# Best practices

Best practices for launching and maintaining your browser game

Source: https://docs.wavedash.com/tutorials/best-practices

Browser games have a few quirks that are easy to miss. These best practices will help you avoid the most common issues.

## Shader stutter

WebGL and WebGPU shaders are compiled the first time they're drawn, which causes visible frame hitches. Warm them up during your loading screen by rendering every material off-screen before the game starts — in Unity call `ShaderVariantCollection.WarmUp()`, in Godot instantiate materials in a preload scene. See [Shader stutter](/tutorials/shader-stutter) for the full cause, warmup strategies, and how to reproduce stutter during development (including the macOS Metal-cache gotcha).

## The Escape key

Pressing Escape exits fullscreen and releases pointer lock *before* your game code sees the keypress. Don't use Escape as your pause key. Instead, listen for the browser events:

```javascript
document.addEventListener("fullscreenchange", () => {
  if (!document.fullscreenElement) game.pause();
});
document.addEventListener("pointerlockchange", () => {
  if (!document.pointerLockElement) game.showMenu();
});
```

## Audio on Safari

Safari won't play any audio until the user interacts with the page. You need to resume the audio context on the first click or tap:

```javascript
document.addEventListener("click", () => {
  if (audioContext.state === "suspended") audioContext.resume();
}, { once: true });
```

If you're using Unity, switch audio clips to **Compressed in Memory** instead of "Decompress on Load" — it uses dramatically less memory. Also use **AAC/M4A** instead of OGG since Safari doesn't support OGG natively.

## Memory in long sessions

WebAssembly memory can only grow, never shrink. Games that load and unload assets over a long play session will fragment memory until the tab eventually crashes.

- Load assets in groups that get unloaded together
- Monitor memory with Chrome DevTools or Unity's Profiler
- Test 30+ minute sessions, not just quick launches

## Before you launch

A quick checklist to run through before publishing:

- Title, description, screenshots, and tags are set
- Production build uploaded with debug flags off
- Tested on wavedash.com in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari
- SDK features work (leaderboards, achievements, saves, multiplayer)
- Audio plays correctly after first interaction
- Load time and frame rate are acceptable