264 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
264 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Tools for game development - Game development | MDN"
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chunk: 1/2
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source: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "web, html, css, javascript, documentation"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T05:22:08.550320+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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* [Skip to main content](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools#content)
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* [Skip to search](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools#search)
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[ MDN ](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/)
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HTML
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[HTML: Markup language](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML)
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HTML reference
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* [Elements](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements)
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* [Global attributes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Global_attributes)
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* [Attributes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Attributes)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference "See all HTML references")
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HTML guides
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* [Responsive images](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Guides/Responsive_images)
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* [HTML cheatsheet](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Guides/Cheatsheet)
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* [Date & time formats](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Guides/Date_and_time_formats)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Guides "See all HTML guides")
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Markup languages
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* [SVG](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG)
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* [MathML](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/MathML)
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* [XML](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/XML)
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CSS
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[CSS: Styling language](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS)
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CSS reference
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* [Properties](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Properties)
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* [Selectors](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Selectors)
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* [At-rules](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/At-rules)
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* [Values](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Values)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference "See all CSS references")
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CSS guides
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* [Box model](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Box_model/Introduction)
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* [Animations](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Animations/Using)
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* [Flexbox](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Flexible_box_layout/Basic_concepts)
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* [Colors](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Colors/Applying_color)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides "See all CSS guides")
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Layout cookbook
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* [Column layouts](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/How_to/Layout_cookbook/Column_layouts)
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* [Centering an element](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/How_to/Layout_cookbook/Center_an_element)
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* [Card component](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/How_to/Layout_cookbook/Card)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/How_to/Layout_cookbook)
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JavaScriptJS
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[JavaScript: Scripting language](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript)
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JS reference
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* [Standard built-in objects](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects)
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* [Expressions & operators](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators)
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* [Statements & declarations](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements)
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* [Functions](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Functions)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference "See all JavaScript references")
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JS guides
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* [Control flow & error handing](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Control_flow_and_error_handling)
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* [Loops and iteration](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Loops_and_iteration)
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* [Working with objects](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Working_with_objects)
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* [Using classes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Using_classes)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide "See all JavaScript guides")
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Web APIs
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[Web APIs: Programming interfaces](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API)
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Web API reference
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* [File system API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System_API)
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* [Fetch API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API)
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* [Geolocation API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Geolocation_API)
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* [HTML DOM API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTML_DOM_API)
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* [Push API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Push_API)
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* [Service worker API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Service_Worker_API)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API "See all Web API guides")
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Web API guides
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* [Using the Web animation API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Animations_API/Using_the_Web_Animations_API)
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* [Using the Fetch API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API/Using_Fetch)
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* [Working with the History API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/History_API/Working_with_the_History_API)
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* [Using the Web speech API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Speech_API/Using_the_Web_Speech_API)
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* [Using web workers](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Workers_API/Using_web_workers)
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All
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[All web technology](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web)
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Technologies
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* [Accessibility](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility)
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* [HTTP](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP)
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* [URI](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI)
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* [Web extensions](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions)
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* [WebAssembly](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly)
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* [WebDriver](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/WebDriver)
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* [See all…](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web "See all web technology references")
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Topics
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* [Media](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Media)
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* [Performance](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Performance)
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* [Privacy](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Privacy)
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* [Security](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security)
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* [Progressive web apps](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps)
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Learn
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[Learn web development](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development)
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Frontend developer course
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* [Getting started modules](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started)
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* [Core modules](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core)
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* [MDN Curriculum](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/curriculum/)
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* [Check out the video course from Scrimba, our partner](https://scrimba.com/frontend-path-c0j?via=mdn-learn-navbar)
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Learn HTML
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* [Structuring content with HTML module](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Structuring_content)
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Learn CSS
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* [CSS styling basics module](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics)
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* [CSS layout module](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/CSS_layout)
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Learn JavaScript
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* [Dynamic scripting with JavaScript module](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Scripting)
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Tools
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Discover our tools
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* [Playground](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/play)
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* [HTTP Observatory](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/observatory)
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* [Border-image generator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Backgrounds_and_borders/Border-image_generator)
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* [Border-radius generator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Backgrounds_and_borders/Border-radius_generator)
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* [Box-shadow generator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Backgrounds_and_borders/Box-shadow_generator)
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* [Color format converter](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Colors/Color_format_converter)
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* [Color mixer](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Colors/Color_mixer)
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* [Shape generator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Shapes/Shape_generator)
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About
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Get to know MDN better
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* [About MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/about)
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* [Advertise with us](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/advertising)
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* [Community](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/community)
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* [MDN on GitHub](https://github.com/mdn)
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[Blog](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/blog/)
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1. [Game development](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games)
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2. [Tools for game development](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools)
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# Tools for game development
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On this page, you can find links to our game development tools articles, which eventually aim to cover frameworks, compilers, and debugging tools.
