NewProject.md

New Projects

These instructions assume starting with the entire contents of the project folder. This will be the case when cloning the repo, or starting from the template version in the Godot Asset Library.

1. Update the project’s name.

   1. Go to Project > Project Settings… > General > Application > Config.
   2. Update Name to "Game Name".
   3. Close the window.
   4. Open MainMenu.tscn.
   5. Select the Title node.
   6. Update the Text to your project's title.
   7. Select the Subtitle node.
   8. Update the Text to a desired subtitle or empty.
   9. Save the scene.

2. Link the main menu to the game scene.

   1. Open MainMenu.tscn.
   2. Select the MainMenu node.
   3. Update Game Scene Path to the path of the project's game scene.
   4. Save the scene.

3. Add background music and sound effects to the UI.

   1. Verify the Music and SFX audio busses.

      1. Open the Audio bus editor.
      2. Make sure there is a bus for Music and another for SFX.
      3. Add the busses if they do not exist.

   2. Add background music to the Main Menu.

      1. Import the music asset into the project.
      2. Open MainMenu.tscn.
      3. Select the BackgroundMusicPlayer node.
      4. Assign the music asset to the stream property.
      5. Save the scene.
      6. Optionally, repeat steps 3-5 for background music nodes in:
         1. Opening.tscn
         2. GameUI.tscn
         3. EndCredits.tscn

   3. Add sound effects to UI elements.

      1. By scene.

         1. Open MainMenu.tscn and PauseMenu.tscn.
         2. Select the UISoundController node.
         3. Add audio streams to the various UI node events.
         4. Save the scenes.

      2. Project-wide.

         1. Open ProjectUISoundController.tscn.
         2. Select the UISoundController node.
         3. Add audio streams to the various UI node events.
         4. Save the scene.

4. Add readable names for input actions to the controls menu.

   1. Open InputOptionsMenu.tscn (or MasterOptionsMenu, which contains an instance of the scene).
   2. Select the Controls node.
   3. Update the Action Name Map to show readable names for the project's input actions.
      1. The keys are the project's input action names, while the values are the names shown in the controls menu.
      2. An example is provided. It can be updated or removed, either in the inspector for the node, or in the code of InputOptionsMenu.gd.
   4. Save the scene.

5. Add / remove configurable settings to / from menus.

   1. Open MiniOptionsMenu.tscn or [Audio|Visual|Input|Game]OptionsMenu.tscn scenes to edit their options.
   2. If an option is not desired, it can always be hidden, or removed entirely (sometimes with some additional work).
   3. If a new option is desired, it can be added without writing code.
      1. Find the node that contains the existing list of options. Usually, it's a VBoxContainer.
      2. Add an OptionControl.tscn node as a child to the container.
         1. SliderOptionControl.tscn or ToggleOptionControl.tscn can be used if those types match requirements. In that case, skip step 6.
         2. ListOptionControl.tscn and Vector2ListOptionControl.tscn are also available, but more complicated. See the ScreenResolution example.
      3. Select the OptionControl node just added, to edit it in the inspector.
      4. Add an Option Name. This prefills the Key string.
      5. Select an Option Section. This prefills the Section string.
      6. Add any kind of Button, Slider, LineEdit, or TextEdit to the OptionControl node.
      7. Save the scene.
   4. For options to have an effect outside of the menu, it will need to be referenced by its key and section from Config.gd.
      1. Config.get_config(section, key, default_value)
   5. Validate the values being stored in your local config.cfg file.
      1. Refer to Accessing Persistent User Data User to find Godot user data on your machine.
      2. Find the directory that matches your project's name.
      3. config.cfg should be in the top directory of the project.

6. Update the game credits / attribution.

   1. Update the example ATTRIBUTION.md with the project's credits.
   2. Open Credits.tscn.
   3. Check the CreditsLabel has updated with the text.
   4. Save the scene.

7. Keep, update, or remove res://LICENSE.txt.

8. Optionally, if using Git for version control, update .gitignore to include addons/.