diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index ba324790c..1f0c764c3 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 [submodule "project/lib/vorbis"]
 	path = project/lib/vorbis
 	url = https://github.com/xiph/vorbis
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/sdl"]
 	path = project/lib/sdl
 	url = https://github.com/openfl/libsdl
@@ -10,42 +11,52 @@
 [submodule "project/lib/curl"]
 	path = project/lib/curl
 	url = https://github.com/curl/curl
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/ogg"]
 	path = project/lib/ogg
 	url = https://github.com/xiph/ogg
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/zlib"]
 	path = project/lib/zlib
 	url = https://github.com/openfl/libzlib
 [submodule "project/lib/neko"]
 	path = project/lib/neko
 	url = https://github.com/HaxeFoundation/neko
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/png"]
 	path = project/lib/png
 	url = https://git.code.sf.net/p/libpng/code
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/jpeg"]
 	path = project/lib/jpeg
 	url = https://github.com/openfl/libjpeg
 [submodule "project/lib/freetype"]
 	path = project/lib/freetype
 	url = https://github.com/freetype/freetype
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/harfbuzz"]
 	path = project/lib/harfbuzz
 	url = https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/cairo"]
 	path = project/lib/cairo
 	url = https://github.com/freedesktop/cairo
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/pixman"]
 	path = project/lib/pixman
 	url = https://github.com/freedesktop/pixman
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/lzma"]
 	path = project/lib/lzma
 	url = https://github.com/openfl/liblzma
 [submodule "project/lib/tinyfiledialogs"]
 	path = project/lib/tinyfiledialogs
 	url = https://git.code.sf.net/p/tinyfiledialogs/code
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/efsw"]
 	path = project/lib/efsw
 	url = https://github.com/SpartanJ/efsw
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/vpx"]
 	path = project/lib/vpx
 	url = https://github.com/openfl/libvpx
@@ -55,6 +66,8 @@
 [submodule "project/lib/mbedtls"]
 	path = project/lib/mbedtls
 	url = https://github.com/Mbed-TLS/mbedtls
+	shallow = true
 [submodule "project/lib/mojoal"]
 	path = project/lib/mojoal
 	url = https://github.com/icculus/mojoAL
+	shallow = true
diff --git a/project/lib/README.md b/project/lib/README.md
index 92d335a4e..643288895 100644
--- a/project/lib/README.md
+++ b/project/lib/README.md
@@ -47,6 +47,12 @@ libwebm: [homepage](https://www.webmproject.org/about/) | [primary repo](https:/
 
 zlib: [homepage](https://zlib.net/) | [primary repo](https://github.com/madler/zlib)
 
+Shallow submodules
+------------------
+To save space, submodules use "shallow" mode, meaning you'll only download the single commit that you're using.
+
+To download a submodule's entire commit history, use `git fetch --unshallow`, but be warned that the download may take a while. For instance, cURL has over 20,000 commits.
+
 Overrides
 ---------