My Experience Making a 13-Kilobyte Video Game in JavaScript
summary
A JavaScript game packed into 13 KB uses text bitmaps for monochrome sprites, XOR frame diffs for compression, and a tiny editor to export assets. Enemies are driven by a compact pseudo‑interpreter, levels are generated from mathematical curve functions, collisions use spatial hashing, rendering uses WebGL shaders, and audio is generated with jsfxl parameterized synthesis; the final ~10 KB build is open source and won community awards.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (11)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:1413KB competition rules
- 4:00Sprite creation
- 8:59Enemy and platform design
- 11:07Gameplay lessons
- 14:18Second version changes
- 17:50Font and audio
- 20:30Character behaviors
- 21:11Feedback and release
- 22:37Results and awards
- 24:49Steam release
related talks
21mMaking Awesome Games with LittleJS
42mMake coding fun: developing a game in the browser
46mBuild Your Own Game Engine in the Browser No experience necessary, all experience
25mJavascript as Play A Primer on Getting Started with Video Games
29m"JavaScript as Play"
37mDemo Reel & Tiny JavaScript
29mLet's make games with JavaScript
01h 14mWorkshop (Part 1): Building a Small 2D Game Engine in JS