Learning Defold from basics

Sometimes Defold’s documentation is very confusing with few examples focused on experienced developers. Do you guys know where to learn more from the basics like pdfs, or books or videos?

What do you want to learn about? We have a bunch of tutorials available, both on the site and built into the editor. There are also external tutorials like these ones: http://www.gamefromscratch.com/page/Defold-Engine-Tutorial-Series.aspx/

The Examples section contains really small examples focused on a single feature/area: https://www.defold.com/examples/

i’d like to learn about animations and apply them on input. Actually i im feeling some dificulty to understand the colision’s mechanics. I feel that i need to learn the foundations first, but i cant find somebody to teach me from the basics.

Do you have any prior programming experience? Is it a combination of not knowing how to structure and write code in general and how to apply that knowledge in the context of the Defold game engine or is it mainly a matter of learning the specifics of Defold?

I am in the process of create material to bridge the gap between the super simple examples and the much more complex tutorials and samples (in editor and on the site).

Currently there are two beginner’s tutorials available from the editor’s “New Project” dialog. “Side scroller tutorial” and “Movement tutorial”.

I am also working on tutorials or samples on the following subjects:

  • RPG style large scrolling map (done!)
  • Animating character movement (done!)
  • Platformer mechanics

And for a bit more seasoned users:

  • Creating a weapons system
  • Branching dialog

(This is the current plan. It may change)

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thanks. it will help so much!

A new RPG map sample has been added to the sample set.

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In addition to the new sample, we also added a new tutorial recently called “Walking astronaut”. It covers making a character animate. It also teaches the basic concepts of game objects, collections and components and how they fit together.

There will soon be a companion tutorial that teaches addressing and message passing.

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It would be nice to see how you guys are approaching more procedural scenarios. For example you could expand on the RPG map sample to generate the map randomly :slight_smile:

What kind of random generation do you have in mind?

On the fly paths with different connections (I know this is probably more suited to a dungeon Spelunky style) and collisions.

Spelunky uses pre-made level chunks stitched together in semi-random order with some rules. It’s more obvious in the classic version (which is also open source).

True. So how about generating a dungeon in a procedural way, so that is not pre-built?

Here’s one

https://www.pkeod.com/defrs/random_level/

That could give you the dungeon overworld structure, and then you would have to decide how to generate the levels inside.

Layers of perlin noise could be used for generating terrain transitions.

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This is nice, and I guess the tilemap object allow that being able to set tiles.

How about a character that is built out of different customizable parts and accessories?

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I forgot to say but the same technique can be used at any resolution with different parameters. Then you could insert some designer chunks randomly.

How about a character that is built out of different customizable parts and accessories?

Easiest way of doing that would have to be with Spine or DragonBones if I understand what you mean.

Yes, Spine is a viable option. But having to use sprite I would normally create different sprite sheets or atlases, with exactly the same animations and dimensions and simply point code at that texture.
The way I understand it in Defold you have to create different resources (atlas, anim,scripts, etc) and enable/disable them in the collection as needed?

Yes, that is the way to go. There will be some additional options in the future, allowing you to manage resources on a lower level.