Polly

Minimalistic 2D C++ Game Framework

     

Introduction

Polly is a framework that makes it easy to get started with C++ 2D game development using a clean, modern API, for beginners and experts alike.

It provides every audiovisual aspect necessary to comfortably make a 2D game using a code-only approach.

Note

Polly is currently in early development. Some things might be broken, not documented and many things change frequently. Feedback and contributions are very much appreciated.

// Minimal example
#include "Polly.hpp"

struct MyGame final : Game
{
    Image myImage   = Image("logo.png");
    float animation = 0.0f;

    List<Sound> sounds = {
        Sound(SfxrSoundPreset::Coin, 218309),
        Sound(SfxrSoundPreset::Explosion, 5838292),
        Sound(SfxrSoundPreset::Laser, 2873),
    };

    // Update the game's logic.
    void update(GameTime time) override
    {
        animation = sin(time.total() * 3) * 100;
    }

    // Draw the game's visuals.
    void draw(Painter painter) override
    {
        auto imgPos = (window().sizePx() - myImage.size()) / 2 + Vec2(animation, 0);
        painter.drawSprite(myImage, imgPos, white);
    }

    // Perform ImGui stuff.
    void onImGui(ImGui imgui) override
    {
        if (imgui.button("Click me!"))
        {
            logInfo("Button was clicked!");
            audio().playOnce(*randomItem(sounds));
        }
    }
};

Features

• Cross-Platform: Runs on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

• Free and Open Source: GPLv3 for the framework itself, MIT for games produced with it, with no royalties attached.

• Modern C++: Improved C++ types and containers, providing an ergonomic API and safety guarantees by default.

• Modern 2D Renderer: Efficient 2D rendering using the platform's native graphics API, such as Vulkan and Metal.

• Audio: Easy-to-use audio API, including faders and channels for playback control.

• Custom Shaders: Simple and safe shading language that compiles to native shading languages.

• Content Management: Load common formats such as PNG, JPG, WAV, MP3, FLAC and much more. Assets are automatically packed to an efficient binary archive.

• Particle Systems: Flexible 2D particle systems, customizable behaviors via emitters, modifiers and shapes.

• Dear ImGui: C++ idiomatic Dear ImGui integration for rapid prototyping and UI.

• Spine Integration: Spine integration for powerful physics-based skeletal 2D animations.

---

Getting started

Please visit the homepage for an introduction and documentation.

Platform support

Polly is able to run on the following platforms:

• Windows x64 & ARM64
• Linux x64 & ARM64 (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian)
• Linux RISC-V (StarFive VisionFive board, Debian)
• macOS 13+ (released in 2022)
• iOS 16+ (released in 2022)
• Android 8.0+ (all ABIs) [Porting WIP]
• Web [Porting WIP]

Compiler requirements

Polly was tested and can be built with the following toolchains:

• Visual Studio 2022 (MSVC)
• GCC 11.4+
• Clang 17+
• Xcode 13+

Contributing to Polly

Contributions are always welcome, be it in the form of feedback, bug reports or code changes.

To learn more about how to contribute, please visit Contributing.