Pixi'VN - Desktop & mobile devices

Learn how to distribute your game for desktop and mobile platforms using Tauri and GitHub Actions.

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There are several ways to distribute your game for desktop and mobile platforms. Common choices include Tauri, Ionic, Electron, NW.js, and React Native for Windows + Mac.

If you don't want to manage a heavily customized native project, consider using the multi-device templates. Those templates include Tauri so you can develop a web app and also build desktop and mobile apps from the same codebase.

tauri-h2

Tauri

Tauri is a framework for building desktop applications with web technologies. It leverages Rust to produce secure, lightweight, and fast native binaries, while a WebView renders your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Learn more on the Tauri website.

Distributing your game with Tauri

Creating releases manually for every platform is difficult: it requires many tools to be installed, and building iOS apps requires a Mac. For these reasons, manual release generation is generally not recommended.

Tauri supports using GitHub Actions to automate release builds. GitHub Actions runs jobs on virtual machines (runners) that you configure with YAML workflow files. In a workflow you define the events that trigger the pipeline (for example, pushing a tag) and the list of commands the runner should execute.

Mobile

Currently, mobile builds via GitHub Actions are experimental.

The multi-device templates include the file /.github/workflows/tauri.yml. That workflow builds release artifacts (installation packages) for multiple operating systems.

.github/workflows/tauri.yml

# https://tauri.app/distribute/pipelines/github/
name: 'publish'

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'

jobs:
  publish-tauri:
    permissions:
      contents: write
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        include:
          - platform: 'macos-latest' # for Arm based macs (M1 and above).
            args: '--target aarch64-apple-darwin'
          - platform: 'macos-latest' # for Intel based macs.
            args: '--target x86_64-apple-darwin'
          - platform: 'ubuntu-22.04'
            args: ''
          - platform: 'windows-latest'
            args: ''
          - platform: 'macos-latest' # iOS
            args: '--target x86_64-apple-darwin'
            mobile: "ios"
          - platform: 'ubuntu-22.04' # Android
            args: ''
            mobile: "android"

    runs-on: ${{ matrix.platform }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: install dependencies (ubuntu only)
        if: matrix.platform == 'ubuntu-22.04' # This must match the platform value defined above.
        run: |
          sudo apt-get update
          sudo apt-get install -y libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf

      - name: setup node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: lts/*

      - name: Update Java (only for Android builds)
        if: matrix.mobile == 'android'
        uses: actions/setup-java@v5
        with:
          distribution: 'temurin'
          java-version: '21'

      - name: setup Android SDK (only for Android builds)
        if: matrix.mobile == 'android'
        uses: android-actions/setup-android@v3

      - name: install Rust stable
        uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable # Set this to dtolnay/rust-toolchain@nightly
        with:
          # Those targets are only used on macos runners so it's in an `if` to slightly speed up windows and linux builds.
          targets: ${{ matrix.platform == 'macos-latest' && 'aarch64-apple-darwin,x86_64-apple-darwin' || '' }}

      - name: install frontend dependencies
        # If you don't have `beforeBuildCommand` configured you may want to build your frontend here too.
        run: yarn install # change this to npm or pnpm depending on which one you use.

      - name: Upload Tauri icons
        run: npm run tauri icon public/pwa-512x512.png

      - name: Rust cache
        uses: swatinem/rust-cache@v2
        with:
          workspaces: './src-tauri -> target'

      - uses: tauri-apps/tauri-action@v0
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        with:
          tagName: app-v__VERSION__ # the action automatically replaces \_\_VERSION\_\_ with the app version.
          releaseName: 'App v__VERSION__'
          releaseBody: 'See the assets to download this version and install.'
          releaseDraft: true
          prerelease: false
          args: ${{ matrix.args }}
          mobile: ${{ matrix.mobile || null }}

To trigger this workflow you need a GitHub repository for your project and a Git tag that starts with v. For example:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

You can follow the workflow runs in the repository's Actions tab.

Actions section

At the end of a successful run a GitHub Release will be created. Read more about GitHub Releases here.

Desktop & mobile devices

Tauri

Distributing your game with Tauri

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