Cute Framework (CF) is the cutest framework available for making 2D games in C++. It provides a portable foundational layer for building 2D games in C/C++ without baggage, gnarly dependencies, or cryptic APIs. CF runs almost anywhere, including Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Browsers, and more!

Download and Setup

Cute Framework is designed to be built from source. You can link your project against CF as either a static or shared library. Be sure to visit the Cute Framework documentation site for more in-depth details and steps.

Example Game Window

Creating a window and closing it.

#include <cute.h>
using namespace Cute;

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
	// Create a window with a resolution of 640 x 480.
	CF_Result result = make_app("Fancy Window Title", 0, 0, 0, 640, 480, CF_APP_OPTIONS_WINDOW_POS_CENTERED_BIT, argv[0]);
	if (is_error(result)) return -1;

	while (app_is_running())
	{
		app_update();
		// All your game logic and updates go here...
		app_draw_onto_screen();
	}

	destroy_app();

	return 0;
}

Building from Source

Building CF should be done with CMake. The reason CMake is chosen, is it's one of the only working cross-platform build generators in existence, that actually works pretty much everywhere. Make sure you have a compiler installed that you're familiar with beforehand. If you're new to C/C++ I highly recommend using Microsoft Visual Studio (Community Edition), for Windows users. If you don't like Visual Studio you can try gcc/g++ (MinGW), tdm-gcc is recommended in this case. If you're MacOS, XCode (and the command line tools) are recommended. For Linux you'll probably use g++.

It's highly recommended to use CF's Cmake project template and follow along these steps with it!

1. Download and install CMake (v3.14 or higher, you can just get the latest version). CMake is for easy cross-platform building. Also install git. If you're new to git and a Windows user it's highly recommended to use GitHub Desktop.
2. Copy CMakeLists.txt (this one here) into the top-level of your project directory.
3. Find + replace "mygame" to your game name (no underscores, spaces, or special characters allowed).
4. Make a folder called src in the top-level of your project, and place your initial main.cpp there.
5. Run CMake on your project folder. If you need help with this step, try reading a setup guide for CF here: CF - CMake 101.

Note For Linux users make sure to you have Vulkan, gcc/g++, etc. installed and setup. You can try these commands:

sudo apt-get update -qq
sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc-multilib cmake
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev
sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends libvulkan-dev libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev libxi-dev libxext-dev libxfixes-dev

Note On WSL2 you may also need sudo apt install libpulse0.

Resources

The documentation website is the go-to place for finding all the resources available. Here are some quick-links to get you started:

• Topics and Tutorials
• Samples
• API Reference

If you're stuck and need help then check out the Discord chat. Feel free to pop in and ask questions, make suggestions, or have a discussion. General gamedev chatting unrelated to CF is also welcome!

Feel free to open up an issue right here on GitHub to ask any questions. If you'd like to make a pull request I highly recommend opening a GitHub issue first to start a discussion on any changes you would like to make.

Contributing

The main ways to contribute to CF are:

• Bug reporting/fixes
• Adding new sample code
• Editing the docs

Read on below for instructions on each style of contribution. If you wish to add in new features to CF please open a GitHub issue to discuss the proposal first, to avoid putting in effort on a PR before receiving any feedback and avoid wasted work.

Bug Reporting/Fixes

Simply open up a GitHub issue for reporting bugs. Be sure to describe as much detail as you can to understand or debug the problem.

For bug fixes please create a GitHub pull request. Try to be careful to match CF code style, and describe your decision making and the problem involved.

Adding new Sample Code

The CF samples are quite easy to extend. Simply copy + paste one of the other samples to get started, such as one of the simpler ones, perhaps basic_sprite. or basic_input.c.

Open up CF's CmakeLists.txt file to hook up the sample to the build system. Search for CF_FRAMEWORK_BUILD_SAMPLES to find a list of executable targets for all the samples via add_executable. Add your new sample here like so for the example "new_sample":

...
add_executable(waves samples/waves.cpp)
add_executable(shallow_water samples/shallow_water.cpp)
add_executable(noise samples/noise.c)
add_executable(new_sample samples/new_sample.c)

Just below also add in a line via set(SAMPLE_EXECUTABLES like so:

		hello_triangle
		waves
		shallow_water
		noise
		new_sample
	)

If your sample needs access to files on disk, such as assets like images or audio, create a folder in CF's samples folder. Name it "new_sample_data", where "new_sample" is the name of your new sample. Then add in a line to CF's CmakeLists.txt file to copy over the assets to the build folder when building.

	add_custom_command(TARGET spaceshooter PRE_BUILD COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_directory ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/samples/spaceshooter_data $<TARGET_FILE_DIR:spaceshooter>/spaceshooter_data)
	add_custom_command(TARGET waves PRE_BUILD COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_directory ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/samples/waves_data $<TARGET_FILE_DIR:waves>/waves_data)
	add_custom_command(TARGET shallow_water PRE_BUILD COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_directory ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/samples/shallow_water_data $<TARGET_FILE_DIR:shallow_water>/shallow_water_data)
	add_custom_command(TARGET shallow_water PRE_BUILD COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_directory ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/samples/new_sample $<TARGET_FILE_DIR:shallow_water>/new_sample)

And that's it! Regenerate your project and you will be able to build your new sample. Once confirmed working as intended, open a pull request to add in your new sample!

Editing the Docs

All of CF's docs for the CF website are located here in GitHub under the docs folder. Editing any of these docs is a good way to contribute to CF through a pull-request.

Please note that the reference pages for functions/structs are automatically generated by CF's docs parser + generator. You can run this executable to regenerate all of the docs files for all of CF. If you wish to edit any of the reference pages be sure to edit the appropriate file in CF's actual source code and regenerate the docs by running the CF sample docs_parser. You can then create a pull-request for any of the regenerated docs files.