EkoScape is a simple 3D step-based game where you run through a maze rescuing your fellow alien Ekos, like a 3D Pac-Man, with robot enemies, fruit, and portals. The maps are simple text files that you can edit!
EkoScape is a remake of an old game I made back in 2004 (with minor edits in later years) using my friend's 3D step-based engine: The Dantares Engine by Ryan Witmer. You can find the original code in relics/.
Back then, I made it for Windows only. In 2024, I re-wrote the code for it in SDL2 (multi-platform) using modern C++20. However, it still uses The Dantares Engine and legacy OpenGL 2.0+, as homage to the original game and engine.
In the beginning, I rewrote the original code for fun in a couple of days. Having enjoyed the process, I decided to flesh it out into multiple, generic files, while adding a menu and a lot of extra stuff (such as portals, fruit, and multiple grids), which took over a month.
The code is a bit over-engineered, but I designed it so that I could use parts of it in other projects. I did make a simple ECS (Entity-Component-System) for it, but because the game is quite simple and the ECS code produced more files/lines of code, I decided to just stick with the original class-based structure.
Initially, src/cybel was named src/core, but I decided to make it into its own Game Engine (kind of). I then put it in its own namespace, called cybel. Because of this, I simply use using namespace cybel inside of the ekoscape namespace, as I didn't like putting cybel:: everywhere.
System Requirements:
- Linux x86_64 (AppImage)
- glibc 2.14+ (Ubuntu 22.04+; Fedora 16+)
- Might need FUSE for running the AppImage -- usually already installed.
- macOS arm64 or x86_64
- Because this game is free and signing costs money, it's currently unsigned, so you'll need to manually override the security warning when running:
- Windows x64
You can download the game on itch.io or from the latest release on GitHub. You can also install the game from the official itch app -- the game has been tested to install & run from it, even in sandbox mode.
Then simply run it in the same folder containing the assets folder.
You can edit the Map files in assets/maps/ or make your own! See assets/maps/README.md for more details, which also includes how to submit your Map files for the next version.
Additional System Notes:
- Linux:
- A Desktop Entry file is provided if you wish to integrate it with your DE (Desktop Environment). Open the provided file --
com.github.esotericpig.EkoScape.desktop-- in a text editor to read more details or read online here.
- A Desktop Entry file is provided if you wish to integrate it with your DE (Desktop Environment). Open the provided file --
This project uses CMake, Ninja, and vcpkg. Please install these for your system.
See the GitHub Workflows or the top of CMakeLists.txt for quickly getting started.
If you have Ruby installed, there is also a script -- scripts/dev.rb -- for rapid development.
Optional stuff for IDEs.
- CLion
- CMake Profiles are included. You'll need to edit them (Settings => Build, Execution, Deployment => CMake) to change the env var appropriately:
VCPKG_ROOT=/path/to/vcpkg
- CMake Profiles are included. You'll need to edit them (Settings => Build, Execution, Deployment => CMake) to change the env var appropriately:
Platform-specific notes:
- On Linux, OpenGL/GLEW/GLU are only façades in
vcpkg, so you need to install them manually. Also, you might need additional system dependencies if it builds SDL2 from source.- On Ubuntu, you can simply look at the Linux GH Workflow.
- https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/blob/SDL2/docs/README-linux.md
- https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/FUSE
- On macOS, you need to install GLEW manually:
brew install glew
The following command will be very slow the first time you run it, as vcpkg downloads the dependencies. Also, it downloads & extracts additional Assets to the assets/ dir (only if assets/images/EkoScape.png doesn't exist).
cmake --preset default
Optionally, for various params, see the GH Workflows or the vcpkg docs.
Examples:
# Linux
cmake --preset default \
-DVCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET="x64-linux" \
-DVCPKG_BUILD_TYPE=release \
-DLINUXDEPLOY_ARCH="x86_64" \
-DPKG_SUFFIX="-x86_64"
# macOS
cmake --preset default \
-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF \
-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64 \
-DVCPKG_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64 \
-DVCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET="arm64-osx" \
-DVCPKG_CRT_LINKAGE=static \
-DVCPKG_LIBRARY_LINKAGE=static \
-DVCPKG_BUILD_TYPE=release \
-DPKG_SUFFIX="-arm64"
# Windows (PowerShell)
cmake --preset default `
-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF `
-DVCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET="x64-windows-static" `
-DVCPKG_CRT_LINKAGE=static `
-DVCPKG_LIBRARY_LINKAGE=static `
-DVCPKG_BUILD_TYPE=release `
-DPKG_SUFFIX="-x64"
To see the list of vcpkg Triplets, you can use the unofficial-official hack:
vcpkg install sdl2 --triplet=""
Build for Release or Debug:
cmake --build --preset default --config Release
cmake --build --preset default --config Debug
This defaults to 5 parallel jobs. Instead, you can either use the preset no-jobs (which causes Ninja to use the max number of jobs) or use the -j option:
cmake --build --preset no-jobs --config Release
cmake --build --preset default --config Release -j 1
Run from the top-level directory (for the assets/ folder).
cmake --build --preset default --config Release --target run
cmake --build --preset default --config Debug --target run
Or run directly:
./bin/Release/EkoScape
./bin/Debug/EkoScape
Must have cppcheck installed.
cmake --build --preset default --config Release --target check
This automatically downloads linuxdeploy to build/downloads/ if it doesn't exist.
cmake --build --preset default --config Release --target appimage
# Test running it:
./build/AppImage/EkoScape-x86_64.AppImage
If your platform is not x86_64, you'll need to change which linuxdeploy to use. See the ones available here.
rm -r build
# aarch64, armhf, i386
cmake --preset default -DLINUXDEPLOY_ARCH=aarch64
cmake --build --preset default --config Release --target appimage
When configuring, optionally add a suffix for the filename:
cmake --preset default -DPKG_SUFFIX="-x64"
Now run the target package. It uses --install & CPack to package up the files. Currently, Release is always used, even if you specify differently.
cmake --build --preset default --config Release --target package
While playing the game, press F3 to see the FPS in the top left. The game is capped at 60 FPS and has VSync enabled.
There are various scripts in the scripts/ folder for development, but not necessary, just for convenience.
Optional: To update dependencies, update your vcpkg clone and then run vcpkg x-update-baseline in this project's folder. Clean any build folders and then test building & playing the game.
With the GH CLI (gh) installed, run this script to download all Workflow Artifacts to build/artifacts/:
./scripts/get_artifacts.sh
(On Linux, to test the Windows icon in the exe, you can use wine explorer . and then check it out.)
Create a new release:
gh release create --draft --generate-notes v2.0 build/artifacts/*
- The Dantares Engine by Ryan Witmer
- Monogram font by datagoblin
- Star textures by Kronbits
- Piskel for pixel editing.
Due to The Dantares Engine being licensed under GPL, I also had to license this game under GPL. However, I might extract my Cybel Engine out (doesn't depend on The Dantares Engine) and place it under a more permissive license (like LGPL or MIT), but probably no one cares to use it anyway.
EkoScape (https://github.com/esotericpig/EkoScape)
Copyright (c) 2004, 2024 Bradley WhitedEkoScape is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.EkoScape is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with EkoScape. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.