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jok

A minimal 2d/3d game framework for zig.

What you need?

Features

Supported platforms

TIPS: To eliminate console terminal on Windows platform, override exe.subsystem with .Windows in your build script.

How to start?

  1. Add jok as your project's dependency

    Add jok dependency to your build.zig.zon, with following command:

    zig fetch --save git+https://github.com/jack-ji/jok.git

  2. Use jok's build script to add build step

    In your build.zig, add:

    const std = @import("std");
const jok = @import("jok");

pub fn build(b: *std.Build) void {
    const target = b.standardTargetOptions(.{});
    const optimize = b.standardOptimizeOption(.{});
    const exe = jok.createDesktopApp(
        b,
        "mygame",
        "src/main.zig",
        target,
        optimize,
        .{},
    );
    const install_cmd = b.addInstallArtifact(exe, .{});

    const run_cmd = b.addRunArtifact(exe);
    run_cmd.step.dependOn(&install_cmd.step);

    const run_step = b.step("run", "Run game");
    run_step.dependOn(&run_cmd.step);
}

  3. Install SDL2 library:

    • Windows Platform

      Download SDL library from here, extract into your hard drive, and create file .build_config/sdl.json in your project directory:

      {
  "x86_64-windows-gnu": {
    "include": "D:/SDL2-2.28.5/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include",
    "libs": "D:/SDL2-2.28.5/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib",
    "bin": "D:/SDL2-2.28.5/x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin"
  }
}

      If you have multiple projects, you can config path to a global sdl.json using environment variable, defaults to SDL_CONFIG_PATH.

    • Linux Platform

      Debian/Ubuntu:

      sudo apt install libsdl2-dev

      Fedora/CentOS:

      sudo yum install SDL2-devel

    • MacOS

      brew install sdl2

  4. Write some code!

    You may import and use jok now, here's skeleton of your src/main.zig:

    const std = @import("std");
const jok = @import("jok");

pub fn init(ctx: jok.Context) !void {
    // your init code
}

pub fn event(ctx: jok.Context, e: jok.Event) !void {
    // your event processing code
}

pub fn update(ctx: jok.Context) !void {
    // your game state updating code
}

pub fn draw(ctx: jok.Context) !void {
    // your drawing code
}

pub fn quit(ctx: jok.Context) void {
    // your deinit code
}

    Noticed yet? That's right, you don't need to write main function, jok got your back. The game is deemed as a separate package to jok's runtime as a matter of fact. Your only responsibility is to provide 5 public functions:

    • init - initialize your game, run only once
    • event - process events happened between frames (keyboard/mouse/controller etc)
    • update - logic update between frames
    • draw - render your screen here (60 fps by default)
    • quit - do something before game is closed

    You can customize some setup settings (window width/height, fps, debug level etc), by defining some public constants using predefined names (they're all prefixed withjok_). Checkout src/config.zig.

    NOTE: most settings're still customizable through SDL2's api in runtime. Remember, you can always resort to SDL directly if you're not totally happy with jok's working style.

    Now, compile and run your game using command zig build run, have fun! Please let me know if you have any issue or developed something interesting with this little framework.

NOTE

Jok is short for joke, which is about how overly-complicated modern graphics programming has become. People are gradually forgetting lots of computing techniques used to deliver amazing games on simple machines. With so many tools, engines and computing resources at hand, however, gamedev is not as fun as it used to be. Jok is an offort trying to bring the joy back, it's being developed in the spirit of retro-machines of 1990s (especially PS1), which implies following limitations:

The limitations demand developers to be both creative and careful about game's design.

Third-Party Libraries

Built-in Fonts

Games made in jok