MovementTests/addons/maaacks_game_template/docs/ExistingProject.md

Existing Project

These instructions assume starting with just the contents of addons/. This will be the case when installing the plugin version in the Godot Asset Library.

1. Update the project’s name in the main menu.

   1. Open main_menu_with_animations.tscn.
   2. Select the Title node.
   3. Update the Text to your project's title.
   4. Select the Subtitle node.
   5. Update the Text to a desired subtitle or empty.
   6. Save the scene.

2. Link the main menu to the game scene.

   1. Open main_menu_with_animations.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. Add Music and SFX to the project's default audio busses.

      1. Open the Audio bus editor.
      2. Click the button "Add Bus" twice (x2).
      3. Name the two new busses Music and SFX.
      4. Save the project.

   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. 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