For a long time Phaser was a one person project, developed and maintained by Richard Davey. This history of Phaser starts here and then evolves to 2023 and the formation of the company Phaser Studio.
Origin Story
The first version of Phaser was released to the public all the way back in April 2013. It had been created primarily for use in commercial client work. I was building HTML5 games way ahead of the curve and demand for them was intense. Flash was still dominant but the writing was clearly on the wall and the web was moving fast. However, being so early meant there was simply nothing out there to help me make games. Undetered, I created a framework that would serve my needs and called it Phaser.
As someone who had professionally grown-up on the web it was natural for me to give back, so I released Phaser on GitHub as open source. Happy with the feature set and with documentation and examples under my belt, I unleashed it to the wider world via a few tweets and blog posts. I mean, what's the worst that could happen, right?
As it turns out, it quite literally changed my life.
In hindsight I see now that Phaser was the culmination of all of my passions. From my wide-eyed wonder at computer games all those decades ago, those first exposures to the early internet mixed with my love of coding, creating and empowering others to do the same. Technology waits for no one, and the web is no exception. Gaming is no exception, either. But those two things are perfect bed-fellows, and I'm so happy to be able to spend my days making them sing and dance together.
You may not realize it, but when you open-up a Phaser project you're working on top of a decades worth of devotion there in your code editor and four decades' worth of love and passion for technology and gaming.
Onwards and upwards!
I was recently asked, "Why do I still do it? What keeps you going?". After all, eleven years is a long time. Could I face staring down the barrel to another 10?
The answer is simple: Yes, absolutely.
Why? That's simple, too. It's because of all the incredible people out there who are making such amazing games with Phaser. It's genuinely exciting to see what you all create. From complete beginners to experienced devs, from runaway million-seller Steam chart-topping hits to enabling millions of children to learn to code. I've seen Phaser used in situations I could have never dreamed of all those years ago.
Phaser Studio is born
Phaser has always had a great community around it. They've helped find bugs and report issues, and provide lots of fixes and features over the years. Yet fundamentally it has been the sole full-time work of one person for the vast majority of that time.
It remained in this way until October 2023 when Phaser Studio was formed. This came about thanks to the foresight, belief in open source and funding from Open Core Ventures. Started by Sid Sijbrandij, co-founder and CEO of Gitlab, OCV works with technical founders to help create a portfolio of open-core software backed startups.
As a result of the funding it meant that we were able to hire staff to help create the vision that is Phaser. Together, as a team, we are working towards creating a powerful ecosystem of tools that will enable anyone to truly benefit from web games at scale.