BLIT386 is a palette-first retro game engine for the web, and this repository is the whole project - the engine, the scaffolder that writes you a running game in one command, a few dozen commented demos, and the site that documents them. Palette-first means you draw with numbered colors rather than RGBA pixels, so changing what color 3 means recolors everything drawn in it at once: a few bytes of palette upload, and water flows or the sky goes dark without a single pixel being redrawn. TypeScript throughout, WebGPU where the browser has it, an automatic Canvas 2D fallback where it does not.
You do not need to know anything about this repository to start. One command writes a complete, running project:
npm create blit386@latest my-game
cd my-game
npm run devIt works with npm, pnpm, yarn, or bun - whichever you ran it with. Open the address it prints, edit src/game.js, and
the page updates as you type. The generated project comes with a starter game, local documentation, and the blit CLI.
Already have a project and just want the engine in it? That path starts at
packages/blit386.
| Package | npm | What it is |
|---|---|---|
packages/blit386 |
blit386 |
The engine: palette, sprites, text, input, audio, seeded random, easing, post-process effects |
packages/create-blit386 |
create-blit386 |
The scaffolder behind npm create blit386@latest |
packages/kit |
@blit386/kit |
What a generated game gets: starter docs, game-author skills, the blit CLI |
packages/demos |
not published | The examples running at demos.blit386.dev |
packages/website |
not published | The docs site at blit386.dev |
The engine, the kit, and the scaffolder release together under one shared version number, so a scaffolded game always gets a kit that matches the engine it pins.
- blit386.dev - the project site
- blit386.dev/docs - the full documentation, typeset and searchable
- demos.blit386.dev - dozens of small examples, running in your browser
- awesome-blit386 - a curated list of games, tools, and resources
BLIT386 is built by Václav Vančura (@vancura), and help is welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md for the setup, the checks, and the commit conventions, and read CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md before taking part. Security reports have their own channel - SECURITY.md.
Working inside a single package? Each one has its own README.md covering what only it does.
ISC - see LICENSE.