Advanced Guides

The Gama Compiler Toolchain

Gama provides a seamless development experience by managing its own compiler toolchain. This eliminates the need for manual setup and lets you focus on building your game.

# Zero-Setup on Windows

On Windows, Gama comes bundled with pre-configured TCC and Zig compilers. There is no need to download any other tools or configure your PATH environment variables. Everything works out of the box.

# System-Native on Linux

On Linux, Gama respects the native ecosystem by relying on tcc and zig from your system's package manager. This ensures seamless integration and keeps the Gama installation lightweight.

# gama dev for Rapid Development

When you are actively developing, use the gama dev command. It runs your project using the incredibly fast TCC compiler for near-instantaneous builds. This command also enables hot-reloading, so your game will automatically restart whenever you save a file, providing a tight feedback loop for rapid iteration.

# gama build for Optimization

When you are ready to create a final, optimized release of your game, use the gama build command. This uses the more powerful Zig CC compiler, which performs more advanced optimizations to make your game run as fast as possible.

# Direct Compiler Access

For educational purposes or advanced build scripting, Gama provides direct proxy commands to its underlying compilers. This is a great way for students to learn how to use these tools without any complex setup. You can use the following commands as direct replacements for the real compiler commands:

• gama tcc [args...]
• gama zig [args...]
• gama zcc [args...]