I’m learning Godot to make games. I’ve started by following a tutorial, and there are probably tons of tutorials in my future as I try to understand how the engine works, but I also want to put these tutorials to good use. So, I’m starting my own game.

I asked on the GDQuest Discord if there was a recommended starting point. I was told that the best way is to make a game in two or three days, with only the basics, and see if it’s fun or not, before faffing with details.

Two or three days? Not likely in my case, I’m not a coder and I wouldn’t be able to. I’m just doing what I do best: learn by example, by doing things that are fun for me.

So I was then confirmed that there is no obligation, that anything I learn is useful… and to start where it makes sense to me.

Me? I love doing things in order, so I decided to start with the opening menu. It’s simple enough that I don’t have to spend weeks on it, and there are a ton of tutorials on the matter that I can follow along.

I made a list of some of the things I would ideally like to happen:

• finding a title for my game ✔️
• creating a few working buttons (at least “play”, “settings”, “credits”, and “quit”) ✔️
• finding out how to link buttons to scenes or functions ✔️
• snazzing up the buttons look ✔️
• coding the quit button ✔️
• adding background music ✔️
• find a way for background music not to stop when changing scenes ✔️
• deciding if I want to keep it simple with a single save file, or if I want to implement multiple saves and a load screen ❓
• adding a background to the start scene ✔️
• finding a way to make the game fullscreen and have all elements in the right size ✔️

Here are the YouTube tutorials I used to make my starting menu:

• Godot 4 Main Menu Beginner Tutorial by Gwizz
• How to make Super Cool Button – GODOT by rocket 007
• How to Add Background Music in Godot by Kron
• Godot Control Node (UI) Masterclass by Karto
• How to Play Music Across Scenes (Godot 4 Tutorial) by Soma Animus
• Godot 4 Settings Menu Tutorial by Gwizz

and these great assets by Penzilla:

• Ambient RPG Soundtrack
• Free Basic GUI Bundle (Royalty Free)

❓ I’m still pondering about the save/load files. I’m pretty sure I’d like to have them (that’s what I prefer when I play a game—the possibility to have multiple saves), but I have no idea yet how to implement it. I will search and/or ask around if it is something easily done later on, or if I need to do it right away.

All in all, I know my menu is not teh shit, but it works—and it’s nice enough that I don’t have to be ashamed of it. There will be time later to work on it some more.

I still have some worries. Will the size work if I change computer screen sizes? I have no way to test it right now, but I will have to in the future, and I might have to add or revise some code. Which is fine, obviously, but the unknown is always stressing me out.

Even then, I sometimes wish I already knew everything and was able to start perfectly from the start. But learning is half the fun. Doing is the other half. Perfection doesn’t exist, but as everybody knows, you can’t improve something that doesn’t yet exist.

Working on something small was rewarding. It allowed me to “finish” it, and have the dopamine hit.

I have not decided what’s next, except that I would maybe like to work on some Arena scene after that.

Wish me luck!