js13kGames Resources

List of useful tools, materials, and tutorials for creating a js13kGames entry, and post-mortems from already created games. The items are in no particular order. Please feel free to suggest additions or edits to the list either by sending a pull request on GitHub or emailing them to contact@js13kgames.com.

Micro game engines and boilerplates

• ox - tiny 2D game framework for the web
• Selfish - class-free, pure prototypal inheritance
• Mibbu - Javascript game microframework
• jAllegro - JavaScript port of a game programming library
• Ocelot - minimalist HTML5 2D game engine, Ocelot aims for simplicity and small filesize
• js13k-boilerplate - js13kGames boilerplate
• JS13k Gulp workflow - A gulp-powered workflow with source file minification, image optimization and zip generation
• js13k-toolkit - starter repository for js13kGames, a set of tools for developing a JS game and keeping it under 13kb
• js13k-requirejs - require.js-powered application template with build tools
• js13k-rollup - gulp/rollup.js powered template with support for ES2015 modules and build tools
• js13k-starter - sample js13k project structure, example and Gulp build process
• Tiny-Canvas - lightweight minimal implementation of a batched and stack matrix based Canvas with WebGL backend
• Ga - tiny, cute and friendly system for making HTML5 games
• Umbra - modernized and compressed spiritual successor to Ga, created for the 2020 JS13KGames competition.
• platform-engine - 2D platform engine that handles collisions, slopes, rotations, etc.
• js13kGames-boilerplate - includes game loop, utility functions and webpack config to package game with just one command
• js13k-webpack-starter - build with a single command, dev server, es2015 support
• js13k-base - simple commands, a server, and a sample game + framework
• js13k-webpack-typescript-starter-party - starter Webpack project to transpile TypeScript, build, and zip your game
• js13kgames-parcel-starter - starter repo to build, zip, and check the file size of your game with a single command
• responsiveTouchGameFramework - responsive canvas game framework with unified mouse / tactile inputs
• Tweetwork - a 140b canvas game framework
• Kontra - a lightweight JavaScript gaming micro-library, optimized for js13kGames
• JS13K 2017 Kit - a pico-8 like graphics engine and game boilerplate
• JS13K starter - gulp starter watching changes, and tasks to compile, minify, inline, and zip you game for better optimization
• js13k-ecs - a 1kb entity component system, designed for js13k
• js13k-2d - a <2kb 2D WebGL renderer, designed for js13k
• floppy - a micro game engine for beginners
• CSS3Dframework - a hackable ~1.7kb framework to display and animate CSS3D shapes
• MiniDragAndDrop - a DOM-based, easy-to-use drag&drop library for desktop and mobile browsers (639 bytes)
• Mini2Dphysics - a 1.5kb 2D physics engine. Just set the gravity, create Circles and Rectangles, and watch them fall and collide. (see index.html)
• Jabo Micro Game Engine - lightweight and beginner friendly micro game engine
• Craters.js mini game framework - simple to use hackable framework, compact at ~2kb zipped leaving enough room for game logic
• 280 bytes responsive, hackable, mobile friendly game framework with native arrow keys / WASD / ZQSD key inputs detection
• gamejam-boilerplate - a small, extendable boilerplate for 2D canvas games with keyboard/mouse/touch support, live reload and build script to package the game as an optimized ZIP

Sound and music

• SoundBox - an HTML5 synth music tracker
• jsfxr - as3sfxr synth port to JavaScript
• Arcade audio for js13kGames - blog post about generating your own sound effects
• Sonant-X - small JavaScript synthesizer library
• Web Audio API prototypes - demos using the Web Audio API to synthesize audio in the browser
• TinyMusic - simple, lightweight music synth/sequencer in JavaScript using the Web Audio API
• miniMusic - draw a melody with your mouse, choose the tempo, volume and base note, then export it as a super short JS code
• Google Music Creator - a simple music creator by Google
• ZzFX - Zuper Zmall Zeeded Zound Zynth
• ZzFXM - A tiny JavaScript music renderer for ZzFX

