Dear developers,
A number of changes have been introduced on the Studio and the BGA Framework since the last newsletter (sent in the end of Q2 2022). If you missed it, you can find them here : Q2 2026 newsletter.
This thread list all changes that have been make on the Studio and the BGA Framework side. We highly recommend you to read it, to know all the added or updated tools that are available. It should make coding of BGA games easier and faster
In green: information about migration, if you want to migrate an old game to the most recent ways
Studio
Export bug as JSON
A new button has been added to help you get a JSON export of multiple bug reports.
It will export the visible lines of bug reports in the page, so put the right filter, like only the Open ones, to get a meaningful export.
Then you can for example paste the result in your favorite coding toy to analyse the bug reports.
Batch edit bugs as devs
Filter bugs by your games, and you will be able to change status and add a comment en mass. You can also link you tickets together to edit them at once.
Default debug windows for counters and globals
In the debug menu, you now have a popin to update the counters. It will have at least player_score and player_score_aux, but also any TableCounter and PlayerCounter you defined in your game. No need to create debug functions to update the counters anymore!
A similar popin was added for $this->bga->globals API. This should reduce the need to open PhpMyAdmin.
Update on dummy translations tool
The block on the manage game page has been removed and replaced by a simpler way, see details here: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Trans ... _on_Studio
It doesn't test translations done on the PHP side (using $this->_) anymore, but you shouldn't use that anyway.
If you still use it for exceptions, see https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Main_ ... exceptions
Framework
3D support
There was a 3D mode on BGA that was rarely used because it brings nothing to players, but it was used in hacky way by some games like Taluva or Akropolis to render the game in 3D because they need it.
A new object to display 3D in a non-hacky way has been added : https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/3D, allowing more gesture controls, having multiple elements in 3D (one for each player in Akropolis), and a documented API.
Games using the hacky way have already been migrated to the new object.
WebP
Now that WebP is supported by all browsers, we recommend using it for your new projects instead of jpg/png. It combines lightweight files with transparency.
BGA was already serving automatically generated webp files from your jpg/png files to browsers that can handle it, so it’s simpler to just use webp from the start.
Replace jpg/png files by webp ones
New lib: bga-zoom
It allows you to scale the game area using integrated buttons.
https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/BgaZoom
Replace custom made zoom by the new lib
ItemManager
A new lib has been added to replace the Deck component. This new lib lets you describe your game items (card, dice, tokens, ...) in a PHP class, and will let you store any additional column, return proper typing, and use Collection
https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/ItemManager
Replace Deck (or custom lib) by ItemManager (you'll need some migration step)
End game scoring
In addition to the reverse scoring added recently, you can now set if solo/coop game was a win or loss, independent to displayed score.
All details are here: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Main_ ... ie_breaker, and the ide_helper has been updated accordingly.
A number of changes have been introduced on the Studio and the BGA Framework since the last newsletter (sent in the end of Q2 2022). If you missed it, you can find them here : Q2 2026 newsletter.
This thread list all changes that have been make on the Studio and the BGA Framework side. We highly recommend you to read it, to know all the added or updated tools that are available. It should make coding of BGA games easier and faster
In green: information about migration, if you want to migrate an old game to the most recent waysStudio
Export bug as JSON
A new button has been added to help you get a JSON export of multiple bug reports.
It will export the visible lines of bug reports in the page, so put the right filter, like only the Open ones, to get a meaningful export.
Then you can for example paste the result in your favorite coding toy to analyse the bug reports.
Batch edit bugs as devs
Filter bugs by your games, and you will be able to change status and add a comment en mass. You can also link you tickets together to edit them at once.
Default debug windows for counters and globals
In the debug menu, you now have a popin to update the counters. It will have at least player_score and player_score_aux, but also any TableCounter and PlayerCounter you defined in your game. No need to create debug functions to update the counters anymore!
A similar popin was added for $this->bga->globals API. This should reduce the need to open PhpMyAdmin.
Update on dummy translations tool
The block on the manage game page has been removed and replaced by a simpler way, see details here: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Trans ... _on_Studio
It doesn't test translations done on the PHP side (using $this->_) anymore, but you shouldn't use that anyway.
If you still use it for exceptions, see https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Main_ ... exceptions
Framework
3D support
There was a 3D mode on BGA that was rarely used because it brings nothing to players, but it was used in hacky way by some games like Taluva or Akropolis to render the game in 3D because they need it.
A new object to display 3D in a non-hacky way has been added : https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/3D, allowing more gesture controls, having multiple elements in 3D (one for each player in Akropolis), and a documented API.
Games using the hacky way have already been migrated to the new object.
WebP
Now that WebP is supported by all browsers, we recommend using it for your new projects instead of jpg/png. It combines lightweight files with transparency.
BGA was already serving automatically generated webp files from your jpg/png files to browsers that can handle it, so it’s simpler to just use webp from the start.
Replace jpg/png files by webp onesNew lib: bga-zoom
It allows you to scale the game area using integrated buttons.
https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/BgaZoom
Replace custom made zoom by the new libItemManager
A new lib has been added to replace the Deck component. This new lib lets you describe your game items (card, dice, tokens, ...) in a PHP class, and will let you store any additional column, return proper typing, and use Collection
https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/ItemManager
Replace Deck (or custom lib) by ItemManager (you'll need some migration step)End game scoring
In addition to the reverse scoring added recently, you can now set if solo/coop game was a win or loss, independent to displayed score.
All details are here: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Main_ ... ie_breaker, and the ide_helper has been updated accordingly.