What every game needs

The technical checklist: what a game has to be, on the inside, to run on a mebobox.

This is the packaging side of things — the files, the size, the offline promise. For what a game may be about, see the house rules.

Every game, however it’s made, is checked against this before it can be played. If you make a game in Creator Studio most of it is taken care of for you. If you’re uploading a game, this is what to aim for. mebobox checks it all automatically when you submit and tells you, in plain words, if anything needs fixing.

The front door

• An index.html at the top of your game — that’s where the mebobox comes knocking.
• Web technology only: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images and sound. No installers, no programs.
• Building with the mebobox SDK? Include mebobox.min.js so the controller just works. Using GDevelop? Just export to HTML5 — no SDK needed, mebobox maps the controller for you. More about engines →

Plays with just the controller

• The whole game must be playable with the D-pad and the buttons — A, B, X, Y, L, R, START and SELECT. No touch, no mouse, and no buttons the pad doesn’t have.
• SELECT is reserved for quitting (hold it for three seconds), so don’t rely on it for playing.

Works offline

A mebobox has no internet, so a game has to carry everything it needs:

• Bundle everything inside. No links out to other websites, no fonts or code loaded from elsewhere, no analytics or trackers.
• If a game tries to reach the internet, it simply won’t load on the console — so pack your bags fully.

Plays nice

• No alert(), confirm() or prompt() pop-ups.
• Stays under 50 MB and 5,000 files, so it fetches and starts quickly.

A LICENSE file

Every game ships a LICENSE file saying how it may be used. How to license your game →