Asteroid Destroyer

A 2D space shooter built from scratch in C++ using SDL3.

Created by Tanner Davison

---

About

Asteroid Destroyer is my first C++ game project: a multi-player space shooter with physics-based movement, a bullet weapon system, level progression, and a live score display. Built entirely with SDL3, CMake, and vcpkg with no bundled libraries.

Features

• Multi-player V-formation spawn
• Physics-based movement with acceleration, deceleration, and wall bounce
• Fixed timestep game loop (120Hz physics, 120Hz rendering)
• Bullet weapon system with cooldown and collision detection
• Level progression with increasing asteroid counts
• Live score display with SDL3_ttf font rendering
• Cross-platform — macOS, Linux, Windows

---

Prerequisites

Tool	Version
CMake	3.15+
vcpkg	latest
GCC / Clang / MSVC	C++23 support

Environment Setup

Before cloning, make sure your system has a C++23 compiler and CMake installed.

macOS

xcode-select --install
brew install cmake

Linux

sudo apt install build-essential cmake git

Windows

Install Visual Studio 2022 with the Desktop development with C++ workload. This includes MSVC, CMake, and the Windows SDK.

---

Install vcpkg

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git ~/vcpkg
cd ~/vcpkg
./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh   # macOS / Linux
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat  # Windows

Add to your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, or PowerShell $PROFILE):

export VCPKG_ROOT=~/vcpkg
export CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake

---

Building

SDL3, SDL3_image, and SDL3_ttf are installed automatically by vcpkg on first configure.

macOS / Linux

git clone https://github.com/Tanner-Davison/asteroid-destroyer-sdl.git
cd asteroid-destroyer-sdl
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
make -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)   # macOS
make -j$(nproc)                     # Linux

Windows

git clone https://github.com/Tanner-Davison/asteroid-destroyer-sdl.git
cd asteroid-destroyer-sdl
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64
cmake --build . --config Release

---

Running

./build/asteroid-destroyer      # macOS / Linux
.\build\asteroid-destroyer.exe  # Windows

---

Controls

Key	Action
W / ↑	Move up
S / ↓	Move down
A / ←	Move left
D / →	Move right
Space	Shoot
Left Shift	Boost

---

Project Structure

asteroid-destroyer/
├── src/
│   ├── main.cpp              # Game loop and collision orchestration
│   ├── Player.cpp/hpp        # Movement, input, texture, collision
│   ├── weapon.cpp/hpp        # Bullet pool and shoot cooldown
│   ├── asteroid.cpp/hpp      # Spawn, physics, wrap-around
│   ├── score.cpp/hpp         # Score state and TTF rendering
│   └── createwindow.cpp/hpp  # SDL3 init, window, renderer
├── assets/fonts/             # FiraCode font
├── CMakeLists.txt
└── vcpkg.json

---

License

MIT