Godot Engine Game Development in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself

Description

Game developers of all kinds are quickly discovering the power of the completely free, no-royalties, no-strings-attached Godot game engine. Now, in just 24 lessons of one hour or less, you can learn all the skills and techniques you’ll need to write great games with the new Godot 3 release. Each short, easy lesson builds on all that’s come before, helping you master all of Godot’s essentials, and use it to build 2D or 3D games for mobile, desktop, or HTML5 web platforms. Co-authored by Godot co-creator Ariel Manzur, Godot in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself covers all this, and much more:

• Getting comfortable with the Godot Engine and its scene system
• Scripting 2D games, handling input, and creating realistic physics
• Building playable GUIs and sophisticated game flows
• Creating realistic animations
• Developing 3D games with shaders, materials, lighting, shadows, environments, and reflections
• Integrating audio into your games
• Making the most of Godot’s particle system
• Creating networked games
• Efficiently managing projects and exporting games to targeted devices

Godot in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself  is packed with up-to-the-minute examples and modern game development techniques. Its step-by-step instructions walk you through common questions, issues, and tasks; Q-and-As, Quizzes, and Exercises build and test your knowledge; “Did You Know?” tips offer insider advice and shortcuts; and “Watch Out!” alerts help you avoid pitfalls. By the time you’re finished, you’ll be comfortable using Godot to create virtually any game you can imagine.

Ariel Manzur is co-creator of Godot and is currently maintaining the open source project.

George Marques is a full-stack developer at Open Journal Solutions. He is an active contributor to the Godot game engine. His projects include the plugin to import Tiled Map Editor levels. He is the author of two blog post on Godot published by Packt Pub titled, “How to create a breakout game with Godot engine,” and “How to make 2D navigation with Godot engine.” He is a former student of Information Systems at the University of São Paulo and his interests include general programming and writing. He can be found on Github at: https://github.com/vnen.

Foreword

Preface

HOUR 1: Introducing the Godot Engine

Installing Godot

Creating a Project

Using the Visual Editor

Setting Up a Main Scene

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 2: Scene System

Nodes and Scenes

Resources

Combining Scenes

Managing Subscenes

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 3: 2D Graphics

Sprites and Draw Order

Vectors and Transforms

Cameras

TileMaps

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 4: Scripting

Node and Script Relationship

Introduction to GDScript

Signals and Groups

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 5: Game 1: Space Shooter

Concept and Design

Making the Scenes

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 6: More Scripting

Notifications

Singletons and Autoloads

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 7: Handling Input

Input Basics

InputEvent Class

Keyboard and Joystick Input

Mouse and Touch Input

Input Mapping

InputEventAction

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 8: Physics System

Bodies and Shapes

Types of Physics Bodies

Areas and Presence Detection

Ray Casting

Navigation and Path Finding

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 9: User Interface

Control

Know Your Controls

Containers

Making an Interface

Theme

Custom Control

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 10: Animation

Animation Editor

Timeline and Keyframes

Blending and Transitioning Animations

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 11: Game Flow

After Launching the Game

Pausing the Game

Switching Scenes

Background Loading

Handling a Quit Request

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 12: File System

Special Paths

Game Configuration

Dealing with Files

Dealing with Directories

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 13: 3D Graphics

Spatial Node

Importing Meshes and Models

3D Editor

Cameras

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 14: Project Management

Importing Resources

Organizing Project Directories

Version Control Software

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 15: Materials and Shaders

Canvas Item Materials

Spatial Materials

Shader Basics

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 16: Lights and Shadows

Light Sources

Shadows

Lights in 2D

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 17: Game 2: Bloxorz Clone

Concept and Design

Making the Scenes

Scripts and Input

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 18: Environments

World Environment

Global Illumination

Reflection Probes

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 19: Sound

Playing Sounds

Positional Audio

Audio Buses

Area Effects

Dynamic Audio

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 20: Particle System

2D Particles

3D Particles

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 21: Viewports and Canvas

Viewports

Canvas Layers

Split-Screen

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 22: Networking

TCP, UDP, and Why It Matters

Managing Connections

Remote Procedure Call

Remote and Sync Keywords

Slaves and Masters

Visual Script

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 23: Game 3: Networked Bomberman Clone

Concept and Design

Making the Scenes

Scripts and Input

Enter Multiplayer

Synchronization in Player, Bomb, and Explosion

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

HOUR 24: Exporting the Project

Platform-specific Considerations

Export Presets

Export Options

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

BONUS HOUR 25: Native Code

GDNative

Summary

Q&A

Workshop

Exercises

9780134835099 TOC 2/21/2018

The easy, step-by-step, full-color introduction to building games with the free Godot 3.0 game engine

• Build your Godot programming skills one step at a time, in 24 one-hour lessons
• Walks you through building games with the newest Godot release, with all game projects available for download at GitHub
• Teaches through practical instructions, realistic examples, hands-on workshops, Q-and-As, quizzes, exercises, tips, and more
• Co-authored by Ariel Manzur, co-creator of Godot: the first authorized guide to this increasingly popular free game engine

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, this guide will help you create great 2D and 3D games for any platform with the 100% free Godot 3.0 game engine. Its straightforward, step-by-step approach guides you from basic scenes, graphics, and game flow through advanced shaders, environments, particle rendering, and networked games. Godot’s co-creator and main contributorwalk you through building three complete games, offering advanced techniques you won’t find anywhere else.

Every lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success.

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Godot engine programming tasks and techniques

Practical, hands-on examples show you how to apply what you learn

Quizzes and exercises help you test your knowledge and stretch your skills

Notes and tips point out shortcuts, solutions, and problems to avoid

Learn how to…

· Install Godot, create projects, and use the visual editor

· Master the scene system, and organize games with Scene Trees

· Create 2D graphics, 3D graphics, and animations

· Use basic and advanced scripting to perform many game tasks

· Process player input from any source

· Control game flow, configurations, and resources

· Maximize realism with Godot’s physics and particle systems

· Make the most of 3D shaders, materials, lighting, and shadows

· Control effects and post-processing

· Build richer, more sophisticated game universes with viewports

· Develop networked games, from concepts to communication and input

· Export games to the devices you’ve targeted

· Integrate native code, third-party APIs, and engine extensions (bonus chapter)