Best of Game Development — April 2026

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    Article
    Avatar of godotGodot·4w

    Godot Mobile update — April 2026 – Godot Engine

    The Godot Foundation's mobile team shares progress on improving Godot's mobile capabilities across Android and iOS. Key updates include: new and maintained ecosystem plugins for Google Play Billing, Google Play Games Services, and Apple StoreKit 2 to support in-app purchases and store features; GPU driver compatibility fixes that reduced crash rates from ~4% to under 1% in real shipped games; native Android debug symbols and Android instrumented test support for automated device testing; Perfetto and Instruments profiler integration; and Android device mirroring directly from the editor. Future work will focus on rendering, performance, testing infrastructure, and plugin coverage.

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    Video
    Avatar of codebulletCode Bullet·3w

    Can I remake those SH*TTY mobile games in 1 HOUR? ...again

    A developer attempts to recreate three popular (and absurd) mobile games — Last War, Butt Clash, and Eating Simulator — in Unity within one hour each. The video covers rapid prototyping techniques including basic movement scripts, bullet spawning, soft body physics simulation using circles and springs, and 3D asset integration. Each game is built from scratch with free assets, minimal polish, and comedic commentary, then compared side-by-side with the originals. The soft body physics segment offers a brief but genuine explanation of how rigid body circles connected by springs can simulate squishy objects.

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    Article
    Avatar of 80lv80 LEVEL·2w

    How a Small Team of Developers Created the Coding Game Net.Attack()

    ByteRockers' Games shares the development story behind Net.Attack(), a node-based coding roguelite inspired by Vampire Survivors. A team of five built the game around a modular block system where players connect nodes to create custom attacks. Key insights include their deliberate choice to prioritize player creativity over strict balancing, their use of a database tool to manage 190+ nodes, GPU offloading for performance, and a community-first approach featuring early demos, Discord, and daily challenges. The team also embedded hidden 'hacking' easter eggs to drive community engagement.

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    Video
    Avatar of gamefromscratchGamefromscratch·3w

    Phaser 4 is HERE - Biggest Release Ever!

    Phaser 4 has been released, marking the biggest update in the JavaScript/TypeScript 2D game framework's 10+ year history. The centerpiece is a completely new WebGL renderer with a node-based architecture that replaces the V3 pipeline. Key performance improvements include a Sprite GPU Layer capable of rendering millions of sprites at up to 100x the previous speed, a new Tile Map GPU Layer that renders entire maps as a single quad with per-pixel shader cost, smarter multitexture batching, and just-in-time rendering. Additional changes include a unified filter system combining FX and masks, new game objects (gradient, noise variants, stamp), improved lighting, and built-in support for AI coding tools like Cursor, Copilot, and Codex. Phaser remains MIT-licensed and open source, with an optional commercial editor available for $12–$15/month.

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    Article
    Avatar of gamesindustryGamesIndustry.biz·4w

    Evil Landfall is the latest publishing label from an indie developer

    Landfall Games, the studio behind Peak and Content Warning, has officially unveiled Evil Landfall, its publishing arm that has been operating quietly for about three years. Led by CEO Kirsten-Lee Naidoo, the seven-person team is now opening up to external developers, offering project-based funding of up to $1 million per game. Unlike traditional publishers, Evil Landfall takes a hands-off approach: no IP ownership, no 100% recoup clauses, and developers retain control over how involved the publisher gets. The label focuses on short-cycle, physics-based, co-op games similar to Landfall's own titles, inspired by Peak's success (estimated 17 million units sold). Evil Landfall has already quietly invested in studios like Semiwork (REPO) and has publicly revealed an investment in How To Fish by Dazed Games.

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    Video
    Avatar of galaxies_devSimon Grimm·2w

    How Hard Is It To Run a Mobile Game Alone?

    A solo developer shares the reality of running a mobile game (Tiny Harvest) after launch. While coding is only about 20% of the weekly workload, the rest involves bug triage, game balancing, customer support, marketing, App Store optimization, and TikTok outreach. Three major challenges are highlighted: the ongoing technical grind (endless bugs, balancing issues, players breaking things), the invisible full-time job of wearing 5-10 hats simultaneously, and the mental toll of sole ownership — including monetization guilt, slow days, and taking every criticism personally. A near-fatal moment came during a full game engine rewrite that took three stressful days with heavy AI assistance. Despite the hardships, the rewards of player engagement, creative fulfillment, and skill growth make it worthwhile.

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    Video
    Avatar of webdevcodyWeb Dev Cody·4w

    Pivoting my game into an MMO Action RPG

    A developer pivots their wave-based multiplayer survival game 'Survive the Night' into an MMO Action RPG, using AI coding agents (Cursor Composer) to implement major changes. The session covers adding user authentication requirements, a persistent XP/leveling system backed by PostgreSQL, open-world zombie spawn points with respawn timers, inventory system refactoring to unify resource bags and inventory slots, and removal of ~6,000 lines of legacy code including wave systems, game modes (Battle Royale, infection), and environmental events like lightning and toxic gas. The developer runs multiple concurrent AI agents to handle different tasks simultaneously and reflects on the workflow of using AI agents for game development.

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    Video
    Avatar of randyprimeRandy·2w

    I spent 500 days making a Steam game from scratch

    A solo developer chronicles 500 days of building Terra Factor, a factory-automation survival game released on Steam, entirely from scratch without a game engine. Starting as a simple 2-week Stardew Valley clone, the project evolved into a multi-age open-world survival crafting game featuring conveyor belt automation, an infinite procedurally generated wasteland, a day/night cycle with enemies, and a unique 'spatial tesseract' mechanic that lets players nest factories inside cubes to manage complexity. The devlog covers the full journey from a basic window renderer to a feature-complete Steam release including tech trees, boss fights, and an alchemy system.

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    Video
    Avatar of codemonkeyunityCode Monkey·3w

    Every game is 90% THE SAME!

    Game development beginners often waste time searching for hyper-specific tutorials that match their exact game idea. In reality, roughly 90% of all games share the same core systems: input handling, player controllers, UI, audio, cameras, save/load, and game flow. Learning these fundamentals from any quality tutorial gives you transferable knowledge applicable to any genre. The remaining 10% is what makes your game unique, and that requires applying your own skills. The key takeaway: avoid analysis paralysis, stop copy-pasting code, and focus on understanding core concepts so you can build anything.

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