A modern & lightweight HTML5 game engine

melonJS is an open-source HTML5 game engine for building 2D games with JavaScript and TypeScript. Lightweight, dependency-free, and under 100kb gzipped.

Fast

Modern ES6 architecture. WebGL renderer with Canvas fallback. Web Audio with 3D spatial sound.

Free

Released under the permissive MIT License. No cost. Forever.

Standalone

Zero dependencies. Compatible with all major browsers and mobile devices. Under 100kb gzipped.

Why melonJS?

Canvas2D-Inspired API

The rendering system follows familiar HTML5 Canvas patterns — save, restore, translate, rotate. If you've used the Canvas API, you already know melonJS.

True Renderer Abstraction

Write your game once, run it on WebGL or Canvas2D. Automatic GPU fallback with zero code changes required.

Batteries Included

Physics, tilemaps, 3D mesh rendering, custom shaders, spatial audio, particles and UI — all in one package with no external dependencies.

Powerful Level Design

Design your levels visually with the Tiled map editor. melonJS natively supports orthogonal, isometric, and hexagonal maps with multiple layers, parallax scrolling, and more.

melonJS level design with Tiled map editor showing platformer game

Try it Live

Jump right into a melonJS game — playable in your browser.

Get Started in Seconds

Scaffold a new project with a single command:

npm create melonjs@latest my-game
cd my-game
npm install
npm run dev

Or use the API directly for a quick Hello World:

import { Application, Text } from "melonjs";

// create a new melonJS application
const app = new Application(1218, 562, {
    parent: "screen",
    scale: "auto",
});

// add a text display object
app.world.addChild(new Text(609, 281, {
    font: "Arial",
    size: 160,
    fillStyle: "#FFFFFF",
    textBaseline: "middle",
    textAlign: "center",
    text: "Hello World !",
}));