Export a game
Export makes your game one zip that anyone can download and play, for Linux, Windows, macOS or the web. There is nothing else to install: the zip holds the player for that system and your game beside it.
Export from the Studio
Open your game and choose File ▸ Export, or press Ctrl+E (Cmd+E on a Mac). Its start page offers Export it too.
- Choose the system. The one you are on comes first; the web is last.
- Choose where the zip goes. It starts beside your game's folder; Choose… picks another.
- Press Export. The Studio builds the game, checks the build, and packs it. Each step shows in the dialog as it goes.
- When it says the zip is ready, Show in folder opens the folder it is in.
The zip is named for your game and the system: Ember Shore (Linux).zip. A name with characters
some system refuses in a file name is cleaned of them.
The first export for a system downloads its player
The player is the part of Gamewright that runs a game. The first time you export for a system, the Studio downloads that system's player from gamewright.diy, checks it is exactly the file the release lists, and keeps it. Every later export for that system uses the one it kept, with no network. Each player is between 12 MB (the web) and 60 MB (macOS).
The player is always your Studio's own version, because a game and the engine that runs it go together. If gamewright.diy has no player of your version for a system yet, the export says so and makes nothing.
What each zip holds
Linux. A folder named for your game, with the game's program (Ember Shore.x86_64), a game
folder beside it, and LICENSES. Unzip it anywhere and run the program; it keeps its permission
to run.
Windows. The same folder with Ember Shore.exe. The program is not signed yet, so the first
time someone opens it Windows may say "Windows protected your PC": choose More info, then
Run anyway. Where Smart App Control is on, Windows blocks unsigned programs and there is no way
past it.
macOS. Ember Shore.app, with the game inside it. Exporting for macOS needs a Mac for now: a
Mac signs the app again once the game is inside it, and an app whose seal is broken will not open
at all. The app is signed ad hoc, not by a registered developer, so the first time someone opens it
macOS stops it: open System Settings, Privacy & Security, and choose Open Anyway.
The web. A folder any web host serves as it is: index.html, the web player beside it, and a
game folder. Upload the zip to itch.io as an HTML game, or put its files on your own site. It
needs no special server settings. A browser will not play it straight from your disk; to try it on
your own computer, serve the folder, for example with python3 -m http.server in it, and open the
address it prints.
Every zip carries Godot's licence in LICENSES/Godot.txt. Godot is the engine Gamewright is made
on, and its licence asks that it go with every copy, so keep it with your game.
Where an exported game keeps its saves
An exported game saves in a folder of its own, apart from the Studio and from other games: a
folder named Gamewright Games in the system's place for app data (~/.local/share on Linux,
%APPDATA% on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support on macOS), under saves and the game's id.
On the web, the browser keeps the saves for the site the game is on.
From the command line
The Studio's export is the core's, which you can run yourself on a game's folder:
gamewright export --to linux --out ~/Desktop ~/Documents/Gamewright/Ember\ Shore
--to takes linux, windows, macos or web; the zip goes in --out, or the folder you are
in. Add --json for one line a script can read. The command line lists the rest.