diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 72acac9..4115f70 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 **/*.dll
 **/*.7z
 **/*.zip
+**/*.btw
 
 .vs/
 .vscode/
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 1f46feb..ee96cf7 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -18,7 +18,10 @@ endif ()
 set(TOWNENGINE_TARGET townengine CACHE INTERNAL "")
 set(TOWNENGINE_ROOT_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} CACHE INTERNAL "")
 
-option(TOWNENGINE_HOT_RELOAD "Enable hot reloading support" TRUE)
+option(TOWNENGINE_HOT_RELOAD "Enable hot reloading support" ON)
+option(TOWNENGINE_ARCHIVE_DATA "Enable archival of assets" OFF)
+
+# add -fPIC globally so that it's linked well
 add_compile_options($<$<BOOL:${TOWNENGINE_HOT_RELOAD}>:-fPIC>)
 
 set(PHYSFS_BUILD_SHARED FALSE)
@@ -240,16 +243,25 @@ function(use_townengine target sources output_directory data_dir)
 
         if (UNIX)
                 # create a bootstrapping script
+                set(TOWNENGINE_BOOTSTRAP_EXEC_ARGS
+                        "$<IF:$<BOOL:${TOWNENGINE_ARCHIVE_DATA}>,--data-dir ./data.${PACKAGE_EXTENSION},--data-dir ${data_dir}>")
+
                 string(JOIN "\n" TOWNENGINE_BOOTSTRAP
                                  "#!/bin/env sh"
                                  "cd \"$(dirname \"$0\")\""
-                                 "LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./ ./launcher --data-dir ${data_dir}"
+                                 "LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./ ./launcher ${TOWNENGINE_BOOTSTRAP_EXEC_ARGS}"
                                  "")
-
                 FILE(GENERATE OUTPUT ${output_directory}/${target}
                      CONTENT "${TOWNENGINE_BOOTSTRAP}"
                      FILE_PERMISSIONS OWNER_EXECUTE OWNER_WRITE OWNER_READ)
         endif ()
+
+        if (TOWNENGINE_ARCHIVE_DATA)
+                # zip up assets
+                add_custom_command(TARGET ${target}_app POST_BUILD
+                                   COMMAND cd ${data_dir} && zip -r ${output_directory}/data.${PACKAGE_EXTENSION} ./*
+                                   WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
+        endif ()
 endfunction()
 
 give_options(${TOWNENGINE_TARGET})
@@ -265,10 +277,3 @@ endif ()
 add_custom_command(TARGET ${TOWNENGINE_TARGET} POST_BUILD
                    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_if_different ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/compile_commands.json
                                                                  ${TOWNENGINE_ROOT_DIR})
-
-# zip up assets
-# currently, you must run cmake from the project root dir for this to work correctly
-#file(ARCHIVE_CREATE OUTPUT ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/data.${PACKAGE_EXTENSION}
-#                    PATHS ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/assets
-#                    FORMAT zip
-#)