This is just a quick post to say that I've returned from my vacation. It was really nice to spend time at the beach, baking in the sun and jumping around in the surf like a loon. But alas, all good things must come to an end!

I spent today in the office preparing for the months ahead. This included sorting through all of the great Pull Requests that had appeared on GitHub over the past couple of weeks. I've merged most of these, commented on others, and closed a bunch of issues. There are a few core things left that I need to tackle, and then I'll publish Phaser 3.61.

I also spent a little time updating the Phaser 4 build tools. Since I was last in Phaser 4 land ESBuild has gone through a lot of big updates! So, I had to recode all of my configuration scripts. Thankfully, it didn't really take very long. And it's great to see that ESBuild is just as fantastic as it was the last time I used it :) On the downside, TypeScript has also updated a lot! So now I've got a whole bunch of issues in the codebase to resolve. They don't look too terrible, but it will still take time. The life of an open-source maintainer is never idle, that's for sure. Even if you don't change, the platform beneath you does. It's like being on a constant treadmill sometimes. Regardless, I'm really excited about working on Phaser 4 again.

The eagle-eyed observers out there will have noticed that I restored the old Phaser website. I still haven't finished working on the new one, and it was just getting silly with the 'coming soon' page, so I figured out a way to provision a really old server, install my ancient PHP libs on there, and get it all running again. I am still working on the new site, however. But having the old one restored does at least take a little pressure off me (and our Discord!). I'm really excited about all of the new designs that Tom has been working on. He's created some incredible art for the new site - it'll be really fun to kick it all out when it's ready.

I'm a Google Open Source Peer Bonus Winner!

I was very pleased to be notified that Googler Yuval Greenfield had nominated me for their Open Source Peer Bonus Program! They explain it as:

"This program recognizes external open source contributors who have been nominated by Googlers for their exceptional contributions to open source projects.

The Google Open Source Peer Bonus Program is a key part of Google's ongoing commitment to open source software. By supporting the development and growth of open source projects, Google is fostering a more collaborative and innovative software ecosystem that benefits everyone."

It was great to receive the award but more importantly, it was great to receive the recognition :)

And finally, on a similar note, thank you to the new patrons who have joined over the past few months. It genuinely does make a big difference! Your funding is my sole source of income and allows me to do everything that I can to help maintain and improve Phaser. So every penny you contribute really does get put back in to the Phaser ecosystem.

Anyway, time to get back to GitHub issues. My next post will be the 3.61 release post. Until then, please find me on Discord or the Phaser Forum.