+1. I wish they used Lua instead of Javascript -- maybe using Lua.vm.js[1], although the VM in a VM thing may be a challenge to integrate with the rest of IDE, sprite editor, etc.
I think Lua is a wodnerful langauge, highly embedable, great feature set/style, quite fast, really lightweight. Pico-8 had it right in everything but the license.
>Everything compiles to JS these days, so it is an easy lowest common denominator.
That's not even remotely true. JS is only a common denominator for running code in a browser, but the lowest common denominator is still C/C++ and Java, even with native applications vs. Electron.