Part 8: Polish & Publishing

Your Paddle game is complete! Let’s add some final polish and publish it to the Emberware Archive.

What You’ll Learn

• Adding control hints
• Final ember.toml configuration
• Building a release ROM
• Publishing to emberware.io

Add Control Hints

Let’s add helpful text on the title screen:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
fn render_title() {
    unsafe {
        // Title
        draw_text_bytes(b"PADDLE", SCREEN_WIDTH / 2.0 - 100.0, 150.0, 64.0, COLOR_WHITE);

        // Mode indicator
        if IS_TWO_PLAYER {
            draw_text_bytes(b"2 PLAYER MODE", SCREEN_WIDTH / 2.0 - 100.0, 250.0, 24.0, COLOR_WHITE);
        } else {
            draw_text_bytes(b"1 PLAYER VS AI", SCREEN_WIDTH / 2.0 - 100.0, 250.0, 24.0, COLOR_WHITE);
        }

        // Start prompt
        draw_text_bytes(b"Press A to Start", SCREEN_WIDTH / 2.0 - 120.0, 350.0, 24.0, COLOR_GRAY);

        // Controls hint
        draw_text_bytes(b"Controls: Left Stick or D-Pad Up/Down",
                       250.0, 450.0, 18.0, COLOR_GRAY);
    }
}
}

Complete ember.toml

In Part 7, we created our ember.toml. Here’s the complete version with all metadata for publishing:

[game]
id = "paddle"
title = "Paddle"
author = "Your Name"
version = "1.0.0"
description = "Classic Paddle game with AI and multiplayer support"

# Sound assets
[[assets.sounds]]
id = "hit"
path = "assets/hit.wav"

[[assets.sounds]]
id = "score"
path = "assets/score.wav"

[[assets.sounds]]
id = "win"
path = "assets/win.wav"

# Texture assets (optional - for sprite graphics)
[[assets.textures]]
id = "paddle"
path = "assets/paddle.png"

[[assets.textures]]
id = "ball"
path = "assets/ball.png"

Project Structure

Your final project should look like:

paddle/
├── Cargo.toml
├── ember.toml
├── assets/
│   ├── hit.wav
│   ├── score.wav
│   ├── win.wav
│   ├── paddle.png    (optional)
│   └── ball.png      (optional)
└── src/
    └── lib.rs

Build for Release

Using ember build

Build your game with all assets bundled:

ember build

This creates a .ewzx ROM file containing:

• Your compiled WASM code
• All converted and compressed assets
• Game metadata

Verify the Build

Check your ROM was created:

ls -la *.ewzx

You should see something like:

-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 45678 Dec 20 12:00 paddle.ewzx

Test Your Release Build

Run the final ROM:

ember run paddle.ewzx

Final Checklist

Before publishing, verify:

• Title screen displays correctly
• Both players can control paddles
• AI works when only one player
• Ball bounces correctly off walls and paddles
• Scores track correctly
• Game ends at 5 points
• Victory screen shows correct winner
• All sound effects play with proper panning
• Game restarts correctly

Publishing to Emberware Archive

1. Create an Account

Visit emberware.io/register to create your developer account.

2. Prepare Assets

You’ll need:

• Icon (64×64 PNG) — Shows in the game library
• Screenshot(s) (optional) — Shows on your game’s page

3. Upload Your Game

1. Log in to emberware.io
2. Go to your Dashboard
3. Click “Upload New Game”
4. Fill in the details:
   • Title: “Paddle”
   • Description: Your game description
   • Category: Arcade
5. Upload your .ewzx ROM file
6. Add your icon and screenshots
7. Click “Publish”

4. Share Your Game

Once published, your game has a unique page at:

emberware.io/game/paddle

Share this link! Anyone with the Emberware player can play your game.

What You’ve Built

Congratulations! Your Paddle game includes:

What’s Next?

Enhance Your Paddle Game

Ideas to try:

• Add ball speed increase after each hit
• Create power-ups that spawn randomly
• Add particle effects when scoring
• Implement 4-player mode
• Use sprite textures for paddles and ball

Build More Games

Check out these resources:

• Example Games — 28+ examples
• API Reference — All available functions
• Asset Pipeline — Advanced asset workflows
• Render Modes Guide — 3D graphics

Join the Community

• Share your game in GitHub Discussions
• Report bugs or request features
• Help other developers

Complete Source Code

The final source code is available at:

emberware/examples/paddle/

You can compare your code or use it as a reference.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned:

1. Setup — Creating an Emberware project
2. Drawing — Using draw_rect() for 2D graphics
3. Input — Reading sticks and buttons
4. Physics — Ball movement and collision
5. AI — Simple opponent behavior
6. Multiplayer — How rollback netcode “just works”
7. Game Flow — State machines for menus
8. Assets — Using ember.toml and ember build for sounds
9. Audio — Loading and playing sound effects from ROM
10. Publishing — Sharing your game with the world

You’re now an Emberware game developer!