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Contributing to tetris.cpp

Thank you for your interest in contributing! This document explains how to set up your environment, the skills you will need, and the conventions to follow when submitting changes.

Table of Contents

  1. Required Skills
  2. Prerequisites
  3. Building the Project
  4. Code Style
  5. Project Structure
  6. How to Contribute
  7. CI / CD

Required Skills

Skill Why it matters
C++20 The entire codebase is written in C++20 (concepts, ranges, std::chrono literals, designated initialisers, etc.)
Terminal / ANSI escape codes Rendering is done entirely through ANSI sequences — no GUI library is used
Game-loop design The engine uses a fixed-timestep loop; understanding delta-time and frame-capping is important
Bazel build system All build targets are declared in BUILD.bazel; familiarity with cc_binary / cc_library rules is needed
Git & GitHub Contributions are submitted as pull requests against the main branch

Nice-to-have experience:

  • Tetris / falling-piece game mechanics (rotation tables, wall kicks, gravity)
  • clang-format and clang-tidy for automated code formatting and linting
  • GitHub Actions for CI/CD workflows

Prerequisites

Tool Version Notes
C++ compiler GCC ≥ 13 or Clang ≥ 16 Must support C++20
Bazelisk latest Wrapper that automatically downloads the Bazel version specified in .bazelversion
Go ≥ 1.21 Required to install Bazelisk via go install
clang-format ≥ 16 Code formatting (config in .clang-format)
clang-tidy ≥ 16 Static analysis (config in .clang-tidy)

Installing Bazelisk

go install github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk@latest
export PATH="$(go env GOPATH)/bin:$PATH"

Building the Project

# Build the tetris binary
bazel build //tetris:tetris

# Run the game
bazel run //tetris:tetris

Code Style

All C++ source files must be formatted with clang-format before being committed. The style is configured in .clang-format (LLVM-based, Allman braces, 4-space indentation, 80-column limit).

# Format a single file in-place
clang-format -i tetris/src/game/board.cc

# Format all C++ sources
find tetris/src tetris/include -name '*.cc' -o -name '*.h' \
  | xargs clang-format -i

Static-analysis checks are defined in .clang-tidy. Address any reported warnings before opening a pull request.

Key style points:

  • Allman brace style — opening braces on their own line
  • 4-space indentation, no tabs
  • #pragma once guard plus matching #ifndef / #define / #endif in every header
  • Left-aligned pointers and references (int* p, int& r)
  • auto return types for non-trivial return types where it improves readability
  • std::uint*_t / std::int*_t fixed-width integer types preferred

Project Structure

tetris.cpp/
├── tetris/
│   ├── BUILD.bazel              # Bazel build rules
│   ├── assets/
│   │   ├── audio/
│   │   │   └── soundtrack.ogg  # Bundled game soundtrack
│   │   └── textures/
│   │       └── blocks          # Comma-separated block glyphs (7 entries)
│   ├── include/
│   │   ├── core/
│   │   │   ├── ansi.h          # ANSI escape-code utilities & key enum
│   │   │   ├── coords.h        # Coords / Axis structs
│   │   │   ├── debugger.h      # File-based debug logger
│   │   │   ├── engine.h        # Engine class & timing constants
│   │   │   ├── keyboard.h      # Non-blocking keyboard input
│   │   │   ├── rng.h           # Random-number generator
│   │   │   └── terminal.h      # Terminal size detection
│   │   └── game/
│   │       ├── board.h         # Board class (grid, line clear, locking)
│   │       └── tetromino.h     # Tetromino class (shapes, rotation, movement)
│   └── src/
│       ├── core/               # Implementations of core headers
│       ├── game/               # Implementations of game headers
│       └── main.cc             # Entry point — calls Engine::run()
├── .clang-format
├── .clang-tidy
├── .editorconfig
├── .bazelversion
├── MODULE.bazel
├── CHANGELOG.md
└── CONTRIBUTING.md

How to Contribute

  1. Fork the repository and create a feature branch from main: 
    git switch -c feat/my-new-feature
  2. Make your changes following the code style described above.
  3. Format all modified C++ files with clang-format.
  4. Build the project and verify the game runs correctly: 
    bazel build //tetris:tetris
  5. Commit with a descriptive message following Conventional Commits: 
    feat(game): add next-piece preview panel
fix(board): correct off-by-one in line-clear row shift
  6. Open a Pull Request against main and fill in the PR template.
  7. Address any review feedback and wait for CI to pass before merging.

Commit Message Convention

<type>(<scope>): <short summary>

[optional body]

Common types: feat, fix, refactor, docs, ci, chore, test
Common scopes: engine, board, tetromino, ansi, keyboard, rng, ci

CI / CD

Pull requests are validated by the Bazel Build GitHub Actions workflow, which builds the project on macOS, Ubuntu, and Windows. Windows support is currently experimental (continue-on-error: true).

When a version tag (v*) is pushed, the workflow also runs and — on success — the Create Release workflow automatically publishes a GitHub Release with platform binaries attached.

Make sure your changes build successfully on both macOS and Ubuntu before requesting a merge.