Hob2D

A 2D game engine written in C++.

Requirements

Project dependencies are downloaded and linked automatically via vcpkg and CMake.
A C/C++ compiler with C++20 support (e.g. MSVC, GCC, or Clang)

Windows

vcpkg

1. Clone the vcpkg git repository.

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git $HOME\.vcpkg

2. Run the vcpkg boostrap script.

cd $HOME\.vcpkg
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

3. Set the VCPKG_ROOT environment variable and add it to PATH.

$env:VCPKG_ROOT = "$HOME\.vcpkg"
$env:PATH = "$env:VCPKG_ROOT;$env:PATH"

Note

Setting environment variables in this manner only affects the current terminal session. To make these changes permanent across all sessions, set them through the Windows System Environment Variables panel.

4. Open a new terminal and verify.

vcpkg --version

CMake

Go to cmake.org and download the x86-x64 Windows installer.
The cmake environment variable will be configured automatically.

GNU/Linux

1. Install prerequisites.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential cmake ninja-build pkgconf curl zip unzip tar

2. Install dependencies for building SDL3 from source.

On Linux SDL3 requires additional features for integration with the desktop stack - sdl3[core,ibus,x11,wayland,alsa].
In order for vcpkg to build them from source you need to install additional dependencies.

sudo apt install python3 python3-venv python3-pip
sudo apt install autoconf autoconf-archive automake libtool
sudo apt install libibus-1.0-dev
sudo apt install libx11-dev libxext-dev libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev libxfixes-dev libxrender-dev libxss-dev libxxf86vm-dev libxtst-dev
sudo apt install libwayland-dev wayland-protocols libxkbcommon-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libdecor-0-dev
sudo apt install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libpipewire-0.3-dev libjack-jackd2-dev

3. Clone the vcpkg git repository.

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git ~/.vcpkg

4. Run the vcpkg boostrap script.

cd ~/.vcpkg
./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh

5. Set the VCPKG_ROOT environment variable and add it to PATH.

echo 'export VCPKG_ROOT="$HOME/.vcpkg"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export PATH="$VCPKG_ROOT:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

6. Reload and verify.

source ~/.bashrc
vcpkg --version

macOS

1. Install prerequisites.

xcode-select --install
brew install cmake ninja pkgconf

2. Clone the vcpkg git repository.

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git ~/.vcpkg

3. Run the vcpkg boostrap script.

cd ~/.vcpkg
./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh

4. Set the VCPKG_ROOT environment variable and add it to PATH.

echo 'export VCPKG_ROOT="$HOME/.vcpkg"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export PATH="$VCPKG_ROOT:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

5. Reload and verify.

source ~/.zshrc
vcpkg --version

Build & Run

Configure with the preset for your toolchain, build, then run the executable.

Editor

The *-editor presets build the in-process editor and boot into it by default, in their own build folder.

# Configure (pick one preset)
cmake --preset debug-msvc-editor      # Windows / MSVC
cmake --preset debug-gcc-editor       # Linux / GCC
cmake --preset debug-clang-editor     # macOS / Clang

# Build
cmake --build --preset debug-msvc-editor-x64      # debug-gcc-editor-x64, debug-clang-editor-arm64-osx, ...

# Run (boots into the editor)
./build/debug/windows-msvc-editor/Debug/hob2d.exe

# Edit a specific game project (bare name, or a path relative to the repo root)
./build/debug/windows-msvc-editor/Debug/hob2d.exe --project sandbox

Game

The plain presets build the runtime only, which launches straight into the game.

# Configure (pick one preset)
cmake --preset debug-msvc      # Windows / MSVC
cmake --preset debug-gcc       # Linux / GCC
cmake --preset debug-clang     # macOS / Clang

# Build
cmake --build --preset debug-msvc-x64      # debug-gcc-x64, debug-clang-arm64-osx, ...

# Run (no arg loads the default project, 'sandbox')
./build/debug/windows-msvc/Debug/hob2d.exe

# Run a specific game project (bare name, or a path relative to the repo root)
./build/debug/windows-msvc/Debug/hob2d.exe --project sandbox

The editor can also be enabled per run on any build with the --editor flag.

Project selection

The engine loads one game project from content/projects/<name>/ at launch. The bundled sample is content/projects/sandbox/. Set the build's default game at configure time with -DHOB_PROJECT=<name>, or select it at runtime with --project <name> (a bare name resolves under content/projects/).