Awesome Libgdx Overview

🎮 📝 A curated list of libGDX resources to help developers make awesome games.

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Awesome libGDX

libGDX is a relatively low level, free, open source cross platform game development framework written in Java.

This list is a curated collection of awesome resources, tools, tutorials, and projects using the libGDX game framework to help developers make awesome games, conforming to the Awesome Manifesto (⭐333k).

Contributions very welcome but first see Contributing.

Contents

• Resources
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Controllers
  • Editors
  • Entity Component System (ECS)
  • Physics
  • Services
  • Setup and Deployment
  • User Interface
  • Visual Effects
  • Audio
  • Others
• Tutorials
  • Getting Started
  • Advanced
• Assets
• Community
• Other Lists

Resources

Resources that can be used in libGDX code to boost the framework's capabilities.

Algorithms and AI

• gdx-ai (⭐1.2k) - Artificial Intelligence framework featuring Steering Behaviors, Formation Motion, Pathfinding, Behavior Trees and Finite State Machines.
• Simple Graphs (⭐44) - A java library for graph data structures and algorithms (including fast pathfinding).

Controllers

• gdx-controllers (⭐71) - Adds support to gamepads and joysticks.
• gdx-controllerutils (⭐60) - Adds Scene2D button input support, user configurable button mappings and hotplugging for LWJGL2.
• sdl2gdx (⭐76) - Powerful gamepad implementation using SDL. Supports hundreds of controllers under the same mapping, rumble, and hotplugging.

Editors

• HyperLap2D (⭐376) - Visual editor for complex 2D worlds and scenes with a runtime for libGDX.
• Mundus (⭐160) - World/level editor for 3D worlds with a runtime for libGDX.
• Spine - Skeleton-based animation tool that focuses specifically on 2D animation for games.

Entity Component System (ECS)

• Artemis-odb (⭐779) - High performance java based Entity-Component-System framework.
• Ashley (⭐874) - A Java entity system inspired by Ash & Artemis.

Physics

• Box2D - One of the most popular physics libraries for 2D games.
• Bullet - 3D Collision Detection and Rigid Body Dynamics Library.
• jbump (⭐31) - Easy to implement AABB collision detection useful for platformers and other simple 2D games.

Services

• gdx-facebook (⭐59) - Provides cross-platform support for Facebook Graph API.
• gdx-fireapp (⭐63) - Cross-platform API for Firebase.
• gdx-firebase (⭐35) - Cross-platform (only Desktop/Android) API for Firebase.
• gdx-gameanalytics (⭐32) - Game Analytics REST API client implementation for libGDX. Works on all backends.
• gdx-gamesvcs (⭐113) - Easy integration of gameservices, such as Google Play Games, Apple Game Center, and more.
• gdx-pay (⭐225) - Provides a cross-platform API for InApp purchasing.
• steamworks4j (⭐482) - A thin wrapper which allows Java applications to access the Steamworks C++ API.

Setup and Deployment

• gdx-liftoff (⭐545) - A modern setup tool for libGDX that supports more backends and allows adding libraries with one click.
• libgdx-library-template (⭐14) - A skeleton project for making new libraries, since they need different config.
• Packr (⭐2.6k) - Packages your JAR, assets and a JVM for distribution on Windows, Linux and macOS.

User Interface

• Freetype - Generate BitmapFonts of your desired size on the fly from lightweight .ttf font files.
• gdx-dialogs (⭐78) - Provides cross-platform support for native dialogs.
• gdx-skins (⭐504) - Free Scene2D GUI skins.
• InGameConsole (⭐132) - Allows a developer to add a console (similar to how it is featured in Source games) to their game.
• msdf-gdx (⭐34) - Provides lightweight utilities to draw high-quality MSDF (multi-channel signed distance field) text on libGDX.
• PieMenu (⭐79) - Radial menus for Scene2D that are highly flexible and easy to customize.
• Ray3K Skins - Free Scene2D.UI skins with example code, custom drawables, and experimental features.
• Skin Composer (⭐430) - Create skins for libGDX scene2d.ui with a graphical interface.
• TenPatch (⭐48) - An alternative to libGDX's 9patch implementation that implements multiple stretch regions.
• TextraTypist (⭐94) - Like TypingLabel (below), but also supports styles, emoji, multiple fonts, clickable links, etc.
• TypingLabel (⭐152) - A libGDX Label that appears as if it was being typed in real time.
• VisUI (⭐727) - Allows to create nice looking UI in libGDX using scene2d.ui. Note this is not a UI editor.

