A collection of useful libraries and tools for game development. The table below highlights each library with its (source and/or API) language and license. Following is a full library listing with brief descriptions and links to downloads and documentation.

The greater part of these libraries are free open-source (FOSS) with various licenses including zlib, BSD, MIT, and GPL; a few have proprietary licenses but are free to use; and at least one (actually a collection in its own right) has been released into the public domain.

I began putting this together for my own use, to have a central repository of useful libraries (similar to AwesomeC++, among others) from which to choose rather than continually hunting down each one “in the wild.” I also added most of the libraries as submodules in order to install/update the whole collection with just a few commands: git submodule update --init clones all submodules; git submodule foreach git pull updates them to the latest upstream commit.

The libraries in this list were primarily selected for their usefulness in game development, but many are applicable to other types of projects as well.

The source links below reference (where possible) the official/primary source repository for each project, many of which are on GitHub. Additionally, if a project has a mirror on GitHub (or elsewhere for projects whose primary source is GitHub) – even an unofficial one, as long as it is kept reasonably up-to-date – that is also listed.

If you notice an error in the list (wrong language, license, link) or think something needs a new or different category, create an issue or pull request. Likewise, if you know of a library that would fit well on this list – C/C++ API, useful in “multimedia” applications, preferably free and open-source – and you don't see it here, create an issue and I'll check it out. (I'd prefer not to use pull requests for this.)

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Group	Library	Language				License
Base Libraries	SDL2	C				zlib
	SFML	C++				zlib
	GLFW	C				zlib
Graphics	OpenGL	C				API only
	GLAD	C/C++				MIT
	GLEW	C				BSD
	GLLoadGen	C/C++				MIT
Audio	FMOD Studio	C++				Prop.
	OpenAL	C				API only
	OpenAL-Soft	C				LGPL
	Lyd	C				ISC
Physics	Box2D	C++				zlib
	Bullet	C++				zlib
	Chipmunk2D	C				MIT
Math	GLM	C++				MIT
	Graphene	C				MIT
Serialization	Jansson	C				MIT
	MessagePack	C				Boost
	TinyXML2	C++				zlib
	YAML	C				MIT
Scripting	Lua	C				MIT
	LuaJIT	C				MIT
	MoonScript	Lua				MIT
	Python	C				PSF
	Ruby	C				BSD
	mruby	C				MIT
	Squirrel	C++				MIT
Networking	cURL	C				MIT
	ENet	C				MIT
AI	FANN	C				LGPL
	MicroPather	C++				zlib
Miscellaneous	Catch	C++				Boost
	Discount	C				BSD
	ImGui	C++				MIT
	Open Steamworks	C++				Other
	PhysicsFS	C				zlib
	STB Nothings	C				-
	Steamworks	C++				Prop.
	TTVFS	C++				MIT
Tools	CMake	C++				BSD
	Ninja	C++				Apache
	Premake	Lua				BSD
	SCons	Python				MIT

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Input and event handling, windowing, graphics context handling, and sometimes include other common services such as graphics, audio, and resource management.

2D graphics (software or hardware-accelerated); OpenGL support if requested; basic audio playback; basic I/O support. Additional features can be added through a selection of support libraries.

• Website: http://libsdl.org/
• License: zlib
• Source: Website
• Mirror: GitHub

2D graphics (through OpenGL); buffered and streaming audio playback; support for loading various image, font, and audio file formats.

• Website: http://sfml-dev.org/
• License: zlib
• Source: GitHub

Lightweight base library that provides a minimum of extra features.

• Website: http://www.glfw.org/
• License: zlib
• Source: GitHub

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Render visuals to an on-screen or off-screen surface, including support libraries for using such functionality.

API for accelerated 2D and 3D graphics.

• Website: https://www.opengl.org/
• License: None (API only)
• Source: Registry

Detects and enables OpenGL extensions in a client application.

• Website: http://glad.dav1d.de/
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

Detects and enables OpenGL extensions in a client application.

• Website: http://glew.sourceforge.net/
• License: BSD
• Source: GitHub
• Mirror: SourceForge

Detects and enables OpenGL extensions in a client application.

• Website: https://bitbucket.org/alfonse/glloadgen/src
• License: MIT
• Source: BitBucket

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Render sound effects and music to an audio device, including support libraries for using such functionality.

API for high-level audio management and playback.

• Website: http://www.fmod.org/
• License: Proprietary
• Source: None

API for advanced 3D audio.

• Website: https://www.openal.org/
• License: None? (API only)
• Source: None

Free, open-source software implementation of OpenAL.

• Website: http://openal-soft.org/
• License: LGPL
• Source: GitHub

Realtime audio-synthesis engine.

