This Month in Rust GameDev: April Edition and Call for Submissions for May

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  "title": "This Month in Rust GameDev: April Edition and Call for Submissions for May",
  "type": "story",
  "url": "https://gamedev.rs/news/050/"
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{
  "author": "Rust GameDev WG",
  "date": "2024-05-03T00:00:00.000Z",
  "description": "Welcome to the 50th issue of the Rust GameDev Workgroup’s\nmonthly newsletter.\nRust is a systems lang…",
  "image": "https://gamedev.rs/social-card.png",
  "logo": "https://logo.clearbit.com/gamedev.rs",
  "publisher": "Rust GameDev WG",
  "title": "This Month in Rust GameDev #50 - April 2024",
  "url": "https://gamedev.rs/news/050/"
}

{
  "url": "https://gamedev.rs/news/050/",
  "title": "This Month in Rust GameDev #50 - April 2024",
  "description": "Welcome to the 50th issue of the Rust GameDev Workgroup’s monthly newsletter. Rust is a systems language pursuing the trifecta: safety, concurrency, and speed. These goals are well-aligned with game...",
  "links": [
    "https://gamedev.rs/news/050/"
  ],
  "image": "https://gamedev.rs/social-card.png",
  "content": "<div>\n<p>Welcome to the 50th issue of the Rust GameDev Workgroup’s\nmonthly newsletter.\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://rust-lang.org/\">Rust</a> is a systems language pursuing the trifecta:\nsafety, concurrency, and speed.\nThese goals are well-aligned with game development.\nWe hope to build an inviting ecosystem for anyone wishing\nto use Rust in their development process!\nWant to get involved? <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/rust-gamedev/wg#join-the-fun\">Join the Rust GameDev working group!</a></p>\n<p>You can follow the newsletter creation process\nby watching <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/rust-gamedev/rust-gamedev.github.io/issues?q=label%3Acoordination\">the coordination issues</a>.\nWant something mentioned in the next newsletter?\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/rust-gamedev/rust-gamedev.github.io\">Send us a pull request</a>.\nFeel free to send PRs about your own projects!</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/#announcements\">Announcements</a></li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/#game-updates\">Game Updates</a></li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/#engine-updates\">Engine Updates</a></li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/#learning-material-updates\">Learning Material Updates</a></li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/#library-updates\">Library Updates</a></li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/#other-news\">Other News</a></li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/#discussions\">Discussions</a></li>\n</ul>\n<h2 id=\"announcements\">Announcements \n</h2>\n<p><em>Please fill out <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://forms.gle/oeSb46twWsxRKYJe7\">this survey</a> before skipping this section! More info below!</em></p>\n<p>Hey everyone, it’s been a while! As you’ve certainly noticed, the newsletter has\nbeen on hiatus for a while. The reason was mostly maintainer burnout, which is also\nwhy the newsletter of August 2023 was not published <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/049/\">until a few days\nago</a>.</p>\n<p>We’re back now though! A couple of community members, Jan Hohenheim\n(<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/janhohenheim\">@janhohenheim</a>) and Thierry Berger (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/Vrixyz\">@Vrixyz</a>), have led the revival of the\nnewsletter. This includes making changes requested by the community, and\nimproving sustainability for the long term.</p>\n<p>You can read more about the changes being made in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://gamedev.rs/blog/newsletter-changes/\">this blog\npost</a>.</p>\n<p>This restructuring is also a good time to improve the content of the newsletter.\nWe’ve got some community feedback on the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://discord.gg/game-development-in-rust-676678179678715904\">Rust GameDev Discord</a> already\nand would like to hear more from you. It would be great if you could fill out\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://forms.gle/oeSb46twWsxRKYJe7\">this survey</a> to let us know how we can improve the newsletter going\nforward. The survey closes on the <strong>28th of May</strong>. We will be evaluating the\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://forms.gle/oeSb46twWsxRKYJe7\">survey</a> results in an upcoming blog post, so stay tuned for that.