Carbon Engine 🎮, TypeScript 7 Speed ⚡, Infinite Ocean 🌊
🎮 Game Engines & Tech Foundations
EVE Online’s Carbon Engine Goes Open Source Under MIT
Fenris Creations (formerly CCP Games) has open sourced the Carbon Game Engine Framework, the technology behind EVE Online and EVE Frontier. Released mostly under the MIT license, Carbon is a collection of modular frameworks for rendering, physics, networking, audio, UI, resources, and Python-based scripting. Systems like Destiny and CarbonIO are proven at record-breaking MMO scales with thousands of concurrent players. While not a turnkey Unity/Unreal-style engine, Fenris is preparing a sample “test project” to help developers get started.
Inside Order of the Sinking Star: Custom Engine, 10 Years, 91% Demo
Indie icon Jonathan Blow returns to unpack his 10‑year odyssey on Order of the Sinking Star, built on a custom language and engine. He talks candidly about the surprisingly strong 91% Steam demo reception, fixing performance and controls, and why the grid-based design can’t compromise. Blow also dissects AAA’s cost explosion, the rise of “slop” games, and why originality is still the best strategy in a crowded market. Essential listening if you’re wrestling with scope, trends, or relevance.
⚡ Performance, Tools & Workflows
TypeScript 7: Native Compiler Delivers 10x Faster Builds
TypeScript 7’s headline feature is raw speed: a native Go-based compiler now builds large codebases 7.7–11.9x faster than TypeScript 6. Memory usage drops by up to 26% on projects like VS Code, Sentry, and Playwright. For developers, that means near-instant project loading, much faster find-all-references, and error feedback in about a second instead of tens of seconds. The post also links to a video overview that covers TypeScript 7 and popular TypeScript-ready 2D/3D game engines.
Building Infinite Oceans in Unity: Gerstner Waves, Foam & 300 FPS
A Reddit developer is building a Gerstner-based ocean system in Unity URP, reaching around 300 FPS on an RTX 5060. The prototype features tessellation for an “infinite” sea, improved wave distribution, SSR, and upgraded foam rendering with distance-aware cascades, with buoyancy and particles still in progress. They also share a learning roadmap for aspiring shader and water nerds, from The Unity Shaders Bible and YouTube channels like Acerola and Sebastian Lague to specialized courses and commercial water assets.
🧪 Visual Polish & First Impressions
Programmer’s Guide to Fast Stylized Levels with Unity Asset Store
Turbo Makes Games walks through building a stylized beach level for his zombie game, sharing environment design tips specifically for Unity programmers. He demonstrates a clean Asset Store workflow using a staging project, then shows how to block out the play area, define camera framing, and gradually dress the scene. The video also covers converting a bright daytime beach into a dark, foggy night setting and tuning stylized water. If you’re art-shy but want better levels, this is a very approachable guide.
From Cheap to Polished: 3 Unity Tricks for Killer First Impressions
Most Unity games lose polish in the first 10 seconds. This video shows how to fix that by booting into an empty scene for instant startup, disabling the stock Unity splash in favor of a custom one, and designing a lively, on-theme main menu. With simple animation, smart loading, and thoughtful branding, your game can feel far more premium without AAA resources. Learn how to turn a boring startup flow into a memorable, hype-building experience.
📈 Marketing & The Indie Landscape
Steam Is Effectively Infinite: The Real Risk for Indie Devs
Many indies delay Steam pages and outreach because they fear players and creators will get tired of their game. This article dismantles that idea, framing Steam as a vast “cosmos” where even massively successful, decade-old games still find huge new audiences. What actually limits success is how exciting your game is relative to competitors, not how often people see it. Instead of fearing overexposure, devs should focus on making a game that’s impossible to shrug off with “eh, maybe later.”