The past year was a solid one for Enclave Games. Not perfect, but definitely good - we’ve focused on Web Monetization the first half of 2021, while experimenting with Decentralization in the background the full twelve months.

This is the seventh Yearly Report already - make sure to check the previous ones if you want to learn more about our history: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. As usual, let’s start by reviewing the plans we had a year ago:

• Finish remaining Grant for the Web work as soon as possible: Web Monetized games, Survey, and the eBook. Try getting a second grant? We’ve managed to complete our grant, although with half a year delay, and the eBook was replaced with Gamedev.js Jam, plus we didn’t get the second one, which was quite sad to us as we really hoped we’d get it.
• Pick up Phaser 4 when it’s released, and make my own Nano version to build tiny games (for GameSnacks, KaiOS, etc), maybe even create a video tutorial about it. No Phaser 4, and no Nano version; v4 is still in the works as v3.50 was a huge effort and took Rich many months to complete.
• Do more tech speaking about Web Monetization. Having 4 talks out of (only) 6 about Web Monetization is a fairly decent result.
• Work closer with Coil. We didn’t collaborate much even though I tried getting into the Web Monetization API working group, becoming an early adopter or tester of new Coil features; even the Affiliates feature we were so excited about to use and promote was suppose to stay off grid and there was absolutely no follow up on that.
• Be more active within W3C Games community. The group was quite active with bi-monthly online meetups happening throughout the whole 2021 and even some extra workshops where we discussed a few related topics.
• Gamedev.js Jam 2021 on Itch.io again, most probably with Web Monetization. Done, with both Web Monetization and Decentralized categories.
• Gamedev.js Meetup(s) online, but in English. Nothing at all (one meetup was part of the second Grant for the Web grant proposal that was rejected), but hopefully we’ll do something in 2022; three obvious topics are: Web Monetization, js13kGames, and Decentralization.
• New backend for js13kGames, maybe an online t-shirt shop (finally), and some extra materials, since it’s going to be a tenth edition. No, but a new year started, so maybe this time…

Let’s look at the past twelve months and see what bad, ok, and good things had happened to our gamedev company.

Bad things

No new backend for js13kGames. I had a mental breakdown a few days after August 13th when I realized it’s not going to happen, as for months I was counting (and assuming) on FINALLY having it ready for the special, tenth edition of the competition in 2021. There’s still hope to do it this year though, some folks offered their help and I’ll try to make it a reality in 2022.

Gamedev.js meetups in Poland were completely dormant the whole year due to pandemic. We struggled to get enough partners to cover the costs back when we were organizing regular meetups in Warsaw, and the attendance was rather low anyway, but I’d like to get back to this at some point in time.

The Open HTML5 Games portal is still just a placeholder.

Ok things

We’ve released two new games: Body Guard (in May) and Forest Cuties (in June) as part of our Grant for the Web grant, so they were implementing Web Monetization features: first one probabilistic revenue sharing and the second receipt verifier service. There was also the NSHex Roulette app which was a digital expansion to the physical board game Neuroshima Hex. Of course we wanted more, both finishing some prototypes that now have a few good years and releasing something new, but it’s only two of us, so our capabilities are greatly limited.

Nothing around Gamedev.js Weekly, only the usual - sending emails every Friday. We do plan to refresh the website to host it on GitHub Pages and serve as the backup for all the issues, and update the (2014-ish!) template to be more mobile friendly.

Not much speaking - only six talks in a year, the number I was doing in 1-2 months a few years ago, but the pandemic is not helping, and I took the opportunity to focus on other things. It’s greater than zero, so I’m not gonna complain.

Good things

Arcadians! I collaborated with Paul Gadi from OP Games on a couple of projects, including Kernel Gaming Guild sessions, Decentralized categories in Gamedev.js Jam and js13kGames, OP Arcade, and it culminated with Arcadians NFT. They decided to give away 100% of the earnings from the sales to open source game engine creators, competitions, and developer communities, and that included us as well. This is a huge thing that will secure our future and will give us much needed fuel for 2022.

Even though we had to quickly adjust the old platform to run another edition of the js13kGames competition, it went relatively good. We’ve started a Meetup group, had the new Decentralized category, released Triska Reloaded, added new Unfinished category, welcomed Roadroller, started One js13k per day, and Badlucky joined Arcadians. The community is still strong.

Grant for the Web grant was completed. Instead of 6 months it took us almost 12, and the eBook had to be replaced with the Gamedev.js Jam. It could’ve been done better, but it could also end up way worse, so no compains here as well.

The very first edition of the Gamedev.js Survey was run in 2021, and we received almost half a thousand replies, which is way more than I was expecting. Especially when the survey had a total of 26 different questions, although all were optional. The published report can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF, and I’ve seen a few sources citing some stats from it already, which gives us extra energy to keep running it yearly.

Second edition of the Gamedev.js Jam happened on Itch.io, and this time we’ve added Web Monetization and Decentralized categories. The number of participants and submitted entries doubled compared to the previous year. There were prizes, challenges, experts, partners, and the overall sentiment was very positive.

Two full Kernel Blocks (3 and 4) with the Gaming Guild having a few online sessions each. Run by Paul Gadi, with my humble assistance - it was a great opportunity to talk about Web 3 game development with smart folks (invited guests) working in the crypto space for many years now, and having interesting opinions on everything that’s happening.

Plans for 2022

New backend for js13kGames, growing the platform with the community.

Focus on Decentralized games - develop something on our own, but also create teaching materials, run game jams, events, and more. Continue to collaborate with OP Games on the Arcadians NFT project, and everything else they plan on doing revolving around Web 3 games. Tighten the partnerships with Protocol Labs, NEAR Protocol, and few other initiatives like Flux and 4Everland.

Gamedev.js Survey 2022, new Gamedev.js Weekly website and email template, Gamedev.js Jam 2022, Gamedev.js online meetups throughout the year (most probably about Web Monetization, js13kGames, and Decentralized games).

A few new Enclave Games creations, hopefully with Phaser 4. Exploring Triska theme as it seems people like our black cat Badlucky.

Don’t forget about speaking opportunities.

Have fun with games.