News for the weeks of December 22 and 29, 2025: MongoDB exploit drops on Christmas day in true Grinchy fashion, a new backend library called Vla that is far from blah, and starter templates for your next React Native app. From the community: NodeTLV keynote, strongly-typed events in gamedev, and a 6-hour deep dive into Doom in TS.

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Excalibur.js is the free and open source friendly TypeScript 2D game engine for the web. Learn to make web games with TypeScript or JavaScript! Excalibur comes out-of-the-box with everything you need, like physics, sprites, animations, sound effects, and first-party plugins for popular 2D gamedev tools.

• Homepage and Docs: https://excaliburjs.com
• Make Your First Game in 10 Minutes
• Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/9UemP985Uy

Chapters

• (00:00) - Welcome to the New Year
• (07:52) - News: The Grinch Stole Your Secrets with MongoBleed
• (10:39) - News: Node.js Security Release Expected January 7
• (11:13) - Library Watch: Vla, the Missing Backend Library for TypeScript
• (13:13) - Library Watch: macOS iMessage API SDK for TypeScript
• (13:53) - Library Watch: React Native UI Templates
• (14:51) - Library Watch: js-draw, a Canvas Drawing Library
• (15:48) - Community Highlight: Strongly-typed Events in GameDev by Justin Young
• (16:19) - Community Highlight: Flint, a Modern Linting Engine by Josh Goldberg
• (16:42) - Community Highlight: Tooling Like It's 2025 by Josh Goldberg
• (16:59) - Community Highlight: Major Color.js Update by Lea Verou
• (19:18) - Community Highlight: Building Reusable Form Component Library with TanStack Form by Matt Huggins
• (19:54) - Community Highlight: Static Hermes is Pretty Cool by Devon Govett
• (21:11) - Community Highlight: DOOM in TS Types Stream by MiTS
• (22:09) - Community Highlight: Solitaire in TypeScript by Oidoid
• (22:57) - Community Highlight: Lo-fi Valley Engine by Leocast
• (24:12) - Bleet of the Year
• (25:26) - Cool Link: TypeScript Function Inlining
• (25:49) - Cool Link: Pass Key Explainer
• (29:58) - Cool Game: Outer Worlds 2
• (31:26) - The Minnesota Long Goodbye

News

• PSA: Exploited MongoBleed flaw leaks MongoDB secrets, 87K servers exposed 
• PSA: Node.js — Wednesday, January 7, 2026 Security Releases 
• Library Watch: Vla, a data layer that integrates into any TypeScript framework
• Library Watch: TypeScript SDK for iMessage automation on macOS
• Library Watch: React Native UI Templates
• Library Watch: js-draw, pencil/pen drawing utilities for JS and Canvas

From the Community

• Justin Young: Strongly Typed Events in GameDev
• Josh Goldberg: NodeTLV Keynote, Tooling Like It's 2025 
• Josh Goldberg: What Flint Does Differently
• Lea Verou: ColorJS major release
• Matt Huggins: Building a Reusable Form Component Library with TanStack Form
• Devon Govett: Static Hermes is pretty cool
• MiTS: Doom TS deep dive stream
• oidoid: Super Patience - Pixelated Solitaire in Typescript
• Leoocast: Lofi Valley Engine - Make your dream Stardew Valley clone

Cool Links

• Cool Watch: How Passkeys Work - Computerphile 
• Cool Tool: JoshuaKGoldberg/ts-function-inliner: TypeScript transformation that inlines calls to small functions
• Cool Game: Outer Worlds 2, from the developers of Fallout: New Vegas and Avowed

Music
Seahorse Dreams by Kubbi (Spotify)