Getting Started

1. Install dependencies and required build tools:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu git cmake make ninja sdl3 sdl3_image sdl3_ttf fmt spdlog cereal box2d
 
# Debian/Ubuntu 25 (older ubuntu does not have sdl3 packaged)
sudo apt install git cmake make ninja-build libsdl3-dev libsdl3-image-dev libsdl3-ttf-dev libfmt-dev libspdlog-dev libcereal-dev
 
# Fedora
sudo dnf install git cmake make ninja-build SDL3-devel SDL3_image-devel SDL3_ttf-devel fmt-devel spdlog-devel cereal-devel

2. Create a new repository using the project template

3. Clone the repository **_recursively_**:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME_HERE/calamity-engine-template --recursive
cd calamity-engine-template

4. Build the project (pick the platform you want to compile to):

Windows MSVC

1. Download the latest version of Visual Studio and make sure you have Desktop development with C++ toggled on.
2. Run these commands:

cd path/to/project/
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..

1. Go to the build folder and open the main solution in Visual Studio
2. Right click the box2d project in the browser and go to Properties.
3. Change the C++ language version to C++20
4. Do the same for your main project
5. Either compile the solution from Visual Studio or run cmake --build . --config Release from the build folder
6. Copy the calamity folder from the root of the build folder to wherever your .exe is

Your game should run now! Please open an issue on GitHub if you find any problems in this build process that are related to Calamity Engine.

Linux

cd path/to/project
mkdir build
cd build
 
cmake -G Ninja ..
ninja

Emscripten

You will need the Emscripten SDK installed.

cd path/to/project
emsdk activate latest # do whatever the command tells you to do
 
mkdir build-web
cd build-web
# Building for Emscripten requires building vendored libraries.
emcmake cmake -DCALAMITY_VENDORED=ON -DBUILD_TARGET=EMSCRIPTEN -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
emmake make
 
# to run the app:
emrun index.html

PSP

You will need the PSPDEV SDK installed.

You need to install the necessary dependencies using psp-pacman:

# Install required dependencies
psp-pacman -Syu sdl3 sdl3-image sdl3-ttf spdlog fmt cereal box2d

Then:

cd path/to/project
mkdir build-psp
cd build-psp
psp-cmake -DBUILD_TARGET=PSP -G Ninja ..
ninja # Yes, PSPSDK can build using Ninja!