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Introduction: Setup

Introduction: Setup

#godot #gamedev #basics
Installation, Nodes as Lego pieces and why your file system is your best friend.

Welcome to Game Dev Science!

If you’re here, it’s because you want to make video games. But you don’t want to just copy code from a YouTube tutorial and pray it works. You want to understand what’s happening under the hood.

In this series, we won’t create loose experiments. We’re going to build “Area88”, a classic Shoot ‘em Up 🚀. The game is the excuse; the real goal is understanding the fundamentals.

What will we learn?

This isn’t your typical “Drag this node here” course. Here we’re going to mix Godot with Real Fundamentals:

  1. Math Without Fear: Why does your ship move weirdly diagonally? The answer is in Unit Vectors. How do we make enemies surround us? Trigonometry (Sin/Cos).
  2. Shaders (The Juice): We’ll make things glow, blink, and explode by manipulating pixels directly.

Preparation

  1. Godot includes everything you need to start. You could write code from any editor, but Godot also includes a built-in code editor (IDE) that will help you write and debug your code.
  2. So please go to godotengine.org and download the latest stable version (Godot 4.x). Or you can simply download it from Steam, it’s useful to keep the engine updated to the latest version.
  3. If you downloaded it, once unzipped, run it! Godot doesn’t need installation. And that’s it! You can carry it on a USB. And if you downloaded it from Steam, run it like any game.

Your First Mission 📝

  1. Create a new project called SpaceSurvivor.
  2. Explore the interface. Don’t be overwhelmed, just look at the four main screens: 2D, 3D, Script, and AssetLib at the top center.

In the next chapter, we’ll leave the theory behind and write our first script to bring our ship to life. Prepare your vectors!