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LittleJS

Tiny fast HTML5 game engine with many features and no dependencies.

KilledByAPixel
JavaScript★ 4.2k⑂ 228 forksMITupdated 3 days ago
box2dgame-developmentgame-enginegamedevjavascriptjs13klittlejsopen-source
git clone https://github.com/KilledByAPixel/LittleJS.gitKilledByAPixel/LittleJS
README.mdfork it — it’s yours

LittleJS - The Tiny Fast JavaScript Game Engine

LittleJS Logo

NPM Package Build Size NPM Downloads DeepScan MIT License Discord

🚂 All Aboard!

LittleJS is a fast, lightweight, and fully open source HTML5 game engine designed for simplicity and performance. Its small footprint is packed with a comprehensive feature set including rendering, physics, particles, sound, and input handling. The code is very clean and well documented with many examples to get you started quickly.

🚀 Join the LittleJS Game Jam

The Third Annual LittleJS Game Jam will take place From Oct 2 to Nov 2! Unleash your creativity and develop amazing games using the LittleJS game engine.

😼👍 LittleJS + JS13k - We made a special branch designed for size coding events like JS13k.

Demos | Arcade | Docs | FAQ | Trailer | Discord

LittleJS Screenshot

LittleJS Features

✨ Graphics

  • Blazing fast WebGL2 + Canvas2D hybrid rendering system
  • Apply Shadertoy style shaders for post-processing effects
  • Robust particle effect system and effect design tool
  • Load sprites and animations into texture sheets at runtime, or import TexturePacker and Aseprite atlases
  • Optional 3D rendering with the Three.js plugin

🔊 Audio

  • Sound and music with mp3, ogg, or wave files
  • Use ZzFX sound generator to play sounds without asset files
  • Spatial audio stereo panning

🎮 Input

  • Comprehensive input handling for mouse, keyboard, gamepad, and touch
  • Customizable on screen gamepad designed for mobile devices

💥 Physics

  • Robust arcade physics system with collision handling
  • Fast tilemap collision and raycasting
  • Full Box2D integration for realistic physics using Box2D v2.3.1 wasm
  • Grid-based A* pathfinding plugin with optional path smoothing

🚀 Flexibility

  • Compatible with all modern web browsers and mobile devices
  • Full TypeScript and Module support with example projects for both
  • Vite starter template for instant dev server with hot reload
  • Great for size coding competitions like Js13kGames
  • Open Source and MIT licensed

🛠️ Developer Tools

  • Live example browser with code editor
  • Import level editor data from Tiled or other JSON
  • Debug overlay and primitive rendering system
  • Medal tracking system with Newgrounds support
  • Node.js build system

🤖 AI Friendly

  • The entire API is small and well documented so LLMs can produce high quality results
  • LittleJS AI Tools - Templates, examples, and prompts tuned for AI + LittleJS workflows
  • LittleJS GPT - Build LittleJS games right inside ChatGPT

🧊 3D with Three.js

  • Optional Three.js plugin renders a 3D scene behind the LittleJS canvas
  • 2D camera and 3D camera stay aligned so sprites and meshes share the same world space
  • LittleJS physics drive Three.js meshes with ThreeJSObject

How To Use LittleJS

To get started download the latest LittleJS package from GitHub or install via npm:

npm install littlejsengine

or use degit for an empty Vite template

npx degit KilledByAPixel/LittleJS/examples/vite-starter my-game
cd my-game
npm install
npm run dev

Here is a minimal Hello World example game.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<script src="../dist/littlejs.js"></script>
<script>
function gameInit() {}
function gameUpdate() {}
function gameUpdatePost() {}
function gameRender() {}
function gameRenderPost() { drawTextScreen('Hello World!', mainCanvasSize.scale(.5), 80); }
engineInit(gameInit, gameUpdate, gameUpdatePost, gameRender, gameRenderPost);
</script>

Tutorials

Examples

LittleJS comes with several demos both for learning and using as starter projects to create new games.

Builds

File Mode Module Use case
littlejs.js Debug No Debug mode with asserts
littlejs.release.js Release No Optimized for release
littlejs.min.js Release No Optimized for release and minified
littlejs.esm.js Debug ESM Debug mode with asserts
littlejs.esm.min.js Release ESM Optimized for release and minified

Games Made With LittleJS

Here are a few of the many amazing games created with LittleJS...

A collage of screenshots from games made with LittleJS

A sample of games built with LittleJS.

LittleJS pixel-art favicon

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