Sharing & Exporting

Pyxen gives you two ways to get your game out into the world: Instant Share for quick sharing, and Export for full control: a web build, a Windows build, or the project itself.

Instant Share

In the narrowest iPad window, Share is in the toolbar’s ⋯ menu. Choose Share in the toolbar (or File › Share…): the sheet opens on Instant Share. Choose Share there and Pyxen builds your game, uploads it, and gives you a playable link on play.pyxen.com. The link is copied to your clipboard; Open plays it in your browser, and Share Link… sends it by Messages, Mail, AirDrop or another app.

• An account is optional: choose Share and send the link
• Anyone with the link can play your game in their browser
• Links expire after 7 days
• While you’re trying Pyxen, games you share carry the Pyxen watermark
• No tracking, no analytics — just your game

This is the fastest way to share what you’ve made.

Export

Choose File › Export… (Shift+Cmd+E) and pick what to make:

• Web Build (.zip): the game as a web page, for any website: your own, a game jam’s, a games site such as itch.io. It runs in any modern browser, with no plugins and no app.
• Windows Build (.zip): the game for a Windows 10 or later PC: unzip it and double-click the .exe to play. Nothing to install. A Windows build needs Pyxen unlocked.
• Project (.pyxen): the whole project, to keep or to open in Pyxen elsewhere. Your backup.

While you’re trying Pyxen, web builds carry the “Made with Pyxen” watermark. The .pyxen doesn’t.

What a web build holds

The ZIP holds:

• index.html, the page
• pyxen.wasm, the engine as WebAssembly, and pyxen.js, its loader
• game.pyxen, your game’s code and assets
• licenses.txt, and CREDITS.txt when your game uses a pack that asks for credit

It is a self-contained package: put its files on a web server and open the page.

How it works

The web export uses the same C++ engine as the iPad and Mac app, compiled to WebAssembly via Emscripten. Your code runs on the same runtime, Pyxen Script, a Python dialect made for games (see the scripting reference). The renderer uses WebGL instead of Metal, but the behavior is identical.

This means your game plays the same on the web as it does on iPad or Mac — same frame rate, same collision, same timing.

Sharing your exported game

Once exported, you can put your game anywhere a web page goes:

• Your own site — put the files on any web server or static hosting (Netlify, GitHub Pages, etc.)
• Games sites and game jams — most take the ZIP as an HTML game and host it for you; itch.io, for one.
• Direct sharing — send the ZIP. Whoever gets it puts its files on a web server.

Limitations

The web export is faithful to the native app experience, with a few differences:

• Touch input is not available in browsers (mouse and keyboard work)
• Gamepad support depends on the browser’s Gamepad API
• Audio may require a user interaction before it can start (this is a browser restriction, not a Pyxen limitation)
• Performance depends on the user’s browser and device