GitHub is sponsoring this year's edition.
  • GBJam11 (September 15 to 25)—make or demake a Game Boy-inspired game with its 4-color, 160x144 screen and two-button-plus-D-pad controls.
  • Ludum Dare #54 (September 29 to October 31)—Solo devs get a weekend to build a game.
  • Scream Jam (October 17 to 24)—the return of the horror-themed jam; sharing code on GitHub could land you in the Halloween highlights.
  • Game Off 2023 (November 1 to December 1)—GitHub's own jam returns, with a theme announced at the start.

@phoboslab

This month's featured jam game is Q1K3, Szablewski's 2021 js13kGames entry and an homage to id's Quake. In 13 kilobytes it packs dynamic lighting, enemy AI, multiple levels, weapons, and a soundscape that captures the original's feel. The making-of article walks through the tricks used to squeeze Quake into the size limit.