quadplay✜ website

quadplay✜ is a fantasy console by Shmuel and Morgan at CasualEffects for creating and playing retro-style video games on any device.

• Play games online
• Install on Windows
• Install on macOS or Linux
• Preview the web IDE
• Read the manual

Platforms

Create and play games on any laptop, desktop, tablet, or phone. Or, build your own programmable arcade machine from a Raspberry Pi or or old computer. Here are some of the many supported quadplay platforms:

Games

Full

These full games are included, with source code. Click to play:

Examples

These short example programs demonstrate specific quadplay features and programming techniques:

Features

• Create games on Windows, macOS, Linux
• Play your games in any modern web browser on a phone, laptop, desktop, tablet, Raspberry Pi, or other computer
• 60 fps @ 384 x 224 pixels = 12:7 aspect ≈ 16:9.3
• 4096 sRGB (4:4:4) colors
• Four players with virtual controls for D-pad and eight buttons
• Local and safe online multiplayer
• Supports Xbox, Playstation, SNES, Stadia, Switch, 8bitdo, touch screen, and other controllers
• Hundreds of built-in sprites, sounds, and fonts
• Program in PyxlScript, a friendly Python-like language
• Native 2.5D graphics with z-order and order-independent, 4-bit alpha transparency
• 9.4 MB of total sprite memory
• Up to 64 sprite and font sheets per game of up to 1024 x 1024 each
• Optional 640 x 360, 384 x 224, 320 x 180, 192 x 112, 128 x 128, and 64 x 64 screen modes
• Free and open source

Every quadplay✜ game automatically runs on every quadplay device, at full frame rate and with input prompts adapted for that keyboard, controller, or touch screen.

quadplay✜ also allows advanced users to unlock low-level access and break full compatibility. This lets you make games that use the full capabilities of a specific controller, mouse, or display, as well as make your own tools with file system access.

Join the Quadplay Revolution

You can use an external editor (like VSCode) or simply work entirely within the provided the browser-based development environment.

To get started, you'll need only a computer with Windows, macOS, Linux, or Raspberry Pi OS and the following freely-available software.

Required:

• This SDK, which includes the IDE and assets
• Python 3.13
• A modern web browser such as Chrome, Edge, Brave, Safari, or Firefox
• On some Linux distributions you might need to install tkinter, e.g. on Fedora sudo dnf install -y python3-tkinter

Optional:

• The manual
• A code editor such as VS Code, Emacs, or VIM. Use Python mode or install our provided PyxlScript editor extensions
• A TMX map editor such as Tiled or TileKit
• A sprite and font pixel editor such as Piskel or GrafX2
• A SFX generator and audio editor such as Audacity
• An account on the forums
• Follow development online at @CasualEffects

See the manual for a getting started guide, the change log, road map, and notes.

License

The quadplay✜ runtime, compiler, and emulator are licensed as LGPL3.

You can create closed-source games with it and distribute your games however you want, including commercially.

If you modify the runtime library, compiler, or emulator, then you must redistribute those changes under the LGPL3.

Portions of the IDE are under different, less-restrictive open source licenses (BSD, MIT, and public domain).

quadplay✜ automatically adds asset and library licenses to your game's credits screen. You don't have to do any work to satisfy attribution clauses from open source or Creative Commons licenses.

All sounds, sprites, and games distributed with quadplay✜ are Creative Commons licensed. The copyright and license on each of those is in a JSON file next to the asset.

© 2020-2026 Shmuel Ravensky and Morgan McGuire