Phaser World Issue 223

Author

Phaser Studio
February 12, 2026

Hey there, game dev! 👋

Happy Valentine's Week! 💝 This edition brings flexible Phaser Editor licences (no more subscription fatigue!), a v5 sneak peek with auto-generated animations, and Ben's latest Phaser 4 upgrades: Image-Based Lighting, advanced tint modes, and a Gradient revolution. Plus juicy game design tips, cool showcases, and tutorials to level up your projects.

Let's dive in! 🚀🦕

This week:

⭐️ Take Control: Phaser Editor Now Offers One-Time Licences

Pay only for what you need. Phaser Editor introduces one-time, fixed-duration licences: buy for one, three, or six months, and that's it. Perfect for freelancers, students, and short-term projects who don't want rolling subscriptions. Pay once, use it for your chosen period, and it simply expires. No auto-renewals, no forgotten charges 👛👌.

Need it long-term? Annual subscriptions continue to offer the best value. Plus, transfer and gift licences to your team with full control 🎁➡️.

🦕 Phaser Editor v5 Sneak Peek: Auto-Generated Sprite Animations

Phaser Editor v5 is almost here, and we're dropping sneak peek videos! 😁
Check out this sprite animation workflow that'll blow your mind: drag & drop atlas frames, auto-generate animations, and watch them play in your scene… in under 60 seconds.

Want to try it when v5 drops? Grab a one-time licence for one, three, or six months: perfect for getting started without long-term commitment 😉.

🎮 Phaser Showcase

» Stranger Land: Can You Escape the Drones?

Infiltrate, hack, and survive in this challenging stealth platformer by indie developer AyoXixx. Control a cubic yellow protagonist through hostile neon-soaked environments, evading drones and security systems. Activate strategic buttons to open temporary portals to new dimensions 🌀.

With its cyberpunk aesthetic of electric blues and vibrant pinks, this game built with Phaser challenges you to master stealth, perfect timing, and tactical intelligence. Can you escape? ✨

» Trois-Rivières (Three-Rivers): A Cozy Village Hides a Dark Digital Secret + Creator Interview

Explore, investigate, and uncover the hidden environmental cost of our digital world in this thought-provoking pixel-art adventure by Richard Hanna's team. Play as Maï, a hiker who discovers a charming village disrupted by river pollution. Behind its nostalgic, cozy aesthetic lies a powerful message about data centers, mining, and water exploitation 💧🌍.

We interviewed creator Richard Hanna about the game's environmental message, art style inspiration, and development insights. Here are some highlights:

“Getting to grips with Phaser and mastering it was very quick. There are plenty of examples and tutorials that helped me.”

"The most important thing before starting game development isn't about the technology or the code, it's about asking yourself what message you want to convey to the players."

Richard Hanna

🍊 Make Your Games Feel Juicy

Want to transform your game from "meh" to "wow"? 🤩 Juicy game design is all about adding satisfying feedback, dynamic animations, and delightful details that make players feel every action 🤜💫.

Screen shake, particle effects, smooth transitions, and punchy sound design can turn a simple mechanic into an addictive experience. 💪🧨

📚 Tutorials

» Build a Sokoban Puzzle Game in Phaser Editor

Scott Westover's complete free video series teaches you to create a Sokoban puzzle game with Phaser Editor. Learn grid-based mechanics, push block logic, win detection, and scene transitions—architecture fundamentals for multiple genres 🧩.

» PhaserFX: Professional Game Effects in One Line of Code

JanekovicS created PhaserFX, a lightweight library that brings instant polish to Phaser 3.60+ games. Add explosions, motion effects (Sway, Wobble, Float), camera shake, zoom, ghost trails, and more—no complex tweens required. Includes 24+ hand-tuned presets like Glass, Stone, and Cosmic. A commercial license covers unlimited projects! ✨

🚀 Phaser 4 Dev Log: Lighting, Advanced Tints & Gradient Revolution!

Ben's latest update brings serious upgrades! Tint now supports multiple modes: Multiply (the classic mode), Fill (fixed to properly handle translucent areas), Add, Screen, Overlay, and Hard Light. Color methods can now update existing Color objects instead of creating new ones, improving workflow efficiency.

Fill mode before and after: the white leak has been fixed to properly handle translucent areas

Game-changer: ImageLight introduces Image-Based Lighting using normal maps and environment maps to create soft, realistic lighting and reflections. It supports spherical reflection maps for changing environment angles. PanoramaBlur filter helps create softened environments for use with ImageLight. NormalTools lets you manipulate normal maps to change apparent depth or angle of objects.

ImageLight in action: realistic lighting shifts with different environment maps

Gradient is now a GameObject (not an FX anymore) and vastly more powerful. Create linear, bilinear, radial, and conic gradients with as many colors as you want. Control gradients in HSV, split them into quantized levels, shape them with interpolation, and apply dither options with interleaved gradient noise (IGN) to smooth out the image.

Radial gradient with unlimited color support and smooth transitions

Gradient options: split into 8 or 32 bands, control hue, and apply interpolation curves

Want to Reach 20,000+ Game Devs? 🚀

Built a game, created a tutorial, made a handy tool, or recorded a video? We're always hunting for cool projects to spotlight in our newsletter. Drop us a line and let's show the Phaser community what you've created 😁.

That's all for this edition. We're excited to see what you create next. Until then, happy coding! 💪🦕

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