PICO-8

PICO-8 exports carts to a single self-contained HTML file that embeds the p8.js runtime alongside your cart data. Wavedash hosts that file directly.

Export the cart

From the PICO-8 console:

load mygame.p8
export mygame.html

PICO-8 writes mygame.html and mygame.js next to the cart. You can also use -p to customise the HTML shell template. By default the export is standalone — no assets to fetch at runtime.

Move the two files into an upload directory of your choice (the example repo uses ./build/).

SDK integration

PICO-8 Lua can't call JavaScript directly, so the SDK has to run inside the exported HTML shell. Open the generated mygame.html and add the following just before </body>:

<script>
  (async () => {
    try {
      const Wavedash = window.Wavedash;
      // Stream mygame.js so the loading bar reflects real bytes.
      const r = await fetch("mygame.js");
      const total = +r.headers.get("Content-Length") || 0;
      if (total && r.body) {
        const reader = r.body.getReader();
        let received = 0;
        while (true) {
          const { done, value } = await reader.read();
          if (done) break;
          received += value.length;
          Wavedash.updateLoadProgressZeroToOne((received / total) * 0.95);
        }
      }
      Wavedash.updateLoadProgressZeroToOne(1.0);
      Wavedash.init({ debug: true });
    } catch (e) { console.warn("[wavedash] init failed:", e); }
  })();
</script>

PICO-8 regenerates the HTML on every export, so either re-paste after each export or use a custom shell template:

export mygame.html -p my-template

Where my-template.html sits in the plates/ folder of PICO-8's config directory (type folder in PICO-8 to open it) and is a copy of the default export template with the SDK snippet already embedded. Pass the plate name without the .html extension. PICO-8 will substitute your cart data into the template on every export.

wavedash.toml

game_id = "YOUR_GAME_ID_HERE"
upload_dir = "./build"
entrypoint = "index.html"

Controls

PICO-8's web player maps controls to keyboard by default: