MovementTests/addons/maaacks_game_template/docs/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. Finish setup and remove duplicate example files.

   1. Go to Project > Tools > Copy Maaack's Game Template Examples.
   2. Click Cancel in the first window asking to copy the examples. It's already done.
   3. Select a theme in the next window if desired.
   4. Go to Project > Tools > Delete Maaack's Game Template Examples.
   5. Click Yes in the first window.

2. 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 main_menu_with_animations.tscn.
   5. The Title node should automatically update with the project's title. Customize the Text property if desired.
   6. Select the Subtitle node and customize the Text property if desired.
   7. 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 main_menu_with_animations.tscn.
      3. Select the BackgroundMusicPlayer node.
      4. Assign the music asset to the stream property.
      5. Make sure that the bus property is set to Music.
      6. Save the scene.
      7. Optionally, repeat steps 3-5 for background music nodes in:
         1. opening_with_logo.tscn
         2. game_ui.tscn
         3. end_credits.tscn

   3. Add sound effects to UI elements.

      1. By scene.

         1. Open main_menu_with_animations.tscn and pause_menu.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 project_ui_sound_controller.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 input_options_menu.tscn.
   2. In the scene tree, select the Controls node.
   3. In the node inspector, select the desired input remapping mode (defaults to List).
   4. In the scene tree, select InputActionsList or InputActionsTree, depending on the choice of input remapping. The other node should be hidden.
   5. In the node inspector, update the Input Action Names and corresponding Readable Action Names to show user-friendly names for the project's input actions.
   6. Save the scene.

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

   1. Open mini_options_menu.tscn or [audio|visual|input|game]_options_menu.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 option_control.tscn node as a child to the container.
         1. slider_option_control.tscn or toggle_option_control.tscn can be used if those types match requirements. In that case, skip step 5.3.6.
         2. list_option_control.tscn and vector_2_list_option_control.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/.

9. Continue with:

   1. Setting up the Main Menu.
   2. Adding icons to the Input Options.
   3. Setting up a Game Scene.
   4. Utilizing Game Saving