It’s been a big summer at Phaser Studio, and we’ve got lots to share. From the evolution of Phaser itself, to the launch of Beam, to powerful new tooling like Editor 5 — Phaser is pushing forward. Let’s dive in!

🎨 Say Hello to Beam (on Discord)

If you haven’t heard yet, Beam is our new “no-code” game creation tool, built right on top of Phaser v4. Beam empowers anyone to create art, music, and games using AI and an infinite-grid interface. It’s designed for non-coders but still produces real Phaser-powered games you can publish and play. The Discord is opening today, stop in and say “hello” here!

Join the Discord to see the games and art, but note access itself is still only available to the waitlist on beam.game. We’ll be bringing in more early creators soon, so hop on and help shape the future of game development!

Scared of commitment? Be the first to follow our socials on YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok.

🛠️ Phaser Editor 5 is (almost) Here

Phaser Editor v5 is nearly here, bringing full Phaser 4 support, enterprise-grade workflow improvements, and even optional AI helpers to speed up game creation. From new rendering filters and Spine runtime integration to smarter prefab management and cleaner UI, the editor is evolving into a more powerful, flexible tool for all developers. Read all about it and more here!

The team is also experimenting with AI integrations like context-aware object naming, auto-layering, and level prototyping, while keeping them optional for those who prefer a traditional workflow. Editor v5 is slated for release this quarter, and all current subscribers will be upgraded automatically—though new pricing will take effect in October…

💵 Pricing Updates to Phaser Editor

Coming in October, we’ll be rolling out a simplified subscription model for Phaser Editor. Going forward, there will be two tiers:

1. Pro – $29/month: Full access to the Editor, updates, and community support.

2. Enterprise – $99/month: All Pro features plus priority support, single payee systems, and early access to upcoming Pro Tools.

Existing members will be grandfathered in at their current rates. Your subscription and benefits will remain unchanged, but any new upgrades or subscriptions will follow the updated pricing.

We believe this simpler model makes it easier to choose the right level of support and features, while ensuring we can continue to invest heavily in Phaser’s development.

😱 New Games, Tutorials, and Guides — Oh My!

We may have been quieter recently, but our community certainly hasn’t! As always, you can check out fresh guides, tutorials, and community stories over on phaser.io/news

A few highlights:

1. Ancient Beast is a fully open-source strategy game. Take to battle with your army of creatures and win by being strategic rather than lucky.

2. Real-time Chess – made with C#, React, and Phaser. Who wins?

3. Devvit Starter Template – get started with Reddit’s new development platform in a matter of minutes… maybe an hour.

4. One Shader, Many Effects - how to create Pokémon battle transitions!

Check the full list anytime at phaser.io/news. Do it. 😅

🪐 Phaser v4 and a Mini Phaser Studio Update

A couple of weeks ago, we published Phaser v4 Release Candidate 5. This is the final RC version of Phaser 4, which includes enhancements based on community feedback and our own internal testing. We tied up a lot of issues, optimized the heck out of masks and rounded rectangles, and fixed some gnarly bugs. It’s a nice, solid release.

Read about and Download Phaser v4 RC5 here.

So, what's left to do? Truth be told, not very much at all. We’ve been using v4 heavily in production during the creation of Beam, so we’re more than comfortable about its capabilities and performance. Yet we haven’t pulled the trigger on the 4.0.0 release because of a curveball thrown at us by, of all things, our docs site! Hashnode hosts our current docs site. They created a great service that allowed us to author our documents as Markdown files, following a flexible folder structure. Every time we pushed to the docs repository, Hashnode would ingest the changes and update our docs site instantly.

This was lovely! Except that they are now sunsetting the service. 🙄 I can only assume market conditions weren’t strong enough, and maybe it cost more to maintain than it generated. Whatever the reason, we now need to find yet another home for our documentation. Usually, this wouldn’t be too much of a chore, but as a team, we are all absolutely flat-out working on Phaser 4, Editor 5, and Beam, so it is a distraction we really didn’t need. And truth be told, one we’ve not yet fully solved.

If anyone is interested in building the docs site for us in a way that eliminates the need to convert all our content to another format, please drop me a line with your thoughts. It’s something we’d be willing to invest a little in so that we can see v4.0.0 finally in the wild!

Learn Phaser 3 by Building a Space Shooter

Build a classic arcade-style shooter using Phaser 3, starting with the basics and moving toward a fully playable game. Along the way, you’ll master essential game development concepts, including sprites, groups, physics, input handling, and simple animations.

Watch the whole series on YouTube!

📢 Share Your Content with 23,000+ Readers

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Until the next issue, happy coding!