littlejsengine

v1.20.0

Published

9 hours ago

LittleJS - Tiny and Fast HTML5 Game Engine

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killedbyapixel

LittleJS HTML5 JavaScript game engine library JS13K webgl

LittleJS - The Tiny Fast JavaScript Game Engine

🚂 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 2D and 3D 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.

Demos | Arcade | Docs | FAQ | Trailer | Discord | AI

LittleJS Screenshot1

LittleJS Screenshot2

LittleJS Features

✨ Graphics

Blazing fast WebGL2 + Canvas2D hybrid rendering system
Apply Shadertoy style shaders for post-processing effects, or on any object or draw
2D lights with soft shadows, tinted glass and emissive objects
Robust particle effect system and effect design tool
Load sprites and animations into texture sheets at runtime, or import TexturePacker and Aseprite atlases

🧊 LittleJS 3D

Built-in 3D renderer that shares the canvas with your 2D game
3D objects with the same physics, children and timers as 2D
Shape builders, extruded sprites and text, and OBJ and glTF model loading
Height map terrain with collision and raycasts
Shadow maps, colored lights, specular, emissive glow and fog
Particles, trails, billboards and instanced drawing
Orbit, chase and first person cameras with mouse picking
Custom shaders on any object
Optional Three.js plugin as an alternative renderer

🔊 Audio

Sound and music with mp3, ogg, or wave files
Use ZzFX sound generator to play sounds without asset files
Spatial audio with stereo panning
Audio effects plugin with filter, reverb, delay, distortion and compressor

🎮 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
UI system with buttons, sliders, text input and nine-slice skins
Tween system with easing curves
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

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, with the script path pointing at the engine file from the download or npm package.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<script src="node_modules/littlejsengine/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

Making Awesome Games With LittleJS - A short talk about LittleJS with some tips on how to use it
Tutorial: Breakout - Learn how to make a simple game from scratch
Tutorial: Make a ski game - A tutorial by eoinmcg that shows how to make a pixel art style game
LittleJS Quick Reference Sheet - A reference sheet to help you get started
LittleJS FAQ - Answers to common questions about LittleJS
JS13k Branch - A special branch for size coding events that builds to a 7KB zip

Examples

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

Example Browser - Live example browser with all examples and editable source
LittleJS Arcade - Over 50 example games you can use as starter projects
Short Examples - 80+ single-file demos showing off individual engine features
Breakout - Block breaking game with post-processing effects
Puzzle Game - Match 3 puzzle game with HD rendering and high score tracking
Platformer - Platformer/shooter demo that loads level data
Box2D Demo - Box2D plugin demonstration and testbed
3D Example - The 3D plugin in one scene: terrain, shadows, lights, sprites, particles and bloom
3D Racing Game - Built-in 3D plugin: terrain, shadows and a chase camera in one short file
Three.js Platformer - 3D platformer with LittleJS gameplay and Three.js rendering
Stress Test - Sprite rendering benchmark and music system demo
Particle System Designer - Particle system editor and visualizer

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 |

Every build includes the plugins. littlejs.min.js is about 100 KB gzipped: the core engine is about 36 KB of that and the 3D plugins about 40 KB. A bundler like Vite leaves out the plugins a game does not use, so a small 2D game comes to about 26 KB gzipped, and a lit 3D scene to about 47 KB.

Games Made With LittleJS

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

Space Huggers - Roguelike platformer shoot-em-up game with procedural levels. by KilledByAPixel
Black Cat Squadron - One button shooter based on a WW2 Navy squadron. JS13k 5th place! by repsej
L1ttl3 Paws - Cat glider with procedural art and levels for JS13K! by KilledByAPixel
KleptoKitty - Cat themed heist puzzle. JS13K 22nd place. by eoinmcg
The Way of the Dodo - Single button platformer. JS13k 5th place! by repsej
Undergrowth - An interactive music videogame for the band Squid. by KilledByAPixel
204Snake! - A puzzle game that combines 2048 with snake. LittleJS Jam 1st place! by Sodoj and Shai-P
GATOR - Retro platformer shooter game where you rescue animals. LittleJS Jam 2nd place! by eoinmcg
A Hedgehog's Search - Adventure game starring a hedgehog. LittleJS Jam 3rd place! by willsm1111
Wendol Village - Warcraft inspired RTS game. by sanojian
Dead Again - Top down survival horror. by sanojian & repsej
Isletopia - Relaxing strategy game of greenifying barren islands. by Gamex Studio
Tetrimals - A puzzle game mixing Tetris with animals. by nixn
Bug&Bee - Low fi shoot em up with co-op gameplay. LittleJS Jam 1st place! by eoinmcg
Little Platformer - Platformer with many mechanics. LittleJS Jam 2nd place! by PSEMO, Solita666, GabrielRG, Nate
Alien Escape Pinball - Pinball game with physics and aliens. by Focaccai
LittleJS Jam 2024 Results - All the games from the first LittleJS Game Jam.
LittleJS Jam 2025 Results - All the games from the second LittleJS Game Jam.

A collage of screenshots from games made with LittleJS

A sample of games built with LittleJS.