Riley Entertainment
CMake + SDL2 + Emscripten Sample
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CMake + SDL2 + Emscripten Sample

A sample skeleton game project made for indie game developers to use as a reference for integrating CMake, SDL2, and Emscripten together.

View the full source code (MIT license) over on the cmake-testing-grounds repository.

If you're looking for guidance on how to build a cross-platform C++ game for both the web and desktop, this project is for you! It illustrates a modern (2025 - 2026) CMake build script, and C++ bootstrapping using Emscripten. It includes SDL_image for loading textures, SDL_ttf for loading fonts, and SDL_mixer for loading and playing music and sound effects.

SDL version 2 was chosen because SDL_mixer did not yet have a version 3 release tag at the time this project was created. A separate project targeting SDL3 will be available once the full SDL stack has an official version 3 release!

Version 1.1 Update

The Version 1.1 update illustrates the following additional functionality:

  • Introduces a CMakePresets.json file for desktop and Emscripten builds, which plays nicely with VS Code.
  • Updates the canvas dimensions to fill the remaining space on the web page.
  • Adds `touch-action: none;` CSS to the canvas element, to ensure the web build plays nicely on mobile devices.
  • Adds event handling for window resize events.
  • Adds a fullscreen toggle icon in the top-right corner.
  • Adds support for small and standard size for text rendering, based on window size.

Play the Game!

Version 1.1 (Web)
Version 1.0 (Web)

Recent Articles

Handling Window Resizing in the SDL2 Emscripten Port
A Sample Indie Game Dev Project with CMake, SDL2, and Emscripten

Recent Blog Posts

Handling Fullscreen and Orientation Changes in SDL2 and Emscripten
Switching to VS Code for Emscripten Projects
CMakePresets.json and Visual Studio
A CMake, SDL2, and Emscripten Sample Project

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