Godot 2D Project: Setup, Scenes, And Input Actions

Dec 6, 2025 by Alex Johnson 51 views

Hey there, game dev enthusiast! Ready to dive into the world of 2D game creation with Godot Engine? This guide will walk you through setting up a basic 2D project, structuring your scenes, and handling those all-important input actions. We'll cover everything from creating a new project to defining player movement, placing objects, and destroying them. Let's get started!

Creating Your New Godot 2D Project

First things first, you'll need to have Godot Engine installed. If you haven't already, head over to the official Godot Engine website and download the latest version. It's free, open-source, and incredibly powerful! Once installed, open Godot. You'll be greeted with the Project Manager.

To begin a new project, click on the "New Project" button. You'll be prompted to enter a project name and choose a location on your computer to save it. Pick a descriptive name for your project – something like "MyAwesome2DGame" works great. Then, select a suitable location for your project files. Keep things organized! After you've filled in these details, click "Create & Edit". Godot will then open the editor, ready for you to build your game.

Inside the editor, you'll see the main interface. The scene dock, where you'll build your game's visual structure. The inspector, where you can modify properties of the objects you add to your scene. And the script editor, where you'll write the code that brings your game to life. Don't worry if it seems overwhelming at first – we'll break down the essentials step by step. This initial setup is crucial for any Godot game, providing the foundation upon which you'll build your interactive experience. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the interface; it'll soon become your second home.

Now that you've got your project open, the fun begins! We'll start by making the essential Game.gd script, which will act as the brain of our game. This script will manage the game's overall logic, including handling input, loading scenes, and potentially managing the game state. Creating this central script early on helps keep your game organized and easy to maintain as it grows.

Before we move on to scripting, let's also take a moment to understand the concept of scenes in Godot. Scenes are the building blocks of your game, each representing a self-contained unit. They can range from a simple player character to a complex level layout. Scenes can be nested, allowing you to create complex structures. We will create our first scene, World.tscn, to represent our game world. These scenes work together to create the experience.

Setting Up the `Game.gd` Main Script

Let's get our hands dirty with some code! In the Godot editor, right-click in the FileSystem dock (usually on the left side) and select "New > Script". This will open the script creation dialog. Set the script name to Game.gd and the language to GDScript (Godot's built-in scripting language). Click "Create" to make the script file. Now, in your script, you'll want to add some basic setup to prepare your main game logic.

# Game.gd
extends Node

var world_scene = preload("res://World.tscn")

func _ready():
    # Load the world scene
    var world = world_scene.instantiate()
    add_child(world)

    # Example: Accessing a node in the world scene (optional)
    # var player = world.get_node("Player")  # Assuming the player is named "Player"
    # if player:
    #     print("Player found!")

func _process(delta):
    # Game logic that runs every frame (optional)
    pass

Explanation:

extends Node: This line makes Game.gd inherit from the Node class, which is the base class for all nodes in Godot. This gives it the fundamental capabilities of a node, allowing us to add it to the scene tree.
var world_scene = preload("res://World.tscn"): This line preloads the World.tscn scene. preload() loads the scene at the start, making it ready to be used later. The path "res://World.tscn" refers to the file location of the scene within your project (we'll create this scene shortly).
func _ready():: This is a built-in function that is called automatically when the node (the Game node in this case) and its children have entered the scene tree. Here, we instantiate our World.tscn scene.
var world = world_scene.instantiate(): Creates an instance of the world scene.
add_child(world): Adds this instantiated world scene as a child of our Game node, making it part of the scene tree.
_process(delta): This function is called every frame, delta being the time passed since the last frame. You can put time-dependent or recurring game logic in this function. We'll leave it empty for now.

Next, in the main scene (the one Godot opens by default), we need to attach this script. In the Scene dock, click the "+" button to add a new node. Add a Node and rename it to Game. Then, select the Game node, go to the Inspector dock, and find the "Script" property. Click "[empty]" next to it and select "Attach Script". In the dialog, choose the Game.gd script you just created. Now, our Game.gd script is attached to the root node of our main scene.