</p>\n<p>That’s all for now. Have fun reading!</p>\n<h2 id=\"game-updates\">Game Updates \n</h2>\n<h3 id=\"way-of-rhea\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1110620/Way_of_Rhea/?utm_campaign=tmirgd&amp;utm_source=n50\">Way of Rhea</a> \n</h3>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://youtu.be/vFsO436r2Pw\"><img src=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/wor.jpg\" alt=\"Way of Rhea\" /></a></p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1110620/Way_of_Rhea/?utm_campaign=tmirgd&amp;utm_source=n50\">Way of Rhea</a> just got a release date: it will be coming to Steam on\n<strong>May 20th, 2024</strong>!</p>\n<p>Way of Rhea (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1110620/Way_of_Rhea/\">Steam</a>) is a color-based puzzle game with difficult puzzles, but forgiving\nmechanics being developed by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://twitter.com/masonremaley\">@masonremaley</a> in a custom Rust engine.</p>\n<p>You can support development by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1110620/Way_of_Rhea/?utm_campaign=tmirgd&amp;utm_source=n50\">wishlisting Way of Rhea on Steam</a>, or\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://anthropicstudios.com/newsletter/signup/tech\">signing up for the mailing list</a>.</p>\n<p>Recently, a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1110620/view/7665759271877780609\">closed beta</a> began. All characters now have voices, and various <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//35599024/6ee82d4e0105f073082c83626e37933e682b5936.png\">speedrunning features</a> were added.\nOlder CPUs are <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1110620/view/4118050466869150657\">now supported</a>.\nSecrets were made harder, and an <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//35599024/573f81c1ebce54d9efedcd693fcbe684a5629c7f.png\">in-game achievement UI</a> was created.</p>\n<p>For the full changelog, see the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1110620\">release notes</a>.</p>\n<h3 id=\"sm64jsarchive\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://sm64jsarchive.com/\">sm64jsarchive</a> \n</h3>\n<p><img src=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/sm64jsarchive.jpg\" alt=\"Super Mario 64 JavaScript Archive\" /></p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://sm64jsarchive.com/\">SM64JSARCHIVE</a> is an actively maintained fork of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/sm64js/sm64js/tree/MMO\">sm64js</a>: a decompilation project of Super Mario 64 to JavaScript.\nAdditional sidenote: The MMO servers are not always running for sm64jsarchive.</p>\n<p>The backend server, which is written in Rust,\nis now live at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://sm64jsarchive.com/\">https://sm64jsarchive.com</a></p>\n<p>A successful stress test for the MMO feature was run on April 10th.</p>\n<h3 id=\"open-combat\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://opencombat.bux.fr/\">Open Combat</a> \n</h3>\n<figure>\n    <img src=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/OpenCombat202404.jpg\" alt=\"OpenCombat: demo available soon\" />\n        <figcaption>Official demo available soon</figcaption>\n</figure>\n<p>Open Combat (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/buxx/OpenCombat\">GitHub</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://discord.gg/6P2vtFh2Px\">Discord</a>) is a real-time tactical game\nwhich takes place during World War II.</p>\n<p>The basic game logic and HUD are now complete,\nand the high-definition map for the demo is finished.</p>\n<p>Some things are missing, like high-definition assets for soldiers or minimal AI for opponents.\nBut the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/buxx/OpenCombat/releases\">demo is playable</a> and the team would love to hear your feedback!</p>\n<h3 id=\"times-of-progress\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/app/2628450/Times_of_Progress/\">Times of Progress</a> \n</h3>\n<p><img src=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/times_of_progress.jpg\" alt=\"Times of Progress: an isometric city builder game set during the industrial revolution\" /></p>\n<p>Times of Progress (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/app/2628450/Times_of_Progress/\">Steam</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://twitter.com/ElmoSampedro\">Twitter/X</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://mastodon.online/@elmowilk\">Mastodon</a>)\nis an upcoming city builder game set during the industrial revolution.