Artwork and fonts

• OpenGameArt - free graphics assets
• Sprite generator - 1 color sprite interpreter
• Voronoise - procedural pattern generation
• Blockies - identicon generation
• Pixel map generator - generate pixel maps
• Pixen - pixel art editor for Mac OS X
• CompressPNG - compress PNGs online
• TinyPNG - advanced lossy compression for PNG images that preserves full alpha transparency
• Pixel Font - tiny pixel font
• js13k-graphics-editor - Draw with your mouse and export the result as a tiny JS snippet
• Piskel - Pixel Art and Animated Sprites
• aseprite - animated sprite editor & pixel art tool
• Pyxel Edit - is a pixel art editor designed to make it fun and easy to make tilesets, levels and animations
• mini pixel font - Generate your pixel-art font with a few lines of JS
• js13k mini-svg editor - Create mini-svg graphics for your js13k game using a webbased editor
• js13k-path - draw polygons where every point is encoded on 1 ASCII char
• MiniPixelArt - a 8-color pixel-art editor and exporter (pure JS, no PNG)
• Twemoji-webfont - helps you live-load an Emoji webfont for any browser, after asking the user if he/she's okay
• SVGenerator - a dynamic SVG generator with custom colors
• CSS3D - The shortest way to write CSS3D cubes, pyramids and sprites (source code)
• Canvas-Txt - The better way to print multiline text on HTML5 canvas with auto line breaks and alignments (source code)
• SpriteStack - SpriteStack is a voxel editor suited for 2D artists featuring hand crafted retro renderer with animation support. It exports spritesheets, slices and vox models.
• tinyfont.js - Tiniest possible pixel font for your JS games (<700b zipped)!
• emoji - a webfont that can be loaded from your entry to fix/complete the emoji that can be seen by all your future players

Minification

• babeljs - JS (ES2015/2016/2017) minifier based on Babili, choose your flavor in the "presets" dropdown
• Packer - JavaScript compressor
• JavaScript Minifier - minify your JavaScript
• RegPack - self-contained packer for size-constrained JS code
• Closure Compiler - compile your code
• UglifyJS - JavaScript parser / mangler / compressor / beautifier library for NodeJS
• Extreme Javascript minification - compression experiments
• ADVZIP - zip file optimizer / recompressor (can reduce a 13kb zip to 9~11kb)
• miniMinifier - tiny (but super efficient) HTML and CSS minifiers
• Minify - a JavaScript and CSS minifier
• JSCompress - a compression tool for javascript
• ZPNG Minifier - in-browser jsExe
• int2binary2html - helps you to encode a long list of integers (0-255) in binary and embed it in your index.html
• Terser-online - a live version of the Terser ES6+ minifier, with extra compression options because every byte counts
• Efficient Compression Tool

WebXR resources

• A-Frame Documentation - introduciton to A-Frame
• A-Frame Slack invitation - ask questions here
• A-Frame Registry - useful components
• Awesome A-Frame - many more A-Frame resources & examples
• Gyro.js - harmonizes the gyroscope/accelerometer output across all mobile devices
• js13k A-Frame Webpack boilerplate - build with a single command, dev server, es2015 support, basic example

Other tools

• Video Game Name Generator - generate a name for your game
• stats.js - JavaScript performance monitor
• Live Editor - edit JavaScript code
• Minivents - small event system for JavaScript
• Maths and trigonometry cheat sheet for 2D games
• js13kserver - sandboxed JavaScript game server
• js13k-level-editor - 1kb 2D map editor that you can use for your game (or include in your game!)
• 3D-level-editor - CSS3D map editor with customizable 3D shapes and 2D sprites
• timestore - library to manage multiple timers inside separate contexts
• innerself - a React/Redux-like view and state management for your game's UI, in less than 400 bytes

Tutorials

• How to minify your HTML5 game for the js13kGames competition
• js13kGames tutorial - How to make a text game with HTML5
• Getting started with HTML5 game development
• Tiny platformer
• A first-person engine in 265 lines
• HTML5 game development Gulp workflow
• Trigonometry cheat sheet
• js13kGames tutorial video series by Zenva Academy - create a Frogger game in 13kb or less
• How to support arrow keys, WASD and ZQSD keyboard inputs in just 160b of JS
• How to make games with CSS3D
• A-Frame School
• Making Asteroids with Kontra.js and Web Maker - handy tutorial from Steven Lambert, the author of Kontra.js
• Procedurally Generated Dungeon Tutorial
• Creating simple music using the Web Audio API
• WebGL guide
• How to master screen orientation with HTML5 - 6 technics to detect, react and control screen orientation on mobile devices

Videos and audio

• Jupi Plays Indie Games 2014 - YouTube playlist with Jupiter Hadley playing all the games from the 2014 edition
• Let's play vids for js13k 2015 - YouTube playlist for 2015 entries by Keith Karnage
• Jupi Plays Indie Games 2015 - YouTube playlist for 2015 entries by Jupiter Hadley
• Jupi Plays Indie Games 2016 - YouTube playlist for 2016 entries by Jupiter Hadley
• JS13K 2017 games compilation - YouTube video by Agar3s
• Jupi Plays Indie Games 2017 - YouTube playlist for 2017 entries by Jupiter Hadley
• The Game Developers Radio: Game Design Daily 068 - game dev article round up part 02 on SoundCloud
• How to squeeze a HTML5 game in 13 kB? - Andrzej Mazur's introductory speech. Subtitles by B0dz1o
• Edge Guard podcast #111 about js13kGames 2019
• Jupi Plays Indie Games 2019 - YouTube playlist for 2019 entries by Jupiter Hadley

