rcade

The RCade CLI for creating and managing arcade games.

Installation

npm install -g rcade

Or use directly without installing:

npm create rcade@latest

What It Does

The rcade CLI scaffolds new game projects with everything you need:

• Game templates (JavaScript, TypeScript, or Rust)
• Pre-configured build tooling (Vite or Trunk)
• Auto-generated GitHub Actions workflow for deployment
• rcade.manifest.json for game metadata
• Git repository initialization

Usage

Create a New Game

Run the create command and follow the interactive prompts:

npm create rcade@latest

You'll be asked for:

| Prompt | Description | |--------|-------------| | Game identifier | URL-safe name (e.g., space-blaster) | | Display name | Human-readable name (e.g., Space Blaster) | | Description | Short description of your game | | Visibility | public, internal, or private | | Versioning | automatic (recommended) or manual | | Template | JavaScript, TypeScript, or Rust | | Package manager | npm, pnpm, or bun |

Remix an Existing Game

Want to build on a game from the rcade-community archive? Use the remix command:

npx rcade@latest remix <game-name>

This clones the game and sets it up as a new project for you to modify.

Developing on a Fork

If you fork an existing RCade game repository on GitHub, you'll need to rename your game to avoid conflicts with the original. Each game name can only be registered to one repository.

Edit rcade.manifest.json and change the name field:

{
  "name": "original-game-yourname",
  ...
}

Local Development with the Cabinet

Test your game in the actual rcade cabinet environment:

npx rcade@latest dev <server-url>

For example, if your game is running on http://localhost:5173:

npx rcade@latest dev http://localhost:5173

This downloads and launches the rcade cabinet application, loading your game from the local dev server. Options:

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | -v, --version <version> | Use a specific cabinet version | | --force-download | Force re-download of the cabinet binary | | --scale <factor> | Scale factor for the window (default: 2) |

Manage Cabinet Cache

The cabinet binary is cached locally. Manage it with:

npx rcade@latest cache list    # List cached versions
npx rcade@latest cache clear   # Clear all cached versions
npx rcade@latest cache dir     # Print the cache directory path

Templates

Vanilla JavaScript

Basic Vite setup with vanilla JavaScript. Best for quick prototypes.

Vanilla TypeScript

Vite setup with TypeScript. Best for larger projects that benefit from type safety.

p5.js

Vite setup with p5.js for creative coding. Great for visual games and animations with an easy-to-use drawing API.

p5.js + TypeScript

p5.js with TypeScript support. Combines creative coding with type safety.

Vanilla Rust

Trunk setup compiling Rust to WebAssembly. Best for performance-critical games.

Generated Files

my-game/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── deploy.yaml      # Auto-deployment to RCade
├── src/
│   └── main.js              # Your game code
├── index.html               # Entry point
├── package.json             # Dependencies
└── rcade.manifest.json      # Game metadata

Development

Prerequisites

• Bun runtime

Setup

bun install

Build

bun run build

This outputs the CLI to dist/index.js.

Local Testing

bun run src/index.ts