Godot Project Template

This repository serves as a quickstart template for game development with Godot 4.4+ using GDExtension.

Godot C++ GDExtension tutorial implemented in the project.

Features

• Setup Script - download and install prerequisites.
• Visual Studio Solution File - generate a visual studio sln file with separate project files for the godot engine and the game GDExtension project.
• Visual Studio Platforms - android (defaults to arm64 but this can be changed), linux (WSL), web, win32, and win64.
• Configurations - editor, editor_game, development, template_debug, template_release, profile and production.
• Project - setup using the gdextension_cpp_example godot tutorial.
• Engine Submodules - godot and godot-cpp as submodules (tracking the respective 4.4 branches).
• GitHub Bug Report Template - issues template (.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE.yml) for bug reports.
• Continuous Integration - CI scripts to build and export the game for different platforms and configurations.
• Generate GDExtension Documentation - automatically generate .xml files in a doc_classes/ directory to be parsed by Godot as GDExtension built-in documentation
• GDExtension Plugins - additional GDExtension plugins to demonstrate developing areas of the codebase as separate plugins linked to the main game project - see core and gdextension_cpp_example.
• Core Plugin - helpful C++ macros to be reused across other plugins and in the main game project.
• GDExtension Doctest Support - support for writing and running doctest unit tests from GDExtension code - see doctest_runner, test_custom_sprite.h and run_unit_tests.py.
• ImGui - Uses imgui-godot to provide runtime debug menus if you implement void draw_debug(); in your node class - see custom_sprite.cpp.
• Tools - toolbox app to support project development - includes build downloader/exporter, commit checker and maintanence apps.

Project Structure

engine
	- godot
	- godot-cpp
project
	- plugins (game project plugins)
		- core (C++ helper macros)
		- doctest_runner (doctest unit test runner node + macros)
			- doctest_runner.h/.cpp (manages children doctest nodes and quits once they are all finished)
			- doctest_runner_macros.h (macros to declare and implement nodes in other GDExtension code)
		- gdextension_cpp_example
			- custom_sprite.h/.cpp
			- gdextension_cpp_example_doctest_node.h/.cpp (doctest node for this plugin to be placed in test.tscn)
			- test_custom_sprite.h (example doctest unit test implementation for custom_sprite.h)
	- scenes
		- test.tscn (includes doctest_runner node + children doctest nodes)
		- debug.tscn (includes build information + stats)
		- main.tscn (includes debug.tscn and moving custom sprite)
	- src (game GDExtension code)
thirdparty
	- emsdk (used for web platform)
	- imgui (used for runtime debug)
	- rcedit (used for windows builds)
game.sln (can build code in Visual Studio Community after generate_project_files.py finishes)

Visual Studio Solution File

This is generated using scons (makes an NMake project) and has been tested with Visual Studio Community 2022.

Configuration	Description	Debug Symbols
editor	Builds the godot editor and game and opens the game project for editing.	✅
editor_game	Builds the godot editor and game and then runs the game project.	✅
development	Builds the game project and hot reloads the game and plugins GDExtension code whilst the editor is running.	✅
template_debug	Builds the godot editor and the game project intended to be attached to a running template_debug build of the game.	✅
template_release	Same as above but with template_release instead.	❌
profile	Same as above but for profile which uses production=yes and debug_symbols=yes.	✅
production	Same as above but for production which uses production=yes	❌

Note

Debugging C++ in Visual Studio Community isn't available when running for web and android.

Below are some examples of running different platforms/configurations from the visual studio solution. The gifs are sped up for brevity.

Editor

Windows

Editor Game

Windows

Web

Android

Tools

Note

These tools are implemented using python scripts but have only been tested properly on Windows OS - with some work they should be able to be cross-platform friendly.

Builds

Provides a list of the saved game builds from the github actions artifacts and allows users to download them to a specified folder. Also provides a way to export builds of the game locally.

Commit Checker

Provides a way to compile for a different platform and configuration locally and then runs unit tests and reports if these are successful or not. Also provides a way to write commit messages and link them with specific GitHub issues with the option to automatically resolve an issue once the commit is pushed.

Maintanence

Provides a list of github workflows and allows the user to select one or multiple and delete them. I created this to help manage some of the GitHub actions/storage limits I was hitting with private repos and this is faster than having to scroll through each github workflow and manually delete it from there. Not really intended for wider use but might help some users manage their GitHub limits.