Raylib + CMake project setup

If you want to get started building games in the based C programming language, I think that Raylib is probably the best option to start with. It is based on OpenGL, is very simple to use and has great community support.

Of course, you could use only your compiler to build your game's files manually and link them with Raylib, but scaling this can be difficult. You can also use Makefiles, but they are not very portable, are verbose, and can be cumbersome to write. CMake is widely used to build C/C++ programs, meaning it should handle any needs that might arise when you are creating your project. Working with it shouldn't be difficult since there is a lot of tutorials/resources on it.

The template below is a modified version of the official template.

To get started, create a new directory and add the following file:

CMakeLists.txt


                    cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20)

                    project(yourprojectname)



                    set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
                    "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${PROJECT_NAME}")

                    set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
                    "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${PROJECT_NAME}")



                    # For demonstration purposes, I use the C11 standard. You
                    can generally use anything you want: C99, C11, C23 etc.

                    set(CMAKE_C_STANDARD 11 REQUIRED)



                    add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME})



                    add_subdirectory(src)

                    add_subdirectory(vendored/raylib)



                    target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} raylib)



                    add_custom_command(

                        TARGET ${PROJECT_NAME} POST_BUILD

                        COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E
                    copy_directory "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/assets"
                        "$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:${PROJECT_NAME}>/assets"

                    )



                    # Checks if OSX and links appropriate frameworks (only
                    required on MacOS)

                    if (APPLE)

                        target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME}
                    "-framework IOKit")

                        target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME}
                    "-framework Cocoa")

                        target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME}
                    "-framework OpenGL")

                    ENDIF()

Next, you should create a src subdirectory. This is where your source code will go. Now, create another CMakeLists.txt file as follows:

src/CMakeLists.txt


                    file(GLOB_RECURSE SOURCE_FILES CONFIGURE_DEPENDS *.c)

                    file(GLOB_RECURSE HEADER_FILES CONFIGURE_DEPENDS *.h)



                    target_sources(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE ${SOURCE_FILES}
                    ${HEADER_FILES})

You should also create two more subdirectories:

assets - This is where your game's resources such as sprites, music and sounds will reside.
vendored - This is where you will place third-party libraries.

The next steps

First, initialize a Git repository. After you do that, add Raylib as a submodule:

git submodule add https://github.com/raysan5/raylib
                    vendored/raylib/

This will fetch Raylib from GitHub, using the latest commit. If you want to get a specific release instead, you can use this code:


                    set(RAYLIB_VERSION 5.5)



                    FetchContent_Declare(

                        raylib

                        DOWNLOAD_EXTRACT_TIMESTAMP OFF

                        URL
                    https://github.com/raysan5/raylib/archive/refs/tags/${RAYLIB_VERSION}.tar.gz

                        FIND_PACKAGE_ARGS

                    )

Finally, to create the build files you can run this command in your project's root:

cmake -S . -B build/

Now you can go have fun creating your game or anything else that you want.