Piccolo is a mini game engine designed for building small-scale games with cross-platform support. It compiles and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux from a unified codebase, and includes an editor integration for live editing and debugging.
The engine uses a component-based entity system with data-oriented design, storing component data in contiguous arrays for cache-friendly iteration. It features a fixed timestep game loop that decouples simulation updates from rendering frame rate, and provides a physics debug overlay that renders visual shapes from simulation data synchronized with the editor camera.
Piccolo also generates a compile_commands.json file for accurate code intelligence in editors, and uses CMake to automate cross-platform builds. The engine bridges the editor and game runtime through a shared data layer for live editing and debugging.