</p>\n<p>In April, they added lots of UI widgets and improved performance by refactoring the orders system.</p>\n<p>The demo is not available yet but interested players can sign up for the upcoming closed beta by joining the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://subscribepage.io/pressingthumbs\">newsletter</a>.</p>\n<h3 id=\"monk-tower\">Monk Tower \n</h3>\n<p><img src=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/monk_tower.png\" alt=\"Monk Tower Screen shot\" /></p>\n<p>Monk Tower (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://maciekglowka.itch.io/monk-tower\">itch.io</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maciejglowka.monk_tower\">Google Play</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/maciekglowka/tower-rl\">Github</a>)\nis a tiny coffee-break roguelike game, intended for short runs (ca. 15mins).</p>\n<p>The gameplay is quite distilled and revolves mostly around resource management.\nThe player has limited inventory capacity and the weapons get damaged\nafter each use. There are 20 randomly generated levels to beat.</p>\n<p>It is available on desktop (Windows / Linux), Android, and Web (mobile friendly).\nThe game’s source code also comes with a custom WGPU-based 2D framework.</p>\n<p><em>Discussions: (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes/comments/1butvew/monk_tower_a_coffeebreak_roguelike_google_play/\">/r/roguelikes</a>)</em></p>\n<h3 id=\"you-are-merlin\">You are Merlin \n</h3>\n<p><img src=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/you-are-merlin.png\" alt=\"You are Merlin screenshot\" /></p>\n<p>You are Merlin (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://hseager.github.io/you-are-merlin-www/\">Web Game</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/hseager/you-are-merlin\">GitHub - Rust/CLI</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/hseager/you-are-merlin-www\">GitHub - WASM</a>) by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/hseager\">@hseager</a>\nis a text adventure game that compiles to both CLI and WebAssembly.</p>\n<p>This initial version features a main quest, side quests, items, and a boss fight.\nPlayers can choose their favourite visual theme such as Zelda, Warcraft, and Fallout. The web version also supports mobile devices.</p>\n<p>Although fairly simple, this first version provides a good foundation for building more features in later updates.</p>\n<p><em>Discussions: (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/rust_gamedev/comments/1c9k1kb/you_are_merlin_a_text_adventure_game/\">/r/rust_gamedev</a>)</em></p>\n<h3 id=\"jumpy\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/fishfolks/jumpy\">Jumpy</a> \n</h3>\n<figure>\n    <img src=\"https://gamedev.rs/news/050/jumpy.png\" alt=\"Machine Gun and Periscope\" />\n        <figcaption>Jumpy: Machine gun and Periscope</figcaption>\n</figure>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/fishfolks/jumpy\">Jumpy</a> (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/fishfolks/jumpy\">GitHub</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://discord.gg/4smxjcheE5\">Discord</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://twitter.com/spicylobsterfam\">Twitter</a>) by\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://spicylobster.itch.io/\">Spicy Lobster</a> is a pixel-style, tactical 2D shooter with a fishy\ntheme.</p>\n<p>This month the base functionalities of round scoring and map transitions have been implemented.\nNew weapons such as the Blunderbuss, Periscope, and Machine Gun are ready for fish-on-fish combat.</p>\n<p>Jumpy is now featuring corpse physics and a “ragdoll” button to send your Fish <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/fishfolk/jumpy/pull/932\">flopping about</a>.</p>\n<p>On the treasure map for the near future is improving UX and new player experience,\npolish and improvements on match scoring / round transitions, and more awesome weapons.