What a week it's been! The headliner is that Phaser 2.5.0 is released. Wait, what happened to 2.4.9? The answer is that 2.4.9 was published with an issue in the TypeScript definitions, that would cause TS apps to fail to compile. Which was extremely frustrating, as I'd spent ages going through the defs with tslint and fixing all kinds of mistakes.

Rather than leave it broken, I wanted to release a version 2.4.9.1. Unsure if this was a valid numbering scheme I spent some time reading the Semver documentation, and realised that we've been doing it wrong for ages now. It appears we've been releasing MINOR level changes as just PATCH increments for a while now. With that in mind I figured it was time to start doing it properly. So 2.4.9 became 2.5.0, and we'll carry on from this point going forward.

Updated Docs, Examples and Sandbox

As well as releasing 2.5.0 I also spent some time fixing up the web site. All of the API Docs now include 2.5.0. And the Sandbox has also been updated, meaning you can code directly in 2.5.0 on there right away.

The Phaser Examples have been updated too. There are loads of new examples listed. Covering new features like Sprite alignment, the Weapons Plugin, and even Dolby Digital Audio. So have a dig around! The Examples site is of course running Phaser 2.5 as well. I even overhauled the Phaser GitHub page. It should be easier for beginners to navigate, and was given a new lick of paint too. Throw us a GitHub star if you like it please :)

Future Phaser Versions?

Phaser 2.5.1 is under development in the GitHub dev branch already. This is likely to be specifically a PATCH level release. The next MINOR version will be 2.6 and there are several features I'd like to add to it, including: Arcade Circles support, which can currently be found in its own branch). And also the new WebGL Tilemap Renderer.

Pete is very nearly finished on the new WebGL Tilemap Renderer, which is coming on so well! Finally we have super-smooth, hardware accelerated tilemaps :) Both of these features are targeted to drop in a Phaser 2.6 release.

Beyond that, as explained several issues ago, I'm going to take a look at using Pixi v4 inside Phaser. Pixi 4 was supposed to reach a final stable release this week, but that hasn't happened yet. As soon as it does I'll start testing, and make some decisions if we want to include it in Phaser v2 or not.

Arcade Physics 2 First Look

It's not just Phaser this week either! Felipe has been working like a trojan on the Arcade Physics 2 API, and has been making great progress.

We're now at the stage where we'd love it if you could pull down the Lazer and Lazer Examples repos, and start playing with the Arcade Physics 2 API.

It's all coded in ES6, and very different to how Phaser works internally. So he's written a detailed overview for you. This covers what's in the new API, how to get started with it, and where to find the examples and code.

Please give the Arcade Physics 2 First Look article and read, and let us know how you get on! You can open issues in the Lazer repo, post to the Lazer forum, or find us both on Slack (where he goes as @bitnenfer and I'm @rich)