Visual Effects

• Box2DLights (⭐255) - 2D lighting framework that uses Box2D for raycasting and OpenGL ES 2.0 for rendering.
• colorful-gdx (⭐76) - Expands how tinting can affect colors; also has many pre-written shaders.
• HackLights (⭐25) - Lightweight framebuffer based lighting engine for libGDX.
• gdx-vfx (⭐191) - Flexible post-processing shader visual effects based on libgdx-contribs-postprocessing.
• libgdx-screenmanager (⭐104) - A screen manager for libGDX supporting various transition effects
• Particle Park (⭐68) - A showcase of downloadable particle effects with live previews.
• Shape Drawer (⭐187) - A performant alternative to ShapeRenderer that avoids Batch flushing.
• gdx-gltf (⭐213) - GLTF 3D file format support (import/export), PBR shaders, and others advanced rendering.
• gdx-graph (⭐45) - Provides a GUI to design your rendering pipeline and shaders, and a library to easily incorporate them into your games.

Audio

• TuningFork (⭐30) - Advanced 3D audio features for libGDX desktop users.
• gdx-miniaudio (⭐50) - Advanced Cross Platform Audio Engine for libGDX based on MiniAudio.
• gdx-sfx (⭐19) - Some goodies for better sound effects in libGDX.
• gdx-pd (⭐27) - Pure Data extension for libGDX.

Others

• anim8-gdx (⭐41) - Allows saving (animated) GIFs and PNGs from sequences of Pixmaps, with configurable dithering if needed.
• gdx-dbgagent (⭐30) - Java Agent for debugging common issues, like objects not being disposed and constants such as Color.WHITE being modified.
• gdx-jnigen (⭐65) - Small library that allows C/C++ code to be written inline with Java source code.
• gdxGifRecorder (⭐37) - A utility class that records a GIF and saves it automatically.
• KTX (⭐1.4k) - Kotlin extensions and utilities for libGDX.
• noise4j (⭐100) - Simple map generators based on various procedural content generation tutorials.
• Texture Packer GUI (⭐613) - A simple way to pack and manage texture atlases for libGDX game framework.

Tutorials

Tutorials for newbies and seasoned developers alike.

Getting Started

• Official libGDX Wiki - Official libGDX wiki that contains a huge amount of information.
• Tann's Hello libGDX - An excellent guide for beginners on how to create a game from scratch.
• Development Tutorial Playlist by Phillip Mod Dev - A series of videos going over the basics of libGDX.
• Brandon Grasley's Space Shooter Game - Video tutorial series on making a complete Android game from scratch.
• Creating a Launcher - Video tutorial on using libGDX to make a game launcher.
• Deploying with JPackage (⭐430) - A tutorial on deploying libGDX games with JPackage via Gradle commands.
• JSON in Game Dev - General tutorial on using JSON for storing data.
• Progress Bar Design (⭐430) - Discusses the pros and cons of different progress bar design techniques with examples.
• libGDX External Tutorials - Big list of official unofficial tutorials.
• Scene2D.UI From the Ground Up (⭐430) - Covers the basics of UI design in Scene2D, libGDX's premiere scene graph and layout toolkit.

Advanced

• Code Hotswapping - Video tutorial on enabling code hotswapping for libGDX projects to increase productivity.
• Dynamic Textures with Pixmap - Details how to create a mask using Pixmaps.
• iOS Deployment Tutorial - Deploying to iOS in 2019 using RoboVM.
• Sub-pixel Perfect Smooth Scrolling - Pixel-perfect smooth scrolling.
• Introduction to 3D Series - A tutorial series on libGDX 3D using gdx-gltf.

Assets

Collection of free and high quality assets to get your game to the next level.

• Kenney Assets - High quality assets for your game, from 2D and 3D art to sound effects.
• OpenGameArt.org - Repository offering a variety of open content assets.
• Game-Icons.net - Repository containing heaps of cool game related graphics.
• Jsfxr - Quickly create unique sound effects by pressing a few buttons, excellent for prototyping.
• freesound.org - Huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps.

Community

Get in touch with other libGDX developers to collaborate and get help.

• Discord - An active chat with various leaders from the community available every day. Recommended
• Reddit - Unofficial subreddit for libGDX. Not a lot of activity.

Other Lists

Other awesome lists that might be useful to libGDX developers.

• Game Networking (⭐7.4k) - A Curated List of Game Network Programming Resources.
• Game Talks (⭐1.1k) - A curated list of gaming talks (development, design, etc).
• Java (⭐42k) - A curated list of awesome Java frameworks, libraries and software.
• Kotlin (⭐11k) - A curated list of awesome Kotlin related stuff.
• Magic Tools (⭐14k) - A list of Game Development resources to make magic happen.
• Game Accessibility Guidelines - A straightforward reference for inclusive game design, to ensure that games are just as fun for as wide a range of people as possible. Recommended

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.

License