</p>\n<p><em>Discussions: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/fishfolks/jumpy/discussions\">GitHub</a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://twitter.com/spicylobsterfam\">Twitter</a></em></p>\n<h2 id=\"engine-updates\">Engine Updates \n</h2>\n<h3 id=\"bottomless-pit-0-3\">Bottomless-Pit 0.3 \n</h3>\n<p><img src=\"https://eggshark.dev/images/bplogo.png\" alt=\"The Bottomles-Pit Logo. A small hole in the ground with cat ears and text saying bottomless-pit\" /></p>\n<p>Bottomless-Pit is a 2d game engine written with WGPU that has been around for a year, which can be found on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://crates.io/crates/bottomless-pit\">crates.io</a> and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/EggShark/bottomless-pit\">GitHub</a>.\nVery recently a 2d camera was added as well as WASM and web support.\nCurrent development is being focused on stability and QoL changes like texture sampling options and improved input.\nYou can check out several <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://eggshark.dev/bp-examples\">engine examples on the web</a>.\nSince the engine is in its infancy, its developer calls for developers to use it and give the engine some feedback.</p>\n<p>Current features are:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Custom Shader Support</li>\n<li>Basic rendering</li>\n<li>Text rendering</li>\n<li>Input and window event handling</li>\n</ul>\n<h2 id=\"learning-material-updates\">Learning Material Updates \n</h2>\n<h3 id=\"building-games-for-android-with-rust\">Building games for Android with Rust \n</h3>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/maciekglowka\">@maciekglowka</a> has recently shared some thoughts <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://maciejglowka.com/blog/building-games-for-android-with-rust/\">on their blog</a> about building Rust games\nfor Android. Rather than a step-by-step guide, it is a collection\nof issues one can possibly encounter when targeting Android.</p>\n<p>Topics mentioned:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>‘Window’ creation (via winit)</li>\n<li>Android app’s lifecycle vs. the WGPU surface creation</li>\n<li>User data storage</li>\n<li>System UI hiding via jni and Android API</li>\n<li>Building AAB files to meet Google Play requirements</li>\n</ul>\n<h3 id=\"bevy-a-case-study-in-ergonomic-rust\">Bevy: A case study in ergonomic Rust \n</h3>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/chrisbiscardi\">Chris Biscardi</a> was at RustNation UK recently and gave talk on Bevy’s\nRusty ergonomics titled <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnoDOc6ML0Y\">Bevy: A case study in ergonomic Rust</a>.\nIn their own words:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There are at least two, if not three, talks worth of material around how Bevy\nprogressively discloses complexity across multiple “stacks” of APIs; and the\nwork done so far is very impressive in terms of how it all fits together,\nespecially as a large-and-growing OSS project.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<h3 id=\"reactivity-in-bevy-from-the-bottom-up\">Reactivity in Bevy: From the Bottom Up \n</h3>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://dreamertalin.medium.com/\">Talin</a> wrote a three-part series on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://machinewords.hashnode.dev/reactivity-in-bevy-from-the-bottom-up-part-1\">“Reactivity in Bevy: From the Bottom Up”</a>,\nwhich describes the workings of <code>bevy_reactor</code>, an experimental, work-in-progress framework for doing reactive programming within Bevy.</p>\n<h2 id=\"library-updates\">Library Updates \n</h2>\n<h3 id=\"jolt-bindings\">Jolt Bindings \n</h3>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://lpg.space/\">Lucian Greathouse</a> has published their <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/jrouwe/JoltPhysics\">Jolt</a> bindings for Rust. Jolt is a C++ physics engine you might know from its use in Horizon: Forbidden West.\nLucian has previously worked on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/SecondHalfGames/JoltC\">JoltC</a>, a C API for Jolt, which this project uses in the background.</p>\n<p>The bindings work can be found on the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/SecondHalfGames/jolt-rust\">just-rust GitHub repo</a> GitHub repository and come in two flavors:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>joltc-sys</code>: Unsafe bindings to the C API</li>\n<li><code>rolt</code>: Ergonomic and safe Rust API</li>\n</ul>\n<h3 id=\"hexx-0-17\">Hexx 0.17 \n</h3>\n<p>Hexx, the popular crate for hexagonal tools, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/ManevilleF/hexx/releases/tag/0.17.0\">has released version 0.17</a>.