Godot 4.8 Beta 🧪, Raylib 6.2 🛠️, Mafia 3 City Design 🏙️
Engines and Frameworks 🛠️
Godot 4.8 enters beta and feature freeze
Godot 4.8 beta 1 is available for Linux, macOS and Windows, with development focused on regression fixes under a feature freeze. The 4.8 feature set includes mip-level texture streaming, visual shader node groups, runtime CanvasItem editing and automated Android and Java SDK setup; beta 1 adds no features beyond dev 7. macOS downloads now default to separate architecture builds, and .NET builds require .NET 10 or newer. The release remains prerelease software with known bugs and compatibility changes.
Raylib 6.2 released with redesigned image drawing API and security fixes
Raylib 6.2 is available with a redesigned CPU image drawing API aligned with the free, cross-platform C game development framework’s GPU screen and texture drawing APIs. The release standardizes file API return conventions, which may require updates to existing return-value checks, and addresses security vulnerabilities identified in an audit by Radically Open Security. It also adds 20 core API functions, bringing the total to 619, and 10 new examples.
Building and Designing Games 🎮
Fab supports editable UEFN source assets
Fab supports editable UEFN source assets that creators can import into projects and modify, extending its previous reference-only UEFN offering. Epic Games demonstrates the process using its free Verse UI Kit, which includes customizable buttons, tabs, dialogs, icons, materials and Verse code. The walkthrough covers styling widgets, importing assets through UEFN’s Fab panel and publishing source content through Fab’s listing and review process. Submissions must meet UEFN validation requirements and Fab’s technical and content guidelines.
Nathan Cheever explains city planning techniques behind Mafia 3’s New Bordeaux
World designer Nathan Cheever describes a three-stage workflow for open-world cities: establish the project vision, prototype the layout, then develop local details. Drawing on Mafia 3’s New Bordeaux, he explains projecting painted roads onto 3D blockouts, testing travel times, and using road hierarchies, landmarks and elevation to guide players. He says the city underwent more than 30 major designs, with production staggered across 10 districts. Trains were ultimately removed because of costly physics, traffic and NPC complications.
Game Development in Practice 💡
Glauber Costa Discusses Turso’s SQLite Rewrite and Reliability Testing
In an interview with Wookash Podcast, Turso co-founder Glauber Costa explains the company’s SQLite rewrite, designed to retain SQLite compatibility while adding features such as concurrent writes. He says the project is production-ready but has not reached general availability or version 1.0, with about 96% of SQLite’s TCL tests passing. Costa describes deterministic simulation testing, formal methods, differential testing and fuzzing, and outlines plans to expand a PostgreSQL-compatible interface.
Cabs of Chaos adds online multiplayer and expands its roster
Cabs of Chaos now has eight playable characters, one level and multiplayer combining local split-screen and peer-to-peer online play for up to four people, according to developer Matt of Game Dev Guide. The arcade driving game centers on stealing passengers from rival drivers, with local multiplayer remaining the focus. It is still in development and has a Steam page. Matt plans 16 characters and three levels, and is revising modular road and building tools, shaders and textures before creating the remaining levels.