Getting Started

The jspicl CLI streamlines your PICO-8 game development by taking care of the build process so you can focus on the implementation.

Features:

• Built-in build pipeline powered by esbuild
• Tree-shaking to minimize token count
• PNG spritesheet support - use your favorite image editor
• Live reloading with watch mode

Installation

npm install -D @jspicl/cli

Usage

First, create a config file:

// jspicl.config.ts
import type {Config} from "@jspicl/cli/types";

const config: Config = {
  jsOutput: "build/game.js",
  showStats: true
};

export default config;

Then create your game file:

function _draw() {
  cls();
  print("hello world");
}

Now run the CLI to generate a PICO-8 cartridge:

jspicl src/game.js build/game.p8 --config jspicl.config.ts --watch

Assuming you have PICO-8 installed on your system, you should see the following:

Any changes to the source code will reload PICO-8 automatically for you.

Note: Automatic PICO-8 reload is supported on macOS and Linux. On Windows, PICO-8 will launch but you'll need to press Ctrl+R to reload manually.