Ramon Santamaria
@raysan5
The Spanish developer, educator, and one-person army behind raylib. He has single-handedly created and maintained one of the most-starred C libraries on GitHub for over a decade.
Background
From Teacher to Open-Source Legend
Ramon Santamaria is a software developer and educator from Spain. He started raylib in November 2013 while working as a university teacher, frustrated that existing game libraries were either too complex for students or too limited for real projects.
His original goal was modest: create a simple C library that his students could use to learn game programming without drowning in boilerplate. A decade later, raylib has 22,000+ GitHub stars, 60+ language bindings, and is used by thousands of developers worldwide — all maintained primarily by one person.
Ramon's GitHub contributions are legendary. He has made over 10,000 commits to the raylib repository alone, and maintains a daily commit streak that spans years. He reviews issues, merges pull requests, writes documentation, creates examples, and responds to community questions — all while continuing to improve the core library.
"I enjoy programming the most low-level, raw way. I love constraints. I love simple solutions. I love clean code. I love C."
— Ramon Santamaria
Timeline
The Story of raylib
Nov 2013
raylib 1.0 released. Written as a teaching tool for game programming classes. Basic 2D rendering, keyboard input, and image loading. Inspired by Borland BGI and XNA.
2014
raylib 1.1 – 1.5. Added 3D support, model loading (OBJ), basic audio (WAV, OGG), shader support, and gamepad input. The library evolved far beyond its classroom origins.
2016
raylib 1.6 – 1.8. VR support added (Oculus Rift). Completely rewrote the audio module. Added Raspberry Pi support and Android native activity support.
2018
raylib 2.0. Major milestone. Complete API redesign for consistency. raygui (immediate-mode GUI) released as a companion library. Community started creating language bindings.
2020
raylib 3.0 – 3.7. Emscripten (Web/WASM) support added. Camera system redesigned. Physics module extracted. 100+ code examples published. GitHub stars passed 10,000.
2022
raylib 4.0 – 4.5. Event-based input system. Automation events for replay. raygui 3.0 overhaul with 20+ controls. Music streaming improvements. 15,000+ stars.
2023
raylib 5.0. Support for multiple rendering backends (GLFW, SDL, RGFW, custom). Platform abstraction layer redesigned. New mesh generation functions. M3D and VOX model support.
2024–2025
raylib 5.5. Continued refinement. 22,000+ stars. 60+ language bindings. Used in game jams, indie games, university courses, and commercial tools worldwide.
Profile
At a Glance
Location
Spain
Barcelona area. Works remotely on raylib full-time.
Primary Language
C99
Strict C99 with no external dependencies. The entire library is C.
GitHub
@raysan5
10,000+ commits on raylib alone. Maintains 20+ repos in the raylib ecosystem.
Funding
GitHub Sponsors + Patreon
Community-funded development. No corporate backing, no VC money.
Philosophy
"Keep It Simple"
No bloat, no unnecessary abstractions, no feature creep. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
License
zlib/libpng
One of the most permissive licenses. Use it anywhere, commercial or not, no attribution required.
Impact
Why Ramon Matters
In an era of massive game engines backed by billion-dollar corporations, Ramon proves that a single dedicated developer can create something beautiful, useful, and beloved. raylib is a one-person project that rivals multi-team efforts in simplicity and developer satisfaction.
He has inspired thousands of developers to try game programming for the first time. His library is used in university courses across the world. Multiple commercial games and tools have been built on raylib. And he did it all with clean C code, zero corporate backing, and relentless daily commitment.
"raylib is a programming library for people who like programming. That's it. If you don't like programming, raylib is probably not for you. If you do like programming, welcome home."
— Ramon Santamaria
What makes Ramon truly exceptional isn't the code (though the code is excellent). It's the consistency. Day after day, year after year, he shows up and makes raylib a little bit better. There's no sprint-and-burnout cycle. No corporate roadmap. Just a developer who loves what he builds, serving a community that loves using it.