• Website: http://pippin.gimp.org/lyd/
• License: ISC
• Source: Website
• Mirror: GitHub

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Simulate 2D and 3D dynamic physics. Usually geared toward performance over precision, but may also be tunable.

2D physics engine.

• Website: http://box2d.org/
• License: zlib
• Source: GitHub

3D physics engine.

• Website: http://bulletphysics.org/
• License: zlib
• Source: GitHub

2D physics engine.

• Website: http://chipmunk-physics.net/
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

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Provide extra mathematical functions above the standard library, especially vector-matrix math (linear algebra) since it's useful for graphics.

C++ library of vector and matrix math functions, designed to comply with GLSL types and functions (but does not require OpenGL).

• Website: http://glm.g-truc.net/
• License: MIT/“Happy Bunny”
• Source: GitHub

C library of vector and matrix math functions.

• Website: https://ebassi.github.io/graphene/
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

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Convert application data to and from a portable representation (usually text).

Library for JSON serialization.

• Website: http://www.digip.org/jansson/
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

Library for compact binary object serialization.

• Website: http://msgpack.org/
• License: Boost
• Source: GitHub

Library for XML serialization.

• Website: http://www.grinninglizard.com/tinyxml2/
• License: zlib
• Source: GitHub

Library for YAML serialization.

• Website: http://www.yaml.org/
• License: MIT
• Source: BitBucket
• Mirror: GitHub

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Enable scripting (by e.g. end users, non-programmers) to modify and extend a program without recompiling, whether during testing to reduce development cycle time, or after deployment to reduce the size of updates (often only a single script needs to be updated, not the entire application).

Simple but expressive high-level scripting language, designed for embedding.

• Website: http://www.lua.org/
• License: MIT
• Source: Website
• Mirror: GitHub

Lua implementation with faster VM and JIT-compiler for even more performance.

• Website: http://luajit.org/
• License: MIT
• Source: Website
• Mirror: GitHub

Ruby-like language that “compiles” to Lua. (Requires Lua.)

• Website: https://github.com/leafo/moonscript
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

Powerful, widely-used scripting language with extensive library support.

• Website: http://python.org/
• License: PSF
• Source: Website
• Mirror: GitHub

Concise yet powerful scripting language “with a focus on simplicity”.

• Website: https://www.ruby-lang.org/
• License: BSD
• Source: GitHub

Embeddable standard-compliant version of Ruby.

• Website: http://www.mruby.org/
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

Sort of a mash-up of C++ and Lua.

• Website: http://squirrel-lang.org/
• License: MIT
• Source: SourceForge
• Mirror: GitHub

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Send and receive data over the internet (or local network) for features like DLC, UGC, and multiplayer.

Library (and tool) for transparent access to internet resources.

• Website: http://curl.haxx.se
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

Reliable UDP network protocol.

• Website: http://enet.bespin.org/
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

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Give enemies, NPCs, player units, etc. the ability to “think” for themselves.

Fast Automatic Neural Networks, useful for developing and training AIs.

• Website: http://leenissen.dk/fann/
• License: LGPL
• Source: GitHub

Generic A* solver for pathfinding.

• Website: http://www.grinninglizard.com/MicroPather/
• License: zlib
• Source: GitHub

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Header-only C++ unit test library.

• Website: https://github.com/philsquared/Catch
• License: Boost
• Source: GitHub

Markdown parser with HTML renderer.

• Website: http://www.pell.portland.or.us/~orc/Code/discount/
• License: BSD
• Source: Website
• Mirror: GitHub

Light-weight immediate mode GUI.

• Website: http://www.patreon.com/imgui
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

Reverse-engineered Steamworks API library.

• Website: https://github.com/SteamRE/open-steamworks
• License: Unknown
• Source: GitHub

Virtual filesystem with write-isolation.

• Website: https://icculus.org/physfs/
• License: zlib
• Source: Website

Collection of various helpful tools for loading images and fonts, generating Perlin noise, and more.

• Website: https://github.com/nothings/stb
• License: Public domain
• Source: GitHub

API for integration with Steam platform.

• Website: https://partner.steamgames.com/
• License: Proprietary
• Source: None

Virtual filesystem in C++.

• Website: https://github.com/fgenesis/ttvfs
• License: MIT
• Source: GitHub

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Useful development tools, especially build tools right now.

Powerful build script generator.

• Website: https://cmake.org/
• License: BSD
• Source: Website
• Mirror: GitHub

Ultra-fast low-level build tool.

• Website: https://ninja-build.org/
• License: Apache
• Source: GitHub

Build script generator based on Lua. (Includes Lua.)

• Website: https://premake.github.io/
• License: BSD
• Source: GitHub

Fully-integrated build system based on Python. (Requires Python.)

• Website: http://www.scons.org/
• License: MIT
• Source: BitBucket

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