September 16, 2023

Godot 4: Simplest, Basic, Tips to know for Beginners



Hey, welcome to Godot.. in Godot:

  1. Firstly, do not overthink. Almost everything is there Input, Graphics/UI, Sounds, Data Storage, Network, etc.
  2. Everything can be as nodes - in the node tree
  3. Every nodes can have its own GDscript
  4. Nodes properties are accessible using $ using GDscript. Lets say we want to rotate something:
    • eg 1: $"node name".rotation accessing/rotating the children of your current node where the code located.
    • eg 2: $"../".rotation accessing/rotating the parent node property.
    • eg 3: $"../../".rotation accessing grandparent
    • eg 4: rotation accessing/rotating the current node
  5. You can have 3D scene at the back and 2D scene for UI or control in a single node tree (in one screen/scene)
  6. If you cannot run your your exported app after installing in Android, just sign it manually using jarsigner from OpenJDK (zipped, I don't like installing stuff)
  7. It is easy to compile the whole engine.. its sufficient to have MinGW, Android command line tools (to install build-tools, platform-tools), NDK, Scons + Python. Whereby, I prefer manually extracting zip and set the environment variable manually, understanding how it works and what libraries are required - without using beefy Android Studio or Visual Studio.
  8. You don't have to recompile the whole engine.
  9. To connect to Firebase is as simple as creating var http = HTTPRequest.new() (after you setup Firebase config and other codes) - Just want to show its possible and built-in without using other extra stuff.
  10. Use both Godot 4.1.1 developing new stuff and Godot 3.5.2 LTS to learn from old demos.
  11. Use built-in animation player, sound player.
That's it for now.. All the best! Looking forward to see you games..