purego-steamworks

Go bindings for the Steamworks SDK implemented with purego, allowing you to call the Steamworks C API from Go without CGO.

These bindings are designed for game developers who need direct, low-overhead access to Steam services such as achievements, leaderboards, multiplayer matchmaking, and inventory—while staying within pure Go toolchains.

Features

• Zero CGO: Built on purego for fast builds and simple cross-compilation.
• Complete API coverage: Wraps core Steamworks interfaces (e.g. ISteamApps, ISteamFriends, ISteamGameServer, ISteamInput) with idiomatic Go interfaces and types.
• Callback & CallResult support: Dispatches Steam callbacks and async call results using native Go generics and channels.
• Windows and Linux: Works wherever the Steamworks SDK is supported.
• Permissive license: Apache 2.0.

Installation

go get github.com/assemblaj/purego-steamworks

This assumes you have the Steamworks SDK downloaded and available on your build machine.

Basic Usage

Initialize Steam and call any of the exposed interfaces. Here’s a minimal example:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    sw "github.com/assemblaj/purego-steamworks"
)

func main() {
    // Ensure Steam is running and restart if necessary
    if sw.RestartAppIfNecessary(480) { // 480 = Spacewar test AppID
        return
    }

    if err := sw.Init(); err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    defer sw.Shutdown()

    name := sw.SteamFriends().GetPersonaName()
    fmt.Println("Logged in as:", name)

    // Pump callbacks regularly (e.g. each frame in a game loop)
    for {
        sw.RunCallbacks()
        // your game loop …
    }
}

Repository Layout

• interfaces.go – Go interfaces mirroring Steamworks APIs (e.g. ISteamFriends, ISteamApps)
• steam_methods.go – Core Steam initialization, shutdown, and error handling
• callback_dispatch.go – Central dispatch for hundreds of Steam callback types
• utils_*.go – Platform-specific helpers (e.g. Windows string conversions)

Development Notes

• The binding uses generated type definitions and flat API constants from steam_api.json.
• Callbacks are dispatched using dispatchCallback and dispatchCallResult, mapping the Steam m_iCallback IDs to strongly typed Go structs.
• Debug mode can be enabled with sw.SetDebugMode(true).

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.