Tools

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

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.
Pic-2-Tic A web based image converter, used to convert user-uploaded images into TIC-80 format and apply various color palettes. Outputs to the user's clipboard, so they can paste into their game file. Included palettes are TIC-80 default, PICO-8, Ms Windows/ IBM OS/2, Apple Macintosh. User can also paste in a custom palette, or customize a new palette directly in the app.

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.

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.