🖥 Desktop

If you want to release your web game on Windows, Mac, or Linux, there are a few options available.

First, if you simply want users to be able to launch the game from a desktop icon and play it in a standalone window instead of a browser, you can make it installable as a 🌐 Progressive Web App. That’s the easiest way to turn your web game into a desktop game. By the way, you can also customize the title bar of a PWA on desktop!

But if you want to distribute full executables for users to download, or if you need a deeper OS integration than what a browser page can do, you will need to package your game with a desktop framework.

Desktop frameworks

• Stars
  NPM
  TS
  Maintained
• Electron

  109k

  623k/w

  

  – Chromium and Node.js
  109k623k/w
  
• Tauri

  80k

  20k/w

  

  – OS-native web views and Rust
  80k20k/w
  
• NW.js

  40k

  /w

  

  – Chromium and Node.js
  40kN/A
  
• Neutralinojs

  7k

  400/w

  

  – OS-native web views and JavaScript
  7k400/w
  
• Wails

  18k

  /w

  – WebKit web view and Go
  18kN/A
• Gluon

  3k

  30/w

  

  – User-installed browsers (Chromium or Firefox) and Node.js
  3k30/w
  
• NodeGui

  9k

  400/w

  

  – Make native apps in Node and CSS (not for WebGL games)
  9k400/w
  

Read this great in-depth Web to Desktop framework comparison for more details.

Tauri, Neutralino, and Wails use lightweight OS web views that have a small memory footprint and build size. While that may sound appealing, WebKit web views (which you would get on Mac or Linux with Tauri for instance) are not as performant as Chromium when it comes to graphics. So if you want the most performant cross-platform experience, go for Electron or NW.js (or look into Gluon). Note that Electron and NW.js are also the only desktop frameworks officially supported by the two main libraries that help distribute games on Steam.

Electron

Electron bundles Chromium and Node.js into a single executable — your web game runs in its own browser window with full access to the filesystem, native menus, and OS integration. It produces the largest builds (100MB+) but offers the most complete and battle-tested platform.

To package your Electron app for distribution, you’ll use a build tool like Electron Forge or electron-builder, which handle code signing, auto-updates, and platform-specific installers.

Electron Resources

• Electron – Electron Packager – Electron Forge – electron-builder – Electron Fiddle – Nextron
• How to package your web project for platforms like Steam
• Automating Steam releases with Electron Forge and Github Actions
• Notes on getting electron html5 apps working with Steamworks, Greenworks, Overlay, etc
• How to integrate an HTML5 Electron based game with the Steam API
• Trezy’s Electron Steam app template
• cpojer’s tweet on getting Athena Crisis to Steam on Mac
• ToDesktop

Steam

• Stars
  NPM
  TS
  Maintained
• Steamworks.js

  220

  300/w

  
  220300/w
  
• Greenworks (community fork)

  15

  /w

  
  15N/A
  
  4 years
• Greenworks

  1k

  /w

  
  1kN/A
  
  7 years