Build your game for desktop platforms
Macroquad supports multiple desktop platforms, such as Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It’s possible to cross-compile for other platforms than the one you are using. But it might need other tools that are not described in this guide. It’s easiest to use a build system that has support for different platforms.
Build for Windows
If you want to build your game to be run on Windows you need to install a Rust build target. Both the MSVC and GNU build targets are supported.
Build using Windows GNU target
Before running the build the for first time you need to install the build target. You will only have to run this command once.
rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
To build the game, use the following command:
cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
The binary file created will be stored in the directory
target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/release/.
Build using Windows MSVC target
Before running the build the for first time you need to install the build target. You will only have to run this command once.
rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
To build the game, use the following command:
cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
The binary file created will be stored in the directory
target/x86_64-pc-windows-msvc/release/.
Build for Linux
To build your game with Macroquad on Linux you will need a couple of development packages. Below are a few instructions how to install these packages on some common Linux distributions.
Install packages
Ubuntu
These system packages must be installed to build on Ubuntu.
apt install pkg-config libx11-dev libxi-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libasound2-dev
Fedora
These system packages must be installed to build on Fedora.
dnf install libX11-devel libXi-devel mesa-libGL-devel alsa-lib-devel
Arch Linux
These system packages must be installed to build on Arch Linux.
pacman -S pkg-config libx11 libxi mesa-libgl alsa-lib
Build using Linux GNU target
Before running the build for the first time you need to install the build target. You will only have to run this command once.
rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
To build the game, use the following command:
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
The binary file created will be stored in the directory
target/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/.
Build using MacOS
To build on MacOS there are two possible targets: x86_64-apple-darwin is
used for older Intel-based Mac computers, and aarch64-apple-darwin build is
used for newer Apple Silicon-based Mac computers.
Build using x86-64 Apple Darwin target
Before running the build for the first time you need to install the build target. You will only have to run this command once.
rustup target add x86_64-apple-darwin
To build the game, use the following command:
cargo build --release --target x86_64-apple-darwin
The binary file created will be stored in the directory
target/x86_64-apple-darwin/release/.
Build using aarch64 Apple Darwin target
Before running the build for the first time you need to install the build target. You will only have to run this command once.
rustup target add aarch64-apple-darwin
To build the game, use the following command:
cargo build --release --target aarch64-apple-darwin
The binary file created will be stored in the directory
target/aarch64-apple-darwin/release/.
Package the game
To share your game with others you need to package the game binary file together with all the assets needed to run the game. Here are a couple of examples on how to do this using a terminal.
Windows
cp target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/release/my-game.exe ./
tar -c -a -f my-game-win.zip my-game.exe assets/*
Linux
cp target/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/release/my-game ./
tar -zcf my-game-linux.zip my-game assets/*
Mac
cp target/aarch64-apple-darwin/release/my-game ./
zip -r my-game-mac.zip my-game assets/*