Open Source Game Development Resources

0xDE57 · December 19, 2023, 5:35am

This thread will aim to be a sort of sister thread to: A curated list of amazing open source software you may have not heard of
But with a focus on game dev.

Post open source engines, libraries and resources, or good learning materials for game development!

Rules: no nonsense. such as engines that (tried to) enforce per-user install fees…

Disclaimer: be sure to check specific licensing of engines and frameworks.

NOTE: Sometimes the line can be blurry between engines and frameworks and libraries.

Engines

Frameworks and Libraries

Collections of libraries to provide some engine-like features but leave implementation and architecture up to the developer.

stb | cross-plat | C, C++ | Single-file libraries to make your life easier
single_file_libs | cross-plat | C, C++ | A huge collection of single-file libraries for you to use in your projects

Physics Engines

UI

ImGui | C++

Art: 2D & Pixel

LIBRESPRITE | Cross-plat
Aseprite | Cross-plat

Art: 3D

Blender | Cross-plat

Audio: DAW’s, Music, SFX

Fonts and Glyphs

dafont | double check per-font license
Controller and Keyboard Prompts / Glyphs | CC0 | UI Images for player inputs

Assets

opengameart | double check per-asset license
kenney | CC0 resources

Learning Materials

High quality learning materials for how games work under the hood.

The Book of Shaders | GLSL | Learn the basics of shaders in OpenGL
Game Programming Patterns | Architecture and design patterns
Game Networking Resources | Networking!

Other reference material

Game UI Database | UI catalog and reference tool for interface designers

Graphics Performance and Render Debugging

RenderDoc | graphics debugger that allows quick and easy single-frame capture and detailed introspection of any application using Vulkan, D3D11, OpenGL & OpenGL ES or D3D12 across Windows, Linux, Android, or Nintendo Switch™.

nvtop | graph GPU performance

radeontop | graph GPU performance

This repo is maintained has way more resources:

daveMeister · December 20, 2023, 5:45pm

Frameworks

I think it would be a crime to not include SDL2, which is
pretty much the go-to framework that many games are built on top of.
Simple DirectMedia Layer | cross-plat | C, C++, C#, Python | 2D + 3D, Audio, Input, Joystick

Engines

There’s also raylib which is a simplified game framework that you interface with directly in code:
raylib | cross-plat | C, C++, golang, Python, Rust, ect… | 2D + 3D

Other

stb | cross-plat | C, C++ | Single-file libraries to make your life easier
single_file_libs | cross-plat | C, C++ | A huge collection of single-file libraries for you to use in your projects

Thanks for the resource 0xDE57, I think that people need to know that they have more than one option for game developement.

0xDE57 · December 21, 2023, 5:19am

Precisely why I created this thread. Thanks for contributing!!!

0xDE57 · December 21, 2023, 5:22am

I want to start playing with some linux DAW’s soon. Starting with Ardour.

I still mess around in Ableton with some VST’s but that’s one of the last pieces of proprietary software in my chain / stack. Ableton under wine has too much latency for real-time effects when messing with live recording. I really wanted it to run on the steam deck but its unusable. So hopefully a native DAW will resolve that.

Any music makers on Linux please chime in!

0xDE57 · January 6, 2024, 3:41am

Almost forgot Pygame which is uses SDL.

0xDE57 · March 23, 2024, 6:19am

found a much better list:

/thread

0xDE57 · April 21, 2024, 9:12pm

I’m just going to leave this here

Summary

0xDE57 · June 4, 2024, 3:25pm

changed to a wiki since I didn’t know that was a feature till now.

0xDE57 · July 16, 2024, 1:15am

Found a cool repo of open clones of popular games.

vivante · September 17, 2024, 5:55pm

Lot’s of CC0 licensed assets, some starter kits, you can download individually (as in individual asset packs) or you can buy all-in-one bundle to support them.

0xDE57 · September 19, 2024, 2:09am

jsfxr. a simple in-browser tool for generating basic sounds (Port of sfxr by DrPette)

https://github.grumdrig.com/jsfxr/

0xDE57 · September 19, 2024, 2:36am

many more engines and frameworks listed here:

0xDE57 · October 9, 2024, 9:44pm

High level overview of some common frameworks (and good useful channel):

0xDE57 · October 25, 2024, 1:26am

Added a gpu performance/debugging section.

I just discovered RenderDoc. Its pretty neat.

https://renderdoc.org/

vivante · October 21, 2025, 4:43am

Simple first-person Character Controller for prototyping games in Godot.