\nThis release has a strong focus on performance:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Large performance improvement on various computations like rings and wedges</li>\n<li>Add support for optimized storage for hexagonal and rhombus-shaped maps</li>\n<li>Added support for rectiline path</li>\n</ul>\n<p>And utility:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Added a 13th example showcasing all natively supported shapes</li>\n<li>Removed confusing items</li>\n</ul>\n<h3 id=\"lightyear-0-13\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/cBournhonesque/lightyear\">Lightyear 0.13</a> \n</h3>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/cBournhonesque/lightyear\">lightyear_website</a> is a comprehensive networking library for bevy to make multiplayer games.\nIt comes with multiple types of transports (WebTransport, WebSocket, UDP, etc.)\nand supports replication techniques like client-side prediction, server interpolation, interest management, and more!\nCheck out the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/cBournhonesque/lightyear/tree/main/examples\">examples</a>!</p>\n<p>The latest release, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/cBournhonesque/lightyear/releases/tag/0.13.0\">0.13</a>, brings two big new features:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Steam support</strong>: you can now use the Steamworks SDK as your transport layer, which lets you use the Valve network!\nNote that lightyear supports running multiple transports in parallel, so it’s possible to have cross-play between Steam and non-Steam users.</li>\n<li><strong>Listen-server mode</strong>: it is now possible to run a server and a client in the same process/bevy app.\nThis can be useful to avoid the costs of a dedicated server, or to have a similar codebase between singleplayer and multiplayer.</li>\n</ul>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/cBournhonesque/lightyear/assets/8112632/ee547c32-1f14-4bdc-9e6d-67f900af84d0\">Example (with 300ms of latency)</a></p>\n<h2 id=\"other-news\">Other News \n</h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Alice I. Cecile of the Bevy Foundation would like to collect community feedback\non game development in Rust. Please fill out <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://forms.gle/kLzv5Ww3U8dLGUHU8\">her survey</a>!</li>\n</ul>\n<h2 id=\"discussions\">Discussions \n</h2>\n<p>LogLog games has published a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://loglog.games/blog/leaving-rust-gamedev/\">very well-written blog post</a> about their reasons to leave Rust gamedev.\nIt talks about shortcomings in Rust as a language in general and as a game development tool in particular.\nSome insights into the limitations of ECS are also provided. Some interesting community discussions have been sparked by this post:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40172033\">Hacker News</a></li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1ceipzc/leaving_rust_gamedev_after_3_years_blog_post_by/\">/r/gamedev</a></li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/1cdqdsi/lessons_learned_after_3_years_of_fulltime_rust/\">/r/rust</a></li>\n</ul>\n<hr />\n<p>That’s all news for today, thanks for reading!</p>\n<p>Want something mentioned in the next newsletter?\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/rust-gamedev/rust-gamedev.github.io\">Send us a pull request</a>.</p>\n<p>Also, subscribe to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://twitter.com/rust_gamedev\">@rust_gamedev on Twitter</a>\nor <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://reddit.com/r/rust_gamedev\">/r/rust_gamedev subreddit</a> if you want to receive fresh news!</p>\n<p><strong>Discuss this post on</strong>:\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/rust_gamedev/comments/1cja5v8/this_month_in_rust_gamedev_april_edition_released/\">/r/rust_gamedev</a>,\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://lemmy.ml/post/15196466\">[email protected]</a>,\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40248347\">Hacker News</a>,\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@rust_gamedev/112377678490780983\">Mastodon</a>,\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://twitter.com/rust_gamedev/status/1786406704629829935\">Twitter</a>,\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://discord.gg/yNtPTb2\">Discord</a>.</p>\n        </div>",
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  "published": "2024-05-03T00:00:00+00:00",
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