Hi there!I'm thinking about creating tutorials for Godot. We have the documentation on the main website and we have some quite good tutorials on Youtube. Both helped me a lot to get started with godot. I had a (very) little knowledge in scripting/programming in general, but I was basically a beginner regarding Godot and game programming. Looking through the documentation was a bit overwhelming at first, so I had to work my way through the various topics to get the knowledge I needed for my learning projects. After learning quite a bit I found a good video tutorial on Youtube: [url=
Make a Game with Godot: Space Blaster 84[/url].This topic is about how to create a series of tutorials of any kind to help new users get started. I have no preliminary experience in this field and I probably don't know what I'm talking about. ;) But let's try and work out what can be done to make some good tutorials for Godot. I think there are three types of knowledge you need to make an application:[list type=decimal][li]You need to know how the general workflow is meant to be. There is some good written documentation about that.[/li][li]You need to know what the nodes and functions are doing. There are some quite good written and video tutorials about the various nodes Godot offers. GameFromScratch has some nice tutorials.[/li][li]You need to know how to bring them together in a useful way. This part is maybe the most tricky one. There is no "definitive" way of making any kind of game. But I think we could come up with some general guidelines on how to do it in a way that makes everything as easy and straightforward as possible.[/li][/list]An example of a guideline: If you want to make a game with space ships, what type of node should you use? If you want to make an arcade space shooter (Space Blaster 84), it is sufficient to use KinematicBody2D instead of RigidBody2D. If you want to make a moon lander game, it might be easier to use RigidBody2D instead KinematicBody2D.I'm thinking of a structure of tutorials that are complementary. One way would be to make a linear experience, where every tutorial should be done in a specific order. Another way would be to have a system of tutorials where you can choose a specific topic of your interest, while still having a full experience from the ground up. The second case would of course have more overlap, but it has the advantage that you don't have to work through an learning project you don't like. For example: Personally, I wouldn't quite enjoy a tutorial about how to make a game of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect_Four]Connect Four[/url].To make a quick brainstorm what some of the first complete projects could be:[list] [li]An arcade vertical scrolling shmup like Space Blaster 84[/li] [li]Moon Lander[/li] [li]A simple Jump'n'Run / Platformer[/li] [li]Snake[/li] [li]Tetris[/li] [li]A simple shooting game with the mouse (like Crazy Chicken)[/li][/list]From this point on, there could be tutorials on more complex games, which build up on one or more of the previous tutorial games.The things I mentioned to this point are mostly about creating tutorials for beginners. There should be of course tutorials for experienced people who want to try out Godot. They might come from Unity, Ogre, Unreal Engine or any other engine. As I am not an experienced game developer, I can't say much about this. As I imagine, there should be at least pages like "How does X compare to Godot and what do I need to know". What do you think would be necessary for a developer to make the switch to Godot easy?[hr]Some things I'd like to throw in here. Please discuss and storm the brainz.[list][li]Maybe the learning projects can link to "minituts", where the node/function needed to proceed with the project is explained. Other learning projects could share that minitut.[/li][list][li]To make things easy and straightforward, minituts only show how to use the node/function in the [i]general[/i] context of the learning project. Showcasing the full range of operations would be to much in some cases, I think.[/li][li]Advantages: Updating the tutorials is easier in case Godot changes the GUI or the node.[/li][li]Disadvantages: There will be some fragmentation and some nodes would have many minituts repeating some of the information.[/li][/list][li]We should create stock resources for the tutorials. Images, icons, sound effects, video overlays, intros, etc... Maybe there should be guideline how to format the tutorials and some rules on how to make videos.[/li][list][li]Using high resolutions for videos makes it impossible to have the tutorial in a small window.[/li][li]Maybe the code font should be increased in size to make it more easy to read and follow.[/li][/list][li]There should be a search engine that finds tutorials and minituts where the searched phrase/node is used.[/li][/list]
