C++ and SDL2 will get you a window, events, sound and other low level stuff, and you can get support for PNGs and fonts easier by including some of nothings/stb libraries[0] (rather than the equivalent SDL libs.) Maybe toss in Lua/LuaJIT for good measure. That will scratch a lot of itches.
But IMHO it's better in the long run to just pick up Godot and save yourself months of unnecessary effort. Otherwise if you're like me you'll wind up in the weeds with nothing to show for it but a tilemap class you've rewritten a dozen times.
C++ and SDL2 will get you a window, events, sound and other low level stuff, and you can get support for PNGs and fonts easier by including some of nothings/stb libraries[0] (rather than the equivalent SDL libs.) Maybe toss in Lua/LuaJIT for good measure. That will scratch a lot of itches.
But IMHO it's better in the long run to just pick up Godot and save yourself months of unnecessary effort. Otherwise if you're like me you'll wind up in the weeds with nothing to show for it but a tilemap class you've rewritten a dozen times.
[0]https://github.com/nothings/stb