By attaching Game.gd to a Node at the root of the scene, it becomes the central point for managing our game. This approach keeps the game's overall logic separate from the individual scenes. Now, when the game runs, the _ready() function in the Game.gd script will load our World.tscn scene.

Creating the `World.tscn` Scene

Now, let's create our World.tscn scene. Right-click in the FileSystem dock and select "New > Scene". This will create a new scene. You can also press Ctrl+N (or Cmd+N on macOS).

In the scene dock, Godot has created a root node for the new scene, which is a Node. Let's rename this root node to "World" (right-click on the node and select "Rename"). We can now start adding objects that represent our game world to the scene. For a simple example, let's create a StaticBody2D (for static objects like walls and ground) and add a Sprite node as a child of the StaticBody2D. In the Inspector dock, you can set the StaticBody2D's position and, the Sprite node's texture (you'll need to import an image for this!). For now, this is a basic setup. In this scene we could add the Player, the ground, and anything else the world should contain.

Creating a World.tscn is a crucial step in defining your game's playable environment. It allows you to organize your game's elements logically. As your game becomes more complex, you can add more nodes to the World scene. The World.tscn scene holds everything visible in your game. We will now move on to define the essential input actions that will make this scene interactive!

Defining Input Actions in Godot

Input actions are the key to handling player interactions in your game. Godot provides a powerful system for defining and managing these actions. Open the "Project Settings" (from the "Project" menu at the top). Then, go to the "Input Map" tab. This is where you'll define your actions and assign keys or other input events to them.

Here's how to create the move, place, and destroy actions:

Move Action:
- In the "Action" field, type "move".
- Click the "+" button to add a new event.
- Select the type of input event you want (e.g., "Key").
- Click the "+" button again, and in the "Key" input, set the "Key" to "W" and add another one and set it to "S". Create two more events and set it to "A" and "D" respectively.
Place Action:
- In the "Action" field, type "place".
- Click the "+" button to add a new event.
- Select the type of input event (e.g., "Mouse Button").
- Set the "Button" to "Left Button".
Destroy Action:
- In the "Action" field, type "destroy".
- Click the "+" button to add a new event.
- Select the type of input event (e.g., "Mouse Button").
- Set the "Button" to "Right Button".

Once you've defined these actions, click "Close" to save the project settings. You've now set up the foundations for handling player input within your game. With these actions in place, your character can move, place objects, and destroy them. The Input Map is the core of how you receive inputs for your game.

Using Input Actions in Your Code

Now, let's use the input actions we defined in our code. We'll add some basic movement logic to our world scene. Open the World.tscn scene and select the "World" node. Add a Node2D node as a child of the World node and rename it to "Player". Attach a script to the Player node (right-click on the Player node in the Scene dock, and select "Attach Script").

Here's an example script for player movement: (Player.gd)

extends Node2D

export var speed = 200 # Player speed in pixels per second

func _physics_process(delta):
    var velocity = Vector2.ZERO # Initialize velocity vector

    # Get input actions and set velocity accordingly
    if Input.is_action_pressed("move_up"):
        velocity.y -= 1
    if Input.is_action_pressed("move_down"):
        velocity.y += 1
    if Input.is_action_pressed("move_left"):
        velocity.x -= 1
    if Input.is_action_pressed("move_right"):
        velocity.x += 1

    # Normalize the velocity to prevent faster diagonal movement
    velocity = velocity.normalized() * speed

    # Apply movement
    position += velocity * delta

Explanation:

extends Node2D: This line means this script will control a Node2D object.
export var speed = 200: This defines a variable speed that you can adjust in the Inspector. The keyword export means that you can set the value of this variable in the Inspector panel of the Godot editor.
_physics_process(delta): This function is called every physics frame. Physics-related code should go here to ensure that changes happen in sync with the physics engine. delta is the time since the last frame, and it's essential for consistent movement across different frame rates.
var velocity = Vector2.ZERO: Initializes a Vector2 named velocity to zero.
The `if Input.is_action_pressed(