WolfEngine

WolfEngine is a 2D game engine for the ESP32. It runs on a microcontroller, talks to a small TFT display, and gives you a familiar, component-based workflow for building games on hardware that fits in your hand.

The design draws heavily from Unity — you work with GameObjects, attach Components, override Start() and Update(), and let the engine handle the loop. If you've written a Unity game before, a lot of this will feel like home. If you haven't, it's a clean model that's easy to learn.

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What you're working with

The target platform is an ESP32 driving a TFT display. Everything in the engine is designed around that constraint.

A minimal game looks like this:

#include "WolfEngine/WolfEngine.hpp"

class Player : public GameObject {
public:
    // Image itself
    static constexpr uint8_t playerSpriteData[6][6] = {
        {0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0},
        {0, 1, 2, 2, 1, 0},
        {1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1},
        {1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1},
        {0, 1, 2, 2, 1, 0},
        {0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0}
    };

    // Sprite
    static constexpr Sprite Splayer = Sprite::Create(playerSpriteData, PALETTE_WARM);

    // Renderer
    SpriteRenderer spriteRenderer = SpriteRenderer(this, &Splayer);
    Controller* controller = nullptr;

    void Start() override {
        transform.position = { 64, 64 };
        controller = Input().getController(0);
    }

    void Update() override {
        if (!controller) return;
        transform.position.x += controller->getAxis(JoyAxis::X) * 2.0f;
        transform.position.y += controller->getAxis(JoyAxis::Y) * 2.0f;
    }
};

extern "C" void app_main() {
    Engine().StartEngine();
    GameObject::Create<Player>();
    Engine().StartGame(); // never returns
}

StartGame() takes over and runs the loop. Your code lives in Start(), Update(), and the other lifecycle hooks. The engine handles input polling, frame pacing, rendering, and the display flush every frame.

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What's inside

The engine ships with a set of systems that cover the common needs of a game:

• Input — button events and analog joystick axes, per-controller
• Camera — world-space viewport with follow support
• Audio — tone playback on the onboard buzzer
• Renderer — layered draw command queue with a world pass and a UI pass
• UI System — retained-mode panels and labels rendered in a separate pass after the world
• Animator — frame-based sprite animation with state transitions
• Time — delta time and frame-rate-aware timers

Systems are globally accessible by name — Input(), UI(), Sound(), MainCamera(), RenderSys() — so you can reach them from anywhere without passing references around.

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Where to start

If you haven't set up the hardware yet, go to Installation and Setup first.

If you want the project structure and startup flow first, read Engine Basics for the folder layout, main.cpp, and object creation pattern.

Everything else is in the sidebar.