Blog posts and post mortems

• untitled13 by Gabor Heja
• 2015 post-mortems:
  • Nomis by Nick Branstein
  • Tiny Stealth by Eduardo Lopes
  • Time Worm by James Wright
  • It's a Lovely Day for a Drive by Jay Oster
  • Raw | space by Bitowl
  • GeoQuiz by Maxime Euzière
  • Behind Asteroids — The Dark Side by Gaëtan Renaudeau
  • Galactic Backfire by Rene Hangstrup Møller
  • Road Blocks by Ash Kyd
  • The Cursed Mirror by Marco Emiliozzi
  • Poust by Chris Glover
  • Bombs Away by Makeshift Mitten
  • ParaTec Systems by Logan Franken
  • Bokosan by Gabor Heja
• 7 Great JS13K 2015 Games by Paul Hack at Gamejolt Fireside
• Jam Favorites: JS13KGames Jam by Jupiter Hadley at Gamejolt Fireside
• js13kGames: Code golf for game devs - 2015 winners share their JavaScript tips and tricks at Mozilla Hacks
• Game Development, JavaScript and Codility - interview with FatFisz recruited by Codility after js13k 2015
• 2016 post-mortems:
  • Super Chrono Portal Maker by Xem
  • yoctoPets by Walsh9
  • Shuttle Power Dash by Mary Bush
  • Nexus Overload by Pixel Jerry
  • PULSE by Marco Fernandes
  • Blade Gunner by Jerome Lecomte
  • Glitch Hunt by James Wright
  • Glitch Torpedo by Plissken2013es
  • Nomis 2 by Nick Branstein
  • Buggy SnAkE by Zosia Korcz
  • Phosphorus Dating by Bruno Croci
• Build a game in 13kB or less with js13kGames - a recap of some entries from previous years and GitHub's invitation to 2017
• A-Frame comes to js13kGames: build a game in WebVR - Mozilla Hacks introducing new A-Frame category in 2017
• Interview with Andrzej Mazur - Game Development Using JavaScript - Jscrambler blog post
• What is the js13kGames competition? - blog post by Davit Markarian
• Lesser-known developer contests you can join in 2018 by Mike Sedzielewski at FreeCodeCamp
• 2017 post-mortems:
  • Lost In Labyrinth by Daniel Lawrence
  • Scribble by Vishnu Bharathi
  • Adrift by David Stark
  • The Lost Packets by Andrew Higson-Smith
  • LOSSST by Maxime EUZIERE (warning: big ass story: 10500 words + 80MB of images)
  • Greeble by Ryan Malm
  • Lost in Asterion by Santiago Zapata ⁄ Slashie
  • Lost in Cyberspace by Zosia Korcz
  • A Day in the Life by Mattia Fortunati
  • Lost in Jungle by Zendrael
  • AMAZ3D by Gaëtan Renaudeau
  • Fly South by Christian Paul
  • The Forest by Alex Porter
  • Lost in the woods by Abdun Nihaal
  • A Tourist In Paris by Jerome Lecomte
  • Vernissage by Platane
• Lessons learned from the A-Frame category in the js13kGames competition - tips and tricks from the WebVR category
• Organizing a successful competition that doesn’t scale - a look back at a few issues that occured during js13kGames 2017
• Create a 13 kB JavaScript game in 30 days with js13kGames - GitHub's tips and tricks article by Lee Reilly
• 2018 post-mortems:
  • 13Kars by Kesara
  • Disconnected by Nick Shillingford
  • Offline: O.E.C.T by Ben Fox
  • Goblin Tower 13k by Mys
  • JS13K Battlegrounds by Cody Ebberson
  • Off The Lines by Kev Etchells
  • You Are Offline by Kev Etchells
  • Risky Nav by Sebastian Dorn
  • ONOFF by Daniel Marino
  • [Hoverla] by Viktor Uhryn
  • SYSTEMS by nesrak1
  • Bo the Dog by Asisa
  • Bellwoods by Matt DesLauriers
  • Underrun by Dominic Szablewski
  • An Offline Life by André Jaenisch
  • Earth That Was by Jaime Gonzalez Garcia
  • When my vpn goes offline(...) by Lucas Bersier
  • Planet Figadore has gone OFFLINE by picosonic (Jasper Renow-Clarke)
  • Wired by Bojan Pejkovic
  • Watashi no Shashin by Brian Hambley
  • WiFiHunt by Shreyas Minocha
  • Lasergrid by Timmy Kokke
  • Exo by Jack Oatley
