Deploy Game To GitHub Pages With GitHub Actions

Deploying your game to GitHub Pages can be a straightforward process when automated with GitHub Actions. This article guides you through setting up a workflow that builds your game, manages assets, and deploys it to GitHub Pages, ensuring a smooth and maintainable process.

Understanding GitHub Pages and GitHub Actions

Before diving into the specifics, let's clarify what GitHub Pages and GitHub Actions are and why they're beneficial for game deployment.

• GitHub Pages: This service allows you to host static websites directly from your GitHub repository. It's ideal for showcasing game demos, documentation, or simple web-based games.
• GitHub Actions: This is a CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) platform that lets you automate your software development workflows. You can define workflows that automatically build, test, and deploy your code in response to various events, such as new commits or releases.

Combining these two tools can streamline your game deployment process, making it easier to share your creations with the world.

Setting Up the GitHub Actions Workflow

To automate the deployment of your game to GitHub Pages, you'll need to create a GitHub Actions workflow. This workflow will define the steps required to build and deploy your game. Here’s how to set it up:

Step 1: Create a Workflow File

In your game's repository, create a new file in the .github/workflows directory. Name it something descriptive, like deploy-to-github-pages.yml. This file will contain the configuration for your workflow.

Step 2: Define the Workflow

Open the newly created YAML file and start defining your workflow. Here’s a basic structure to follow:

name: Deploy to GitHub Pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: 16

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Build game
        run: npm run build

      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: ./dist

Let's break down this workflow:

• name: This is the name of your workflow, which will be displayed in the GitHub Actions interface.
• on: This specifies the trigger for the workflow. In this case, it's triggered on every push to the main branch.
• jobs: This section defines the jobs that will be executed as part of the workflow. Here, we have a single job named deploy.
• runs-on: This specifies the type of machine to run the job on. ubuntu-latest is a common choice.
• steps: This section defines the individual steps that will be executed in the job. Each step has a name and either a uses or run key.
  • actions/checkout@v3: This step checks out your code from the repository.
  • actions/setup-node@v3: This step sets up Node.js, which is required for building many web-based games. You may need to adjust the node-version to match your project's requirements.
  • npm install: This step installs the project's dependencies.
  • npm run build: This step builds the game. You'll need to adjust the command to match your project's build process. For example, if you're using webpack, you might use webpack instead.
  • peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3: This step deploys the built game to GitHub Pages. It requires a github_token and publish_dir. The github_token is a secret that GitHub automatically provides, and the publish_dir specifies the directory containing the built game files.

Step 3: Configure GitHub Pages

To enable GitHub Pages for your repository, go to the repository's settings and navigate to the