It’s insane how the time flies. I recently started sending out Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter to fellow game devs, and now it looks like “recently” was almost two years ago!
The first issue was sent on Friday January 10th 2014 to my two test emails. Fast forward to December 4th 2015 and there are more than 3500 subscribers interested in the gamedev news! It was carefully crafted from day one, so the global open rate is around 48% and click rate around 20%. The number of subscribers is relatively low if you compare it to tens of thousands of readers subscribing JavaScript Weekly, but HTML5 games niche didn’t have such newsletter back then, so I decided to create it on my own. It’s growing organically without any special promotion because of the lack of time.
Win some swag
I hope you enjoyed reading the newsletter so far. To celebrate 100th issue I’m giving away a special package with two unique js13kGames t-shirts.
To win it send me an email to contact@gamedevjsweekly.com with the title #100 and the answer to this question:
Why have you subscribed to the Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter?
Be creative! You have a week, the winner will be announced as an update to this blog post on Friday December 11th. The best, most original answer will win - good luck and have fun!
Winners!
It was great to see so many of you sent in your answers to the question above. It was hard to pick the best one, so I decided to give away two sets of t-shirts. The first one is for Adrián Arroyo Calle:
Because my sectarian leader forced me to study the best game that God has ever created in order to program it here. It was LIFE.
The second one for Robb:
I was thinking all the time about developing my game ideas. In school I had learned basic C++ programming and instead of doing exercise on IT lessons I had made sokoban prototype in console. My teacher was disappointed and curious on the other hand. My history with Gamedev.js Weekly started during my summer holidays. I had lot of free time, which I could spend on things connected with my interests. I’ve seen videos, which contains lectures given by Mikołaj Kamiński. Then I’ve started searching for more information about HTML5 games. I’ve heard, that technology have been developed enough to create awesome games. That day I found and subscribed Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter, which still ensures me bunch of fresh news every week. I’ve dived into learning Javascript, which provide me good opportunities for producing my fancy imagination come true (everyone was blaming me for creating next sokoban-type game, I can’t understand why…). After finishing some tutorials (I really appreciate 2D breakout tutorial on Mozilla’s website) I have started reading about framework called Phaser. It was good choice. I could easily make games playable on every platform. I’ve even encouraged my friend in learning Javascript and HTML5!
Above all, there is still a lot of work to do and lines of code to write for me. I’m hoping to get opportunity to high-five with you one day and share some ideas, and of course thank you personally. Perhaps during next gaming fair or game jam. Keep on working, I can’t wait seeing next newsletter! Make awesome work helping former devs with learning how to make their dreams come true!
Congratulations! I also wanted to mention two other answers that make me feel the newsletter have a purpose and is doing quite fine:
I subscribed to the Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter because, even though I don’t make any games, I do a lot of work on the web, and I find the techniques fascinating and often relevant to the stuff I am doing. We all need to write fast code, and iterate, and everyone wants to make stuff fun, right?
I don’t really follow newsletters, and to be honest, I have no idea when or why I followed this one. However I’m genuinely glad I did. It’s my portal into JS/HTML5 news, and every few weeks I always come across an article that makes me drop everything and spend a weekend just trying stuff out.
The first one was from Blake Winton and the second one from K. Lemet - thanks guys!
Ps. The newsletter is open for advert opportunities, and you can also help me keep it going for at least the next 100 issues by sending a donation, thank you!