Common Lisp

Common Lisp (also known as CL, or just Lisp in most cases) has a sizable community and great library support for things like SDL, OpenGL, TrueType fonts, asset handling, etc, so it makes a good option for Lisp game development. Some resources for learning can be found on Learning Common Lisp page.

Being a standardized language, it has several implementations. Popular choices for open source CL implementation are SBCL and Clozure Common Lisp, but there are many more implementations with their own perks and quirks.

Table of Contents Window management and Input Handling Graphics APIs Rendering Engines 2D Graphics Assets Handling Image processing Audio Physics Math Game Engines Utilities

Window management and Input Handling

• glop provides simple OpenGL window and context manipulation code as well as system input handling.
• sdl2kit is a utility kit for cl-sdl2 that provides something similar to GLUT, however, it's also geared at being useful for "real" applications or games.
• cl-sdl2 is a Common Lisp wrapper for the SDL 2.0 C Library.
• cl-glfw3 provides bindings for the GLFW 3.x library for Common Lisp.
• CLX provides an implementation of the X Window System protocol to Lisp graphics library[ies] and applications.
• Lispbuilder-SDL provides a set of bindings and Lispy abstractions for graphics, sound, input and other features. [Stable]
• cl-glfw is an open source, multi-platform library for opening a window, creating an OpenGL context and managing input. [DEPRECATED]
• Qtools Qtools provides an accessible and lispy interface to the Qt 4 GUI toolkit.

Graphics

APIs

• cl-opengl If you're writing games in Common Lisp, you are almost certainly going to be using OpenGL. This wrapper enables Common Lisp to access almost every feature of OpenGL.
• glkit is a utility kit for functionality related to OpenGL.
• PAL (Pixel Art Library) is a portable Common Lisp graphics and sound library for 2D games. [UNMAINTAINED]
• LDX is an attempt to bring DirectX into Common Lisp. [STALLED]

Rendering Engines

• CLinch is a shader-based graphics engine using cl-opengl. It has strong vector graphics support. It also has tutorials.
• CEPL is a lispy and REPL-friendly Common Lisp library for working with OpenGL.
• cl-horde3d is a wrapper around the open source graphics engne Horde3d.
• okra is a wrapper around the open source graphics engine OGRE. [STALLED]

2D Graphics

• cl-cairo2 is a graphics library that provides Common Lisp bindings for the Cairo API.

Assets Handling

• classimp provides Common Lisp bindings for Open Asset Import Library.

Image processing

• imago is an image manipulation library for Common Lisp.
• opticl is designed to be a high-performance but relatively lightweight library for representing, processing, loading, and saving 2-dimensional pixel-based images.
• cl-sdl2-image is a (currently) brief but usable wrapper for SDL2_image.
• cl-devil provides bindings to the DevIL image loading and manipulation library.
• cl-soil is a work-in-progress wrapper around the SOIL library.

Audio

• harmony is a simple-to-use but extensible sound system.
• cl-openal provides CL bindings for OpenAL API.
• cl-sdl2-mixer is a brief but usuable wrapper for SDL2_Mixer.
• cfxr

Physics

• cl-ode - bindings for Open Dynamics Engine library. (3D/2D)
• SquirL is native Lisp port of the Chipmunk physics library. (2D)
• buclet - bindings for Bullet Physics library (3D) [STALLED]

Math

• 3d-vectors This is a library for vector math in 3D space.
• 3d-matrices This is a library implementing common matrix operations, mainly intended as the counterpiece to 3d-vectors and thus being aimed at operations in 3D space.
• rtg-math provides a selection of the math routines most commonly needed for making realtime graphics in lisp.
• mathkit is a purely math-related utility kit, providing functions which can be useful for games, 3D, and GL in general.
• sb-cga is a highly optimized (incl. SSE) computer graphics algebra library for Common Lisp.
• ax.math is an efficient computer graphics math library written in portable Common Lisp with an emphasis on performance and clean code.

Game Engines

• Trial An in-development game engine with a strong focus on modularity and extensibility.
• Sketch is a Common Lisp environment for the creation of electronic art, visual design, game prototyping, game making, computer graphics, exploration of human-computer interaction and more. It is inspired by Processing Language and shares some of the API.
• Xelf is a simple 2D game engine written in Common Lisp.
• cl-bodge is a 3D-oriented game engine with support for window management, 3D/2D rendering, physics, 3D audio, text rendering, GUI, assets management and many more features under unified interface.
• The goal of glaw is to provide a collection of basic functionalities to help developing games.
• CL-TCOD library provides an interface (wrapper) between Common Lisp and the Doryen Library (libtcod).
• blackthorn [STALLED]
• lisp-game-engine [STALLED]
• Until It Dies [STALLED]

Utilities

• cl-fond This is a bindings library to libfond, a simple OpenGL text rendering engine.
• cl-gamepad This is a small wrapper library around libstem_gamepad, providing independent gamepad input support.
• cl-monitors This is a small wrapper library around libmonitors, providing independent monitor resolution detection and change support.
• gamebox-dgen is an experimental map generation library. The goal is to be able to procedurally generate a map for use in a rogue-like, or other games.
• sdf - SDF glyph atlas generator.