D Starter Project Template

Pre-requisites

WASI libc

WASI libc's README states that "the easiest way to get started with this is to use wask-sdk, which includes a build of WASI libc in its sysroot."

Just building WASI libc from source works too, for the purpose of programming TIC-80 games in D. Let's say you install into $HOME/wasi-sdk/share/wasi-sysroot, which then look like this:

% ls -l
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 10 pierce pierce 4096 Apr 24 16:19 include/
drwxr-xr-x  3 pierce pierce 4096 Apr 24 16:19 lib/
drwxr-xr-x  3 pierce pierce 4096 Apr 24 16:19 share/

Files in this template

buildcart.sh - convenience script to build and run the game cartridge
buildwasm.sh - convenience script to build and run the Wasm program
dub.json - D's dub package description file
Makefile - convenience Makefile that invokes dub
wasmdemo.wasmp - TIC-80 Wasm 'script' file. Note the embedded game assets data at the end of the file.

Building your game

Define the environment variable WASI_SDK_PATH; e.g., if you installed WASI libc into $HOME/wasi-sdk/share/wasi-sysroot, then export WASI_SDK_PATH=$HOME/wasi-sdk.

Edit src/main.d to implement your game. You are of course free to organize your code in more than one D source file.

If you create sprites, map, music, etc., for your game, remember to replace the game asset data at the end of wasmdemo.wasmp with your creations.

To build the Wasm file, execute make. This generates cart.wasm in the current directory. To run:

% tic80 --fs . --cmd 'load wasmdemo.wasmp & import binary cart.wasm & run & exit'

The script buildwasm.sh contains above steps as a convenience.

To build a TIC-80 cartridge, first build the Wasm file, then build the cartridge file:

% tic80 --fs . --cmd 'load wasmdemo.wasmp & import binary cart.wasm & save game.tic & exit'

You can then run your cartridge as follows:

% tic80 --fs . --cmd 'load game.tic & run & exit'

The script buildcart.sh does the above steps as a convenience.