Game Bytes · August 2023

Engine watch

Happy Third birthday to Bevy

Bevy (previously on Game Bytes), a cross-platform game engine built in Rust, is celebrating the third anniversary of its initial public release. The Bevy team is also taking the opportunity to reflect on what the community has achieved and how to reach their goals in the year ahead. Bevy’s project lead has written thoughtfully about what the Bevy team did, how it compared to expectations, and invited others to do the same. Join them in celebrating another year of hard work and getting excited about the road ahead. 🥳

Happy 10th birthday to RayLib

RayLib (previously on Game Bytes), a minimalist game engine that lets you bring your own editor, debugger, and other tools, is celebrating ten years of development. To look back on the project’s first ten years, there’s now an interactive, animated timeline. Now, you can experience RayLib’s journey, from its origins as a forum post asking for a simple OpenGL library (with the iconic follow-up message, “As I couldn’t find the lib I was asking for, I created it!”) to racking up GitHub stars in the present day. Congrats to RayLib—we can’t wait to see what’s next! 👏

Game news

Wipeout in your browser

Play in your browser Source

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Wipeout was a high-speed racing game for the original PlayStation console and now Wipeout’s back in your browser, as a feat of video game restoration from @phoboslab (Dominic Szablewski). Szablewski got the game compiled and running on modern hardware, but the work didn’t stop there. What followed was a more-or-less complete rewrite of Wipeout, reimplementing rendering physics, game loops, UI, and more. Learn more about how this classic was restored and rewritten in Szablewski’s extensive write-up, or head on over to the racetrack.

id Software publishes Quake II 2023 source code

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Lua

Quake II is id Software’s classic 1997 first-person shooter, which was recently remastered and rereleased for PC and consoles. Alongside the rerelease, id has published DLL source code to support updating existing mods and bringing new ones to the game. Not only is the source shared on GitHub, a deep dive article paired with the project README, makes for an in-depth look into how the original source was adapted to support the remaster’s new features and improvements. Read the release notes or visit the repository before your return to Stroggos.

Jupiter Hell modding

Read the docs

Lua

Jupiter Hell pits you against a never-ending horde of monstrosities in a “VHS era” turn-based shooter and the successor to DRL, an opensource roguelike inspired by id Software’s Doom. A recent update to Jupiter Hell introduces modding to the game: documentation and sample code are now shared on GitHub. To learn more about the game and modding it, read the Jupiter Hell 1.7 release announcement.

VCMI 1.3

VCMI (previously on Game Bytes) is the opensource recreation of Heroes of Might and Magic III, a classic of the turn-based strategy game genre. VCMI has landed yet another significant release. This time, the team has rolled out several quality-of-life improvements, such as a scalable user interface, new touchscreen interfaces and gestures, and opponent AI fixes. Read the VCMI 1.3 announcement to learn more.

Maps, mods, tools, and more

DemoCap 1.0

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DEMoCap has reached version 1.0, after an early access period. The tool uses VR hardware to capture motion, providing a lower-cost option than motion capture-specific hardware. It also creates an immersive environment for actors, since they can see the scene in real time. You can use the resulting animations in the accompanying Drag[en]gine Game Engine or export to Blender. Learn more about this project from the release announcement or the repository on GitHub.

AMD open sources FidelityFX SDK

AMD’s FidelityFX SDK provides shader and runtime code for image quality effects for DirectX 12 and Vulkan, such as super resolution, adaptive sharpening, ambient occlusion, and others. With an open source release, AMD is trying to make it easier for developers to integrate these effects into their engines. Read the FidelityFX SDK announcement to learn more (and take in some impressive screenshots).

Game jams

Upcoming jams

Test your skills or learn something new with one of these upcoming game jams:

• js13kGames (now, August 13 to September 13)—Make a game in 13 kilobytes or less. GitHub is proud to be sponsoring it this year (and don’t miss our past hints on making a tiny game).
• GBJam11 (September 15 to 25)—Make or demake a game in a jam inspired by the Game Boy handheld console, with constraints on screen (4 colors at 160px by 144px) and controls (D-pad and four buttons).
• Ludum Dare #54 (September 29 to October 31) — Solo game devs are challenged to build a game in a weekend in the September return of Ludum Dare.
• Scream Jam (October 17 to 24)—It’ll soon be that spooky time of year again, so get ready for this horror-themed jam. And don’t forget to share your code on GitHub, for a chance to have an Octocat shine a flashlight on your game for our Halloween highlights.
• Game Off 2023 (November 1 to December 1)—GitHub is excited to host the return of Game Off. Make a game and share the source with a GitHub repository while following a theme to be announced at the start of the jam.

Game jam game of the month: Q1K3

Play in your browser Source

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Q1K3 is our game jam game of the month because it ties everything together. Q1K3 is the work of @phobslab (Dominic Szablewski) (the author of the Wipeout rewrite), an entry to the 2021 js13kGames jam (the 2023 jam is currently running), and an homage to id Software’s Quake (the predecessor to Quake II).

Almost by magic, Q1K3 captures the feel of the original Quake with the simplest models, textures, sound, and music. In just 13 kilobytes it manages to include dynamic lighting, enemy AI, multiple levels, enemies, and weapons, and much more. Play it in your browser then read the author’s delightful making-of article. Dominic walks you through the many challenges and clever solutions to packing Quake into just 13k.

That’s all for this edition of Game Bytes. We’ll see you next month!

Working on something cool or releasing something this month? Share it with us via gamebytes@github.com.