Godot Digest 11
The first edition of the year! Usually, the start of the year is slow in content, so don’t expect a big digest.
Either way, we always have something to share, so let’s get into it.
Game Dev News
One of the most unexpected news for me at this start of the year is that SteamOS is starting to roll in third-party hardware. With the success of the Steam Deck, I wasn’t expecting to see Valve open its platform to other devices. But again, Valve seems to follow the simple principle of “if it is good for gamers, it is good business for us.” And they are right. The new Legion GO S (revealed in CES) is the new handheld that can run Steam OS.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/pc/steamos-is-officially-heading-to-third-party-handhelds
Most of the time, predictions are obvious, but sometimes they provide a good read. That’s the case with the predictions by Dan of GamesBeat. It is a nice reading and a good way to summarize the past year. Here are his predictions for 2025 and a recap of last year's predictions
https://venturebeat.com/games/game-industry-predictions-for-2025-the-deanbeat/
Continuing its strategy of everything being an Xbox, Microsoft is deploying Xbox Cloud Gaming to Smart TVs. The first is LG, which will have the app preinstalled on its system.
Official News
Since Godot 4, the engine has moved the C# packages from Mono to .NET. At that time, .NET 6 was the version used for this. Since the LTS for this version has ended, the Godot 4.4 .NET packages will use .NET 8. To read more about this, check the official blog post.
https://godotengine.org/article/godotsharp-packages-net8/
From the Community
Here are some of the latest tutorials and resources from the Godot community.
Blob shader — FencerDevLog
As always, the first tutorial is from Fencer and is a blob (aka metaballs) shader. It reminds me of lava lamps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuNg0mWw_BE
Quest system Part 6 — Michael Games
This is part 6 of a series of tutorials on creating a quest system in an AARPG game. In the last part, we gather all the knowledge from the previous parts and make a complete quest in the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDfXDu4TQXI
Replay system — Gwizz
This is a basic, simple, and effective way to create a replay system in a game. It’s oriented on replay node movements, but it's a good start if you want to add some of these functionalities to a project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiu2qIQ2VbU
SoftBody physics — Gwizz
An extremely short tutorial on how to implement soft-body physics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_3e-L3HIn4
Digital clock shader —FencerDevLog
It's a nice shader for creating a digital clock that can be controlled via a script.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZPKaiG8zSw
Complete guide to FPS controllers —Octodemy
This is an excellent tutorial for learning the basics of FPS controllers. From movement to shooting, it will teach the most important aspects of creating FPS mechanics for the player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my6orIZQlfM
Smoothly animate the user interface —DevWorm
Step-by-step tutorial on how to animate UI and control nodes. Lots of good information here if you want to improve the look and feel of your UI elements in any project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqfXxqOQ1uo
Voxel system Part 1 — Gwizz
This is the first part of a series of tutorials on creating a voxel system in Godot. It is more complex than it looks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjX0xci6o0Y
Improve your main menu in 8 minutes —Coding Quests
A compendium of tips and tricks to improve your menus. From how to organize the UI to how to improve the look and user experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIT-Vpi7KcM