gdevelop_engine_guide.md

GDevelop Engine Guide

Playable game for the source code in this repository

Getting started

1. Basics
   • https://gdevelop.io/academy
     • YouTube - Beginner's Guide To GDevelop - good overview before creating the game
2. Create a very bare game skeleton
   • https://wiki.gdevelop.io/gdevelop5/tutorials/platformer/ (example 1, older IDE version and a few minor errors but still mostly fine to follow)
     • Part 6 has quite a few errors mainly due to the Slime image being reversed compared to the instructions, so the initial direction and horizontal flipping needs changing
   • YouTube - Platform(er) - In Depth Tutorial - GDevelop (example 2, not used but more modern one you could follow)
3. Turn the skeleton into a playable game
   • Creating a start and end to your game - https://wiki.gdevelop.io/gdevelop5/tutorials/space-shooter/13-main-menu/#series
   • https://forum.gdevelop.io/t/solved-when-i-press-a-button-to-change-the-scene-for-example-the-next-button-is-pressed-also/30752/7
4. Add polish to playable game
   • YouTube - Particle Emitter – In Depth Tutorial - GDevelop
   • YouTube - The 10 BEST Game Development Extensions
     • "Advanced platformer movements"
     • "Camera Shake"
     • "Gamepads (controllers)"
     • "Multitouch joystick and buttons"
     • "Hexagonal grid" / "Snap objects to a virtual grid"
     • "Shake Object (position, angle, scale)" (can use for any kind of general movement, including button scaling, etc.) - useful but particles are usually easier for simple death / pickup / hit animations since they don't mess with the original object
     • "Rectangular Movement"
     • "Health (life points)"
     • "Smooth Camera" (can be used to stabilise camera when jumping)
     • "Fire bullets"
5. Optional
   • Expressions reference
   • JavaScript Code events - used to keep track of total coins
     • https://forum.gdevelop.io/t/typescript-integration-in-gdjs/25022
   • Organising game logic
     • Variable types
       • Global
       • Scene
       • Object
       • Instance
     • Event groups - useful to put together a set of events related to the same concept
     • External events - can be re-used throughout game via links
     • Custom extensions (objects, behaviours, conditions, actions or expressions)

Notes

• Event list is run from top to bottom every frame
• You can disable the in-game watermark in Game properties without needing a subscription

Tips

Performance

• Events will stop being read if the condition above is false. This means you can optimise by putting a common conditional at the top (e.g. if player is dead, then do a bunch of stuff) - doesn't automatically combine common conditionals
• Collision detection is intense so if you can use something else (like distance from object for a coin where perfect collision detection is less important), then do that instead
• If you need to display many objects, you can improve FPS by reducing animation loops or removing actions like movement
• Delete / de-activate behaviours for things that are off the screen ("Object 'Is On Screen' Detection" extension super useful)
• Be reasonable with your asset sizes
• Use tile maps for large scenes
• Keep size small
  • Can remove unused resources easily by using Remove unused... in the right-click menu in the Resources tab