A C++20 2D game engine built for Lords of War — a turn-based strategy game inspired by Warlords 3.

• Entity Component System (ECS) — CRTP-based components with explicit dependency declarations and memory-pooled allocation
• Scene management — scene stack with pause/resume support; each scene owns its own physics world
• 2D physics — Box2D integration with static, dynamic, and kinematic bodies; fixed-timestep FixedUpdate loop
• Sprite rendering — static sprites, frame-based animation, and tile map rendering via SFML
• Tile maps — LDtk format support with multiple layers, navigation grid, and A* pathfinding
• Action-based input — named actions bound to keys or mouse buttons with optional modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt)
• Audio — sound effects, music playback with queue and crossfade support
• JSON serialization — full project/scene/entity/asset save & load (.lowproj / .lowscene)
• ImGui editor — in-engine editor with world outliner, per-component property panels, asset browser, and file dialogs

Prerequisites: CMake 3.26+, C++20 compiler, OpenGL

Windows (Visual Studio): Run one of the generator scripts to produce a solution, then build inside the IDE:

generate_vs2022-win32-sln.bat generate_vs2026-win32-slnx.bat 

Manual:

cmake -B build -S . cmake --build build --config Debug

Outputs go to bin/Debug/ or bin/Release/.

CMake options:

#include "Game.h" #include "ecs/ECSHeaders.h" #include "assets/Assets.h" using namespace LowEngine; int main() { Game game("My Game"); game.OpenWindow(1280, 720, 60); // Load assets Assets::LoadTexture("player", "assets/textures/player.png"); // Set up a scene Scene* scene = game.Scenes.GetCurrentScene(); Entity* player = scene->AddEntity("Player"); scene->AddComponent<TransformComponent>(player->Id); auto* sprite = scene->AddComponent<SpriteComponent>(player->Id); sprite->SetTexture("player"); // Game loop while (game.IsWindowOpen()) { game.Draw(); } }

// Declare dependencies as template parameters class HealthComponent : public IComponent<HealthComponent, TransformComponent> { public: int HP = 100; explicit HealthComponent(Memory::Memory* memory) : IComponent(memory) {} void Initialize() override { HP = 100; } void Update(float deltaTime) override { /* ... */ } };

my_project/ my_project.lowproj assets/ textures/ sounds/ music/ fonts/ scenes/ main.lowscene 

All dependencies are in 3rd_party/ as git submodules.