Godot Components - how to structure a game into manageable parts (Beginner/Intermediate)

Hello Godotneers! When you are creating game in Godot, it is often hard to decide how to structure all your nodes and scenes. Which nodes should go into which scene? Which nodes should talk to each other and when? This video explores ways in which you can create self-contained components in Godot and shows techniques that allow components to access other components and communicate with them while still keeping them usable independently.

Contents
===========

00:00 Introduction
01:07 The setup
06:00 Defining components
08:19 Creating components at runtime
10:46 Signals
13:35 Detection with Areas
19:31 Contracts
24:22 Re-use of components
31:12 Detection with slide collisions
35:25 Groups as classifier
41:17 Combining components
47:45 Autoloads
51:53 Custom signals
53:40 Signal relays
58:48 Component access with groups
1:03:05 Call propagation
1:06:22 Configurable node paths
1:10:01 Conclusion

Useful links
===========

[DerSolinski]

Excellent lesson, because this is way past a tutorial.
You don't say "Don't do that, do this instead" you take the audience on a journey to improve overall understanding that's easy to extrapolate to other aspects of the engine.
This is far more valuable than tutorials alone. They are important too and help to quickly to vault a wall but they seldom resolve the underlying issue of "WTF, why not working"
Please keep up the dedication to this style. I really appreciate the effort and I'm certain others do too.

[HeinerS]

I'm a retired engineer and do Godot just for fun. But having worked as an IT Architect I do appreciate a structured approach and I think there are not enough videos about that aspect. So thank your for the work you put in in creating this very helpful video. Subscribed!

[hoplite_softworks]

Probably one of the most comprehensible tutorials out there. There is a reason, a rationale behind everything:
What is the problem?
What is a solution?
What are the limits of the previous implementation?
How can we make it better?
Everything is just super clear. You are a great teacher.

[LucasKelleher]

Wow, I think you probably make the best Godot lessons/tutorials available today. Just truly excellent explanations for how Godot really works. Thank you!

[hoodysaintz]

I know we live in a wonderful time, where we take for granted the internet is a thing, and information is "free"...but it's not. You spent your time to teach me how to do something that I've always wanted to do. I want to say thank you so much bro. Your time spent has changed someone else's path in life. ✌❤

[JackDaloots]

I just want to say I've learned more watching this than I did in 12 hours of paid-for tutorials. Thank you for not talking down to a newbie and clearly explaining concepts!

[ShortChessOpenings]

I am so glad that people like you exist. I personally have a strong background as a fullstack engineer and just wanted to have a look at gamedev. There is almost no video that explains the concept better than this one. I am a beginner in gamedev but not in programming and I felt completely understood. Providing such knowledge for free AND making it understandable is not a matter of course.

[Nenepoo]

This is one of the best tutorials in godot. This tutorial teach me to build something, not just following tutorial and not able to modify it. Please keep your good work sir. Thankss

[Kyle-cicx]

Every Godot dev should watch this. Instantiating new scenes at runtime is a powerful concept that isn't apparent, and I loved how you demonstrated how utilizing signals can replace singletons/autoload scripts. Thank you!

[valentinooscarcollazo]

I was thinking of starting a youtube channel just to explain these concepts since there really aren't any videos discussing these topics in a clear and "correct" way. But to be honest, the amount of work these kind of videos take, and my limited amount of time aren't really a good combination haha.

Big congrats to you! This really is extra good quality content, and it is indeed much needed. No shade to the other content creators, but I do need to empathize the lack of good tutorials about Godot, and how much they are needed.

thanks for the amazing content!

Edit: I would even add that videos like these, are SO important, but take SO much effort, and the creator doesn't even really gain anything, that some money from the Godot crow-founding, should go into helping the creation of such videos. Again, congratulation! Amazing work!

[tomasena]

This is the best godot tutorial I have ever seen... Because is not a tutorial, it is a full lesson that covers a LOT of very important things. Great job and thank you!

[AlexNirenovic-xrmd]

You're really great at actually teaching how Godot works, rather than just showing how to do something. Can't wait to watch your other tutorials!

[fottymutunda]

This is gold. Thank you so much.

It would be nice to see some tutorials about unit tests or any kind of tests as well

[MemoriesLP]

I'm watching all your videos. You are by far the best I've seen at making tutorials for anything related to programming.

[chagis]

THE PRINCIPLES!! This is the type of godot tutorial I have been looking for. Great for once youre at the point where you're done copying games from tutorials and ready to make your own stuff, but still need some help on structuring things.

[soganox]

Love your teaching style! Showing us the whole chain of "problem -> solution -> new problem -> new solution" takes more work but it really drives the point across, and helps me understand some of the ways I could reason about these things. Thank you very much!

[hiiambarney]

I really love your Teaching Style, the (I guess) AI Art is charming too!
Please don't be disheartened by Views or anything, the Algorithm of Youtube is said to even start really considering your videos after (I believe it was) 39 Uploads.
I know that's a lot of Videos now but damn, I will watch every single one of these and like and comment on them too!
This is the stuff I want to support where I can because it's what we most desperately need in the Godot Community now.
We can't have more successful Indie games coming from Game Maker (Of all things...) than coming from Godot!
Videos like this really help with this in my Opinion.

The hardest problem to tackle with Game Engineering is softening the blow of the "Hard Brick Walls" of Game Development.
There are so many hack tutorials for any given Engine out there but only so little Quality content that really shows you the way to think around Problems.
Also there is so little Intermediate or even Advanced info out there.
I'm usually not an Advocate of "Advanced Level Tutorials" as by the time one should use it, they should be able to gather the info by themselves.
However offering that bridge, giving good practices and ways of thinking about problems will really go a long way.

And this is exactly why we need you!
You are probably even more important to this community than you may realize.
You might potentially be more important than the People advancing the damn engine, as crazy as that might sound.
Sometimes, it's all a butterfly effect.

[merthyr]

this is a brilliant introduction to how to break down games into approachable chunks, as well as how to get those pieces communicating efficiently. Great stuff

[botteu]

Well done! This is exactly the type of content I'm looking for when learning something new. Tight, to the point and taking philosophy and pitfalls into account and blissfully free from ✨

[heneagedundas]

Excellent tutorial. When you've spent years unravelling spaghetti code you really appreciate this approach.