How Sky Lords 3D was made

Sky Lords 3D is the work of one developer based in Marrakech, Morocco. It started as a simple idea: a 3D air-combat game that anyone could open in a browser tab, without installing anything or creating an account. This page tells how the game is built, what went wrong along the way, and what changed after players gave feedback.

A game in a web page

The game runs on Three.js, a library that draws 3D graphics in the browser with WebGL. The whole game is one file of code plus the library, so it loads quickly even on a phone. Almost nothing is downloaded: the terrain, the trees, the clouds and the camouflage on the F-16 are all generated by code. It was built with the help of AI tools for much of the programming, and with many hours of playing, measuring and fixing by hand.

The lag problem

One of the hardest lessons came when the jet models became more detailed. The game suddenly dropped to about five frames per second. The cause was simple: each jet was made of roughly a hundred small parts that the computer drew one by one, and every bullet and explosion added a light to the scene. The fix was to merge the parts of each jet into about ten objects and to remove the lights that came and went. The game went back to a smooth thirty frames per second or more. The game also checks its own speed while you play and lowers the quality on a slow device.

Sound without sound files

Every sound, from the engine to the explosions, is created by the browser at the moment you hear it. The music is a slow loop of four chords that gets faster and tenser when a boss arrives. This keeps the game small and makes it impossible to run into a missing file.

What players changed

Early on, the first boss only appeared after five kills, which meant the first half minute was quiet. A player pointed out that an early boss fight would make a stronger first impression. The first boss now arrives after three kills. Players also made clear that the difficulty rose too sharply at wave three, so enemy damage now grows slowly from one mission to the next, and you are repaired after each boss.

The retro mode

Because many people love old games, the site also has an 8-bit retro mode inspired by early console shooters. It is drawn on a tiny 160 by 192 pixel screen, it makes its sounds with simple beeps, and it fits in a file of about ten kilobytes. You can try it on the retro mode page.

What comes next

The plan is to keep adding missions, jets and bosses, to improve the water and the lighting, and to keep the game free. If you have an idea or found a bug, please write to us. To see everything the game offers today, read the campaign guide or start a game.