Tools

The following is a list of tools that can be used outside of TIC-80 to assist with the creation of carts.

• Converters
• Bundling
• Maps

Converters

These can be very handy if you're migrating to TIC-80 from other virtual fantasy consoles and you already have some cartridges.

• p8totic - an all-in-one, web based PICO-8 to TIC-80 cartridge converter. Supports .p8 and .p8.png formats and saves in .tic format. This tries to convert everything properly, so not just the assets, but the Lua code (syntax and API calls) too.

Bundling

TIC-80 does not support loading external code files, so having multiple files and bundling them together into the cart can ease code writing.

• ScriptPacker: Package multiple Lua, Wren, Squirrel, or Javascript scripts together, keeping the dependency chain intact.
• tic-bundle: Simple CLI tool for bundling TIC-80 cartridge code. Supports any language.
• TQ-Bundler: A zero-config single-file executable bundler/watcher/launcher. Supports any language.
• Amalg: A tool that can package a Lua script and its modules into a single file.
• tic80-stitcher: A tool for building the cartridge from multiple files. Useful when you generate part of the cartridge during the build.
• tic80-typescript: write your games in TypeScript. Handles transpilation, bundling, and minification.

Maps

While the TIC-80 map editor is very functional, it can be nice to use external tools to enhance the map creation experience.

• TiledMapEditor-TIC-80: Converts between .tmx files to TIC-80 .map files
• Tic-Tiled Map Converter: A python script for converting maps between Tiled and TIC-80.
• Fantasy Console Map Tool: Fills a gap between desktop 2D tilemap editing programs and fantasy consoles.