libtcod is a free, fast, portable and uncomplicated API for roguelike developers providing a true color console, pathfinding, field-of-view, and a few other utilities frequently used in roguelikes.
This is the easiest way setup a libtcod program for a new project. Use this template project to create a new repo with a good starting point.
From there you can modify it to suite your needs. This template invokes Vcpkg in Manifest Mode. The nature of Manifest Mode means that the template is always stable and portable.
Libtcod is included as a port in Vcpkg. You can install libtcod via Vcpkg and then link the library using a CMake script as you normally do for that package manager.
This is not recommend as these releases are unwieldy, are more difficult to update, and are less cross-platform. Do not upload binary files to your projects source repository.
If you are programming in C or C++ then Windows and MacOS binaries are available from the GitHub Releases page.
Keep in mind that as a C++ library, you may need to distribute the appropriate runtime with your program such as the Visual Studio 2015 runtimes or else the program will fail to run.
This is only recommended for libtcod developers. See CONTRIBUTING.md.
The latest documentation is here. It is incomplete, so most people will want to read the 1.6.4 documentation instead. Python users should use the python-tcod documentation.
libtcod comes with a sample application, implementations of which are provided in each of
C (samples_c.c),
C++ (samples_cpp.cpp),
and Python (samples_py.py).
This provides a decent overview of the basic features, in an interactive fashion.
Each should be identical for the most part, so if you are using Windows, downloading the pre-compiled binaries and running the included samples.exe which is compiled from the C source code, should be representative of the other versions.
For reporting bugs or requesting features you should use the GitHub Issues page.
For smaller questions or help with a tutorial or project you can join #libtcod on the Roguelikes Discord or on the Libera.Chat IRC.
Sponsors donating $25 or more per month will have their names or logos listed here.