Behind the Code: Building a 3D Game with Three.js

Published on January 8, 2026

Creating a 3D game that runs smoothly in a web browser used to be a dream. Today, thanks to technologies like WebGL and libraries like Three.js, it's a reality. In this article, I'll share some insights into the technical development of Duckov Explorer.

Why Three.js?

Three.js is a JavaScript library that abstracts away much of the complexity of raw WebGL. It provides a scene graph, cameras, lights, and materials out of the box. For Duckov Explorer, we needed a lightweight engine that could handle 3D models and physics without requiring a heavy game engine download.

The Scene Setup

Every Three.js application starts with three core components: a Scene, a Camera, and a Renderer.

const scene = new THREE.Scene();
const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(75, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.1, 1000);
const renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);

This simple snippet creates the void where Duckov lives. But a void is boring, so we added lighting.

Lighting the Universe

Lighting is crucial for 3D perception. We used a combination of AmbientLight for base visibility and DirectionalLight to simulate a sun-like source. This creates shadows and depth on the Duckov model.

Handling Physics

For movement, we didn't use a full physics engine like Cannon.js to keep the bundle size small. Instead, we implemented a custom, simplified physics system based on velocity vectors.

When the player presses 'W', we add a vector to the duck's velocity. We then apply a friction factor every frame to simulate air resistance (or space dust resistance?).

// Simplified movement logic
velocity.add(acceleration);
velocity.multiplyScalar(friction);
position.add(velocity);

Performance Optimization

One of the biggest challenges was maintaining 60 FPS on mobile devices. We achieved this by:

Low Poly Models: Keeping the vertex count of Duckov and the environment low.
Texture Atlas: Combining multiple textures into one to reduce draw calls.
Object Pooling: Reusing bullet objects instead of creating and destroying them, which reduces garbage collection pauses.

Conclusion

Building Duckov Explorer was a journey of balancing visual fidelity with performance. We hope this gives you a glimpse into the magic behind the pixels. If you're interested in web game development, I highly recommend diving into the Three.js documentation!