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[asm.js](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools/asm.js)
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asm.js is a very limited subset of the JavaScript language, which can be significantly optimized and run in an ahead-of-time (AOT) compiling engine for much faster performance than your typical JavaScript performance. This is, of course, great for games.
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[Emscripten](https://github.com/emscripten-core/emscripten/wiki)
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An LLVM to JavaScript compiler; with Emscripten, you can compile C++ and other languages that can compile to LLVM bytecode into high-performance JavaScript. This is an excellent tool for porting applications to the Web! There is a [useful Emscripten tutorial](https://github.com/emscripten-core/emscripten/wiki/Tutorial) available on the wiki.
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[Firefox Profiler](https://profiler.firefox.com/docs/#/)
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The Firefox Profiler lets you profile your code to help figure out where your performance issues are so that you can make your game run at top speed.
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[Toolchain for developing and debugging games](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools#toolchain_for_developing_and_debugging_games)
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How does this differ from normal web app debugging? What specialist tools are available? A lot of this is going to be covered by Will in [tools](https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/devtools-user/index.html), but here we should provide a kind of practical toolchain tutorial for debugging games, with links to Will's stuff:
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* Basic tools overview
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* [Shader editor](https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/devtools-user/shader_editor/index.html)
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* Performance tools (still in production, estimated early 2014)
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## In this article
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* [Web Technologies](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools#web_technologies)
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* [Port native games to the Web](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools#port_native_games_to_the_web)
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## [Web Technologies](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Tools#web_technologies)
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Web technologies in game development and their function
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| **Function** | **Technology** |
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| **Audio** | [Web Audio API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Audio_API) |
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| **Graphics** | [WebGL](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebGL_API) ([OpenGL ES](https://www.khronos.org/opengles/) 2.0) |
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| **Input** | [Touch events](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Touch_events), [Gamepad API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Gamepad_API/Using_the_Gamepad_API), device sensors, [WebRTC](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebRTC_API), [Full Screen API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fullscreen_API), [Pointer Lock API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Pointer_Lock_API) |
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| **Language** | [JavaScript](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript) (or C/C++ using [Emscripten](https://github.com/emscripten-core/emscripten/wiki) to compile to JavaScript) |
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| **Networking** | [WebRTC](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebRTC_API) and/or [WebSockets](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebSockets_API) |
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| **Storage** | [IndexedDB](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/IndexedDB_API) or the "cloud" |
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| **Web** | [HTML](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML), [CSS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS), [SVG](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG) (and much more!) |
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[Fetch API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API)
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Send and receive any kind of data you want from a Web server like downloading new game levels and artwork to transmitting non-real-time game status information back and forth.
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[Full Screen API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fullscreen_API)
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Full screen gameplay.
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[Gamepad API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Gamepad_API/Using_the_Gamepad_API)
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Use gamepads or other game controllers.
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[HTML](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML) and [CSS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS)
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Build, style, and lay out your game's user interface.
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[HTML audio](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/audio)
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Easily play simple sound effects and music.
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[IndexedDB](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/IndexedDB_API)
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Store user data on their own computer or device.
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[JavaScript](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript)
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Fast web programming language to write the code for your game. To easily port your existing games, use [Emscripten](https://github.com/emscripten-core/emscripten/wiki) or [Asm.js](http://asmjs.org/spec/latest/).
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[Pointer Lock API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Pointer_Lock_API)
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Lock the mouse or other pointing device within your game's interface.
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[SVG](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG) (Scalable Vector Graphics)
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Build vector graphics that scale smoothly regardless of the size or resolution of the user's display.
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[Typed Arrays](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Typed_arrays)
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Access raw binary data from within JavaScript; manipulate GL textures, game data, or anything else.
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[Web Audio API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Audio_API)
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Control the playback, synthesis, and manipulation of audio in real time.
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[WebGL](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebGL_API)
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Create high-performance, hardware-accelerated 3D (and 2D) graphics. [OpenGL ES](https://www.khronos.org/opengles/) 2.0.
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[WebRTC](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebRTC_API)
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Real-Time Communications to control audio and video data, including teleconferencing and transmitting other application data back and forth between two users like chat.
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[WebSockets](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebSockets_API)
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Connect your app or site to a server to transmit data back and forth in real-time. Perfect for multiplayer gaming action, chat services, and so forth. |