  • Quest of Tod by Samir Hodzic
  • The Core by Matthew McCord
  • Whirled on the JS Game Jam Code by Andras Serfozo
  • Twisty Polyhedra by Aditya Mishra
  • Keep-Alive by Surbhi Mahajan
  • Anti_Virus by Punit Gupta
  • Sum It Up by Hemkaran Raghav
  • Up & Down by Dinkar Pundir
  • Robo Galactic Shooter by Ashish Bardhan
  • Geoquiz2 / Envelope / Man on Wire by xem & friends
  • KickIt! by archiewald
  • ArcherFire: Duet of Aces by Santiago Zapata
  • Ranger Down by Nik Coughlin
  • SUBmersible WARship 2063 by Jerome Lecomte
  • Planetfall by Ian Chiao
• 13 Games in ≤ 13kB of JavaScript - GitHub's highlights by Lee Reilly
• These amazing browser games are 13 kilobytes or less in size by Logan Booker at Kotaku.com.au
• Tiny JavaScript games from the JS13kGames competition by David Cassel at The New Stack
• Eighth annual js13kGames challenge by Lee Reilly on GitHub's blog
• js13kGames — a review by eBay Tech
• This Real Time Strategy Game Is Just 13 Kilobytes by Karl Bode at Vice Games
• Highlights from the js13kGames 2019 competition - top 10 winners showcased by Lee Reilly on GitHub's blog
• 2019 post-mortems:
  • Making a Progressive WebXR game with 13Kb + three.js by Arturo Paracuellos
  • Back To The Stars by Marco Fernandes
  • BackFlipped: Back to the Basics by Tom Hermans (@Auroriax)
  • Backstabber Hero (Part 1 - Sources of inspiration) by Niklas Berg (@nkholski)
  • Back on Track (mania) by xem
  • How to design a javascript game? (in 13KB or less) by Joao Lopes (@mrlopis)
  • Retrohaunt by Donitz
  • Back from Kooky Island by Alexander Curtis
  • Creating a 13KB JS Game using SVG by Joao Lopes (@mrlopis)
  • Get Back From Robot City by Kev Etchells
  • BACKSPACE - Return to planet Figadore by picosonic (Jasper Renow-Clarke) (@femtosonic)
  • Lights Back On by Alejandro Molina (@amolinasalazar)
  • Quick Wins by Ryan Tyler (@Carelesslabs)
  • Backside Ball - Entering JS13KGames 2019 as a Beginner by Vertfromage
  • Backpack Monsters by @slashie_
  • The Making of VOIDCAL by Dominic Szablewski
  • Racer by James
  • Random Learnings from Entering JS13K Games 2019 by @JohnKilmister
  • JS13k 2019 Developer Commentary by Daniel Lawrence (@64Mega)
  • Backshot Tactics - A Multiplayer Game for js13kGames by Antonio Salvati (@salvan13)
  • A story of making a 13 kB game in 30 days. “The Wandering Wraith” post mortem. by Mateusz Tomczyk
  • Back to life by Serpent7776
  • Do Not Look Back! by Jerome Lecomte
  • Bubba's Back Room by Eric Rowell
  • Bounce Back Postmortem: A Boomerang Adventure by Frank Force
  • Backcountry by Michał Budzyński and Staś Małolepszy
• 2020 post-mortems:
  • Minipunk - Voxels and Bloom Shaders and boss fights, oh my by Cody Ebberson
  • Coding Golf - Broken Links by picosonic (Jasper Renow-Clarke) @femtosonic
  • JS13K 2020: Planet Not Found by Josep del Rio (@joseprio)
  • You have found - js13k game build with Haxe - by @mknol
  • Employee not Found - A journey of self-inflicted hardships - by @jayther
  • Manipulating SVG for fun and profit- Game devlog and postmortem - by @benjymous
  • Flow of Four - Intention Postmortem - by @SubZtep
  • Ned Snow - How did I design a WebVR game - by Juankz
  • 404 - Rhythm Not Found - by agar3s, mapedorr, QuietGecko and Slashie.
  • Find the theme - game made with OCaml - by @Serpent7776
  • Island Not Found - a post mortem - by Ben and Salvatore
  • 404 BC Pinball post-mortem by Adrian Lissot (@adrianlissot)
  • Building a Pseudo-3D Racing Game for the 2020 JS13k Game Jam by @mattmckenna

The first version of this list was originally created by John Kilmister.