diff --git a/lib/font_renderer/meson.build b/lib/font_renderer/meson.build
index 7724d584..d596e152 100644
--- a/lib/font_renderer/meson.build
+++ b/lib/font_renderer/meson.build
@@ -1,10 +1,6 @@
 freetype_dep = dependency('freetype2')
 
-libagg_dep = dependency('libagg', required: false)
-if not libagg_dep.found()
-  libagg_subproject = subproject('libagg')
-  libagg_dep = libagg_subproject.get_variable('libagg_dep')
-endif
+libagg_dep = dependency('libagg', fallback: ['libagg', 'libagg_dep'])
 
 font_renderer_sources = [
     'agg_font_freetype.cpp',
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 5dee12ec..20067d43 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -51,24 +51,15 @@ endif
 #===============================================================================
 libm = cc.find_library('m', required : false)
 libdl = cc.find_library('dl', required : false)
-lua_dep = dependency('lua5.2', required : false)
+lua_dep = dependency('lua5.2', fallback: ['lua', 'lua_dep'])
 pcre2_dep = dependency('libpcre2-8')
 sdl_dep = dependency('sdl2', method: 'config-tool')
-
-if not lua_dep.found()
-    lua_subproject = subproject('lua',
-        default_options: ['shared=false', 'use_readline=false', 'app=false']
-    )
-    lua_dep = lua_subproject.get_variable('lua_dep')
-endif
-
-reproc_subproject = subproject('reproc',
+reproc_dep = dependency('reproc', fallback: ['reproc', 'reproc_dep'],
     default_options: [
         'default_library=static', 'multithreaded=false',
         'reproc-cpp=false', 'examples=false'
     ]
 )
-reproc_dep = reproc_subproject.get_variable('reproc_dep')
 
 lite_deps = [lua_dep, sdl_dep, reproc_dep, pcre2_dep, libm, libdl]