Gates of Ael — A Science-Fantasy Browser MMORPG Built with Babylon.js

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Hi Babylon.js community! :waving_hand:

I’d like to share Gates of Ael, an independent browser MMORPG I’m developing with Babylon.js.

The idea is to bring exploration, character progression, and a shared online world directly to the browser. The setting mixes fantasy landscapes with futuristic technology: forests, settlements, ancient portals, and distant worlds connected by a mysterious gate network.

:video_game: Play here: https://aelonline.com

What’s in the game?

  • A shared online world, alongside a solo mode.

  • Character creation with different peoples, classes, and appearance options.

  • Progression up to level 50, quests, loot, and equipment upgrades.

  • Action combat and tab targeting.

  • Dungeons, bosses, gathering, crafting, and fishing.

  • Friends, guilds, and player trading.

  • A barber for changing an existing character’s appearance.

  • Touch controls and an installable web app experience.

Built with Babylon.js

Babylon.js handles the client-side 3D rendering, with WebGL as the default and an optional WebGPU rendering path. A Node.js server handles the shared world simulation and persistence, communicating with clients over WebSockets.

Performance has been one of the most interesting challenges: rendering lots of animated characters, equipment, vegetation, and combat effects while keeping the game accessible across different devices. I’m working with instancing, distance-based detail and animation budgets, asset caching, and baked animations for compatible distant characters.

The visual direction is moving towards a cohesive, stylized science-fantasy look. There’s still plenty to improve, particularly in character equipment, animation, environmental variety, and performance on Safari and mobile devices.

An alpha in active development

This is an early, playable alpha, and many systems still need polish and balancing. Please expect bugs, uneven performance, and content that is still being expanded.

I’d love feedback from the Babylon community, especially on:

  • How the game performs on your device and browser.

  • The readability and consistency of the visual style.

  • Character movement, combat effects, and the first-time experience.

  • Approaches to efficiently rendering crowds of equipped, animated characters.

If you report a performance issue, including your browser, device or GPU, and where it happened would be really helpful.

Thanks to the Babylon.js team and community for making projects like this possible. I’m excited to share the progress and learn from your experience!

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