Get Going in Game Development: Make a Moving Player for a Top-Down Game or RPG with Godot

I'm a game developer at Innkeeper Games with experience tutoring in computer science, and I love creating games. For those getting started in game development, this short class teaches the basics of character control for top-down and RPG formats, including straight and diagonal movement and speed. Many of these concepts can be applied to other types of games as well!

I will use a free and open source game engine (Godot) for this course. With its new update, Godot is comparable to Unity or Unreal Engine; its purpose is to help us make games by providing frameworks and skeletons most games already need. Plus, since it's MIT-licensed, what you make with it is yours, and you'll never have to pay for a license or any royalties.

Having said that, the logic and understanding you will acquire in this course will be applicable for use in many other engines and frameworks.

 At the end of this class, you’ll be able to create a moving character that the player can control! I can’t wait to check out your work!

This class is geared toward anyone interested in making video games! No prior experience in game development or programming is required, but some experience in Python or scripting could be helpful.

Here’s a brief overview of what this class will teach:

• Basic vector math

• Vector normalization

• Keybinding in Godot

• “Moving” things in games using Godot

• Collision in Godot

Here’s what I won’t be covering in this class:

• Lower-level explanations of movement (e.g. erasing and re-drawing each frame manually to simulate movement)
• Animations

If you get stuck along the way, the Godot 3 documentation can be very helpful! The Godot Discord channel may also be of use. Of course, feel free to reach out to me for assistance as well!

Here's a tour of Godot!

Here's a link to the Godot Docs of Scenes and Nodes.