Bubble Dragons (Bubble Bobble-style prototype)

C++/CMake 2D arcade game skeleton inspired by Bubble Bobble, using:

• SDL2 for windowing, input, and 2D rendering (with a path to migrate to shaders/OpenGL)
• Box2D for physics
• A small engine-style architecture (core/platform/render/physics/scenes)

This repo currently provides a minimal runnable loop and a clean architecture to build on.

High-level architecture

• core/
  • Application: Owns main loop, SDL context, renderer, physics world, scene stack.
  • GameConfig: Window and runtime options.
  • Time: Simple TimeStep wrapper.
  • Scene / SceneStack: Stack-based state/scene management (menu, game, pause, etc.).
• platform/
  • SDLContext: RAII wrapper around SDL initialization, window, and renderer.
• render/
  • Renderer2D: Simple SDL2-based renderer abstraction.
    • Later: sprite batching, camera, shader/vertex effects (via OpenGL backend).
• physics/
  • PhysicsWorld: Wraps a Box2D b2World and time-stepping.

Game-specific logic (Bubble Bobble rules, player, enemies, levels, bubbles) will live in a future game/ module with dedicated scenes.

Building

Prerequisites

• A C++20 compiler
• CMake >= 3.16
• SDL2 development files
• Box2D development files

On Ubuntu (locally):

sudo apt-get install cmake ninja-build libsdl2-dev libbox2d-dev

Configure & build

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build --config Debug --parallel

Then run:

./build/bubble_dragons

You should see an SDL window with a blank screen, ready for scenes and gameplay.

Next steps

• Add a game/ module with:
  • Player controller and character physics (Box2D bodies).
  • Bubble shooting, popping, and enemy capture mechanics.
  • Tile-based levels and enemy AI patterns.
• Introduce an OpenGL-backed renderer for shaders and vertex effects (color pulses, distortions, scanlines).
• Implement asset loading (textures, animations, shaders, sounds).