Game Bytes · February 2024

Game Bytes is our monthly series taking a peek at the world of gamedev on GitHub—featuring game engine updates, game jam details, open source games, mods, maps, and more. Game on!

Game news

Madeline’s back in Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain 👩🏼‍🦰 🍓

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C#

The original developers of the acclaimed platformer Celeste have celebrated the 6th anniversary of the game’s release by reimagining the game as a 3D platformer. Celeste fans will enjoy returning to Madeline’s story in a new way (and finding strawberries in a third dimension). The free tribute is available on itch.io for Windows and Linux, while the source is on GitHub.

Driftmania 🚗💨

Play in your browser Source

Lua

Driftmania distills 2D top-down racing to its essence: zip around the track, drift through the corners, and chase your best time – all pacakged up in a tiny PICO-8 game. It’ll make you feel like you’re an amazing driver, even if you’re slamming into the sides of the track.

Editors’s note: Watching Lee try to drift is like watching him use Git. They think they’re about to smoothly merge lanes, but end up causing a conflict that takes hours to resolve! 😛

Nesterin Trail

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Turn your attention now from a fantasy 8-bit computer to a real 8-bit computer with Nesterin Trail, a new graphical adventure game in a fantasy setting with a text parser interface. If that already sounds like an ‘80s throwback, then you should know that it’s also built for the Commodore 64. @MGProduction built it to demo an interactive fiction game engine for the C64, StoryTllr. Don’t have a C64 at hand? That’s okay: you can download Nesterin Trail for Windows and Linux from itch.io.

Endless Sky 0.10.6

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C++

Endless Sky is a 2D top-down space exploration, trading, and combat simulation that invites you to choose a ship type and set off into the galaxy. Will you choose your associates wisely? Will you make careful trades or engage in high-risk, high-reward combat? Will you seek out new life and new civilizations? It’s up to you. The game’s been in long-running development since its first release in 2015 and with the first stable release of 2024 there’s never been a better time to get into Endless Sky for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

RBG, a tile-matching RPG demo

Play in your browser Source

TypeScript

For a “functional demo,” RBG has got it all: a clever conceit (tile-matcher meets RPG), addictive gameplay, gorgeous animations, and an original chiptune soundtrack to match. Built with the Phaser, it’s playable in your browser, so see for yourself and slide into battle.

Spend a few hours watching Pong Wars

Watch in awe Source

JavaScript

Pong Wars is what happens when Pong meets Breakout meets Conway’s Game of Life. More than just fun to watch, it’s an HTML, CSS, and JavaScript implementation in a long tradition of self-playing “games.” In the project’s README, @vnglst highlights a number of other implementations and alternatives and writes about the obscure origins of the art form. After watching the back and forth, you might find that a new implementation in your favorite language or engine has become your next weekend project.

Maps, mods, tools, and more

DOSBoxStaging 0.81.0

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C++

DOSBox Staging is an emulator for DOS PCs, a DOSBox fork that bills itself as a “continuation” of DOSBox. The newest release boasts gorgeous zero-config CRT monitor emulation, so you can see classic game art in the style it was meant to be played, scanlines and all. While that’s the headline feature, the release is packed with more upgrades, such as audio and input fixes, 3dfx support, and a new getting started guide. There’s so much in DOSBox Staging’s latest, you owe it to yourself to read the DOSBox Staging 0.81.0 release notes.

Steam Audio

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C++

Steam Audio is a 3D audio SDK that models how sound moves through environments, with sounds blocked and reflected by world geometry. It works with Unity, Unreal Engine, and FMOD Studio, or via a C API. While years in the making, Steam Audio 4.5.2 is the project’s open source debut. The project, including all its engine plugins, is now open source on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license. Welcome to the party, Steam Audio!

Game jams

Upcoming jams

• 7DRL Challenge 2024 (March 1 to 11)—Put procedural generation to work and join the 20th(!!!) year of the jam to make and finish a roguelike in 7 days or less.
• Mini Jam 153 (March 1 – 3)—72-hour-long with a required limitation announced as soon as the jam starts to spice things up.

Game jam game of the month: Why did the Chicken Cross the Road 🐔 🚦

Why did the Chicken Cross the Road is a shining entry to Global Game Jam 2024. It’s a beautiful day in the garden and you are a stubborn chicken. This Frogger-like for the PICO-8 asks and answers the time-honored question with an adventure across roads, streams, and much more. Bring your best timing to enjoy this comedic and challenging Game Jam Game of the Month.

Play Source

Lua

Events

Godot GDC Meetup – Wednesday, March 20th 2024

We’re hosting our friends from Godot at GitHub HQ on the evening of March 20th, 2024 for their 4th annual Godot GDC Meetup.

Enjoy an evening filled with networking, food, drinks, and all things Godot. Mingle with Godot core contributors, game developers, and users from around the world. Registration required.

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.