Show DEV: NIB 1.0.0 — my free visual 2D & 3D game engine with JavaScript and web export

Murad — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 12:58:39 +0000

Update — 7 October 2026: NIB 1.0.1 is the current stable release.

The maintenance update fixes 40 confirmed issues in project safety, Undo/Redo and partial MCP edits, animation, physics, WebGL2/WebGPU rendering and web exports. Project and asset formats are unchanged.

For JavaScript/web projects, the export fixes preserve script/text strings in Single HTML, support RGB/RGBA hex colors, and allow exported scripts to load HDR assets. Back up your projects and extract the new version separately before checking save/reopen and an independent export.

Download 1.0.1 on itch.io · Full release notes and compatibility limits · Update devlog

The original introduction below, trailer and screenshots document 1.0.0. Two Thrones is a separate example and is not bundled in the 1.0.1 archive.

Hi DEV! I'm Murad Mammadov (MooradXO). Over the past several months, I've been building NIB, a visual game editor and engine for making 2D and 3D games with JavaScript. NIB 1.0.0, the first stable release, is now available.

The idea is to keep scene building, gameplay, character animation, effects, testing and browser export in one visible workspace. You can start with an empty scene or open a playable starter game and change it.

Download NIB on itch.io · Stable 1.0.0 release on GitHub

The trailer above contains actual gameplay and editor footage captured from the distributed 1.0.0 release.

From a scene to a playable game

My intended workflow is:

Build the scene: place models, sprites, lights and reusable prefabs; organize entities and components in the Hierarchy and Inspector.
Give it rules: use the built-in controllers and write JavaScript gameplay, with script parameters exposed in the Inspector.
Add motion and atmosphere: work with rigs, animation clips and state graphs, layered effects, spatial audio and game UI.
Test: switch into Play, check the Console and Profiler, then return to editing.
Share: export a Single HTML game or a Web Project ZIP for hosting.

Players of a hosted exported game do not need to install NIB or Node.js.

Relay Foundry: first-person movement, animated enemies, interactions and a mission objective.

What can you build with it?

The release includes ten playable starter games and six rendering/animation showcases. These demonstrate working combinations of the tools:

2D platformers: sprites, frame animation, platformer movement, double jump, camera following, collisions, parallax and UI.
FPS and exploration games: first-person controls, pointer lock, raycasts, scripted interactions, animated models, lighting, fog and spatial sound.
Arcade racing: vehicle control, chase cameras, checkpoints and lap timing.
Physics puzzles: Rapier 3D rigid bodies, colliders, joints, sensors and raycasts, alongside built-in 2D physics.
Action and RPG prototypes: baked grid navigation, animation states, combat scripts, effects, loot and menus.
Card, board and casual games: sprites, text, interactive UI, input and JavaScript rules.

For world building, NIB has terrain sculpting, surface painting, foliage scattering, PBR materials and post-processing. Rendering supports WebGL2 and WebGPU; availability depends on the browser and GPU.

Larger systems such as quests, inventory and progression are authored in your game's scripts. The presets give you examples to inspect and modify.

Signal Harbor: an illustrated five-level campaign with relays, menus and local save/continue.

Character animation and effects

The character tools let you adopt an imported skeleton or author a rig, edit bones and weights, preview deformation, create animation clips and connect them through state graphs. Retargeting uses explicit bone mapping; two-bone IK is available for manually configured targets.

The character editor, with a visible skeleton and editable rest transforms.

The Effect editor combines particle, geometry, trail, light and audio layers into reusable effects. You can preview them, adjust lifetime and curves, then trigger them from scripts or animation events.

An effect being edited inside the same workspace as the game scene.

Optional local MCP workflow

NIB ships with a local MCP server exposing 62 tools. A compatible client can inspect scenes, edit entities and scripts, work with assets, rigs and effects, author terrain or timeline keys, run Play tests, capture screenshots and export games.

My preferred loop is simple: inspect the scene, make a bounded change, look at the result and test it. The visual editor remains available throughout.

MCP is optional. You can use the editor directly, and any AI client or provider is configured separately.

Try the stable release

Install Node.js 22.12 or newer.
Download NIB-1.0.0.zip, rather than GitHub's automatic “Source code” archive, and extract the entire ZIP into a writable folder.
On Windows, run start.bat. On macOS/Linux, run sh start.sh.
Keep the local server running and open http://localhost:8670/editor/ in desktop Chrome or Edge.
Open File → New Scene (Genres), choose a preset, confirm Create and press Play.

The supplied editor is compiled: no Git checkout, build step or npm installation is required. Save your project and back up the projects folder before upgrading.

Current scope: the editor initially targets desktop Chromium. Test exported games on their intended devices. NIB does not supply a built-in multiplayer/cloud backend or mobile/console deployment pipeline. An optional Windows x64 packager can wrap a Single HTML game in Electron.

Free to make games; proprietary engine

NIB is free for personal, educational and commercial games, with no mandatory subscription or royalties. Your original game code and assets remain yours.

The engine/editor is proprietary. The NIB license permits distributing the runtime as part of your games, with the required notices; redistributing or rebranding the standalone engine/editor requires permission.

A newer game example: Two Thrones

I've also shared a development log for Two Thrones, a turn-based strategy game made with NIB, combining a 3D overworld with hex battles. It is a separate, newer example and is not included in the NIB 1.0.0 ZIP.

I'd like your feedback

If you try NIB, I'd love to hear how your first session goes. Open a preset, make a small change and export a game if you have time.

Was the first-run setup clear?
Which part of the editor felt confusing or slowed you down?
Did your exported game behave as expected?

Leave a comment here, use GitHub Issues for reproducible bugs, or visit GitHub Discussions for questions, ideas and creations. The release documentation covers the tools in more detail.

Thanks for taking a look!

Media credits: gameplay and editor captures are from NIB 1.0.0. Katana models shown in the trailer were generated with Meshy AI under CC BY 4.0; source exports were supplied by MooradXO, and geometry and textures were modified for NIB. The instrumental score was created specifically for the trailer. See the full third-party asset notices.

DEV Community: Murad