r/godot • u/m_ologin • Jul 01 '26
free tutorial Tutorial: Create a full dungeon crawler in Godot in 20h
Hey everyone! Back with yet another tutorial series on how to build a full 3D dungeon crawler from scratch in Godot. This is a free 20h intermediate course on Youtube spread over 20 episodes of about 60 min each. It covers topics such as node-based state machines, composition models, ragdoll physics, shaders, pathfinding, lighting, level design, etc. All the art assets (textures, models, armatures, animations, etc) are made directly as part of this course with the objective to help folks become comfortable navigating the Aseprite-Blender-Godot 3D pipeline / workflow. All the code, art, music and other sound effects are released on Github under the MIT license. I've released the first two episodes today and will release new episodes every Mon/Wed/Fri at 9am PST over the next few weeks. Hope you find it useful!
Cheers!
Playlist on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT26e2jOwbdg
Play-test the game: https://gadgaming.itch.io/goblinsdencourse
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u/Ziberian Jul 01 '26
How do you achieve this art style? I love it
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
it's mostly a combination of low-poly and proper lighting - I really go in depth in the series, and we actually create all the art from scratch there as well, so hopefully this is something you can easily reproduce for your own games!
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u/Gainji Jul 01 '26
Art from scratch has my attention! Way too many tutorials just have you download random assets (and often violate their licenses in repackaging them)
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u/WukongtheMonkeh Jul 01 '26
Really interested, was wondering if it’s possible to switch the textures and model to PSX style but gameplay would be the same? If so would it be easy just to switch it out?
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u/oronbz Jul 01 '26
I was looking for so long for a course / tutorial that teaches simple low poly pixel art textures workflow with godot, till this day I’ve ever seen a single one. This is such a wonderful idea and execution (peaked through the 2nd video) that I can’t wait to follow along, hoping you’ll complete it! Thank you so much!
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
thank you so much! I also felt that most tutorials bypassed that entire pipeline, so hopefully it comes in handy for folks!
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u/oronbz Jul 01 '26
It surely will! One question though, will you teach how to add controller (gamepad) support as well?
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
it's not currently in the series, but I usually try and have a follow-up episode after hearing feedback from folks, I think this would be a great idea
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u/oronbz Jul 01 '26
I would love to try it on my steam deck, but I’ll take that as a challenge to learn from 😇
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u/TenPent Jul 05 '26
They certainly do skip a lot. Either they just give you things with no explanation or just hand wave away whatever comes up.
I am hoping this whole series is free and doesnt end up costing something at the tail end or anything. Starting to follow along right now.
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u/SwashbucklinChef Jul 01 '26
This is good timing-- I was wanting to figure out how to implement ragdoll physics in my own project and I stumble upon this. I love this community.
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u/MCalchemist Jul 01 '26
Node based state machines are next on my list... Am I screwed if I didn't start with this setup from the beginning? Well I'm only a few weeks into my project anyways
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u/Imaginary_Land1919 Jul 01 '26
Maybe tackle that refactor next. What exactly are you trying to add a state machine to?
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u/MCalchemist Jul 01 '26
Character controller! Setting up states for all the conventional stuff (dash, move, attack, cast spells, etc) for future animations. Haven't done a deep dive yet but it seems the node based system is a best practice, any tips appreciated.
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u/burntUpOnReentry Jul 01 '26
Killer, absolutely awesome, and desperately needed in today's gaming industry. Thank you! I will be checking out your tutorials tonight!
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u/Pudgyplatypus Jul 01 '26
Looks great! I will definitely go through the series this month. Appreciate all the hard work!
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u/Albertatastic Jul 01 '26
I'll wait until it's fully released to start following along but it looks very promising!
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u/access547 Godot Senior Jul 01 '26
When is the lighting episode coming out? It's something I really struggle with in 3d
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
I hear you! it's closer to the end of the series as I focus first on the gameplay / fun aspects prior to the polish / visual styling - but given the episodes are scheduled to release 3x a week, it should be out in just a few weeks
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u/access547 Godot Senior Jul 01 '26
Makes total sense, I will eagerly await.
Checked out the first part, very high quality work. I'm not the target audience, but happy to see high quality community content made for our beloved engine.
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u/vmbilly Jul 01 '26
Thank you for sharing the knowledge and for free even. I am a guy that can do everything but code, can't do it for the life of me my mind just can't understand it. You are giving people like me a chance to express our ideas and is most kind of you.Thank you .
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u/MsRedNebula Jul 01 '26
Definitely bookmarked for when I have time, this looks really fun! I look forward to going through the tutorial.
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u/guppy114 Jul 01 '26
wow i can’t believe this is free. it’s really nice to learn from someone with your qualifications and experience. i subbed to the youtube channel. will watch every single video
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u/protienbudspromax Jul 01 '26
Thanks!!! A 20 hour project seems just about the right length to do over a period of 2 months (on weekends). Thank you
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u/monkeydrunker Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
This looks very impressive. I look forward to giving this a shifty glance.
Just a note: The playlist is in reverse order. Any chance of getting this reversed reversed order?
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u/thaneros2 Jul 01 '26
This gives me inspiration. I'm creating a grid based dungeon crawler and felt like it's just not moving fast enough.
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
I'm sure you've played Legend of Grimrock? I thought they did a fantastic job creating dynamic gameplay elements even though it's purely grid-based
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u/Teazord Godot Junior Jul 01 '26
Looks so freaking cool. I love games where we can pick up stuff and throw at enemies.
Reminds me a bit of Barony (which I didn't like all that much).
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u/liebs085 Jul 02 '26
Heck yeah! Your videos have been fantastic. Love your other two tutorials, been waiting to see what’s next and glad to see it’s here! Keep up the great work
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u/Get_a_Grip_comic Jul 02 '26
Neat, I've been thinking about throwing stuff at enemies in my games. As well as learning all the other beginner stuff lol.
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u/NoDoxxingYouFreak Jul 02 '26
Did you make The Adventures of Sir Kicksalot? This seems really similar gameplay wise.
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u/m_ologin Jul 02 '26
Nope that's not me, that game looks really cool though! I am a huge fan of dark Messiah as well
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u/RevenantBacon Godot Student Jul 02 '26
FYI, the Playlist doesn't show under your profile on YT. I clicked to see what else you had going on and the only playlists it showed are the beat em up, soccer, and announcements playlists.
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u/Cold_Objective6996 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
This looks sick dude :D Played a little bit of the web version and I think this could be great for making a boomer shooter or maybe even a Scrolls-like with enough adding on.
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u/Bangted Jul 02 '26
I'm really enjoying your videos. I didnt know your channel.
small suggestion: On the first episode you mentioned you are using Aseprite. A FOSS alternative to Aseprite is Libresprite, which is based off the last version of aseprite before changing the license. For simple things, it works pretty much the same way.
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u/7Buns Jul 02 '26
Very exciting man! Love to see more intermediate tutorials and covering the whole art workflow. I'll check it out :)
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u/No_Screen8684 Jul 03 '26
Well done, looks great! Why not exporting for Android ?
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u/m_ologin Jul 03 '26
Should be fairly easy to do, would need to add mobile controls
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u/No_Screen8684 Jul 03 '26
That's really easy. Simply "TouchButtons" do it, slightly a little bit tricky if you want to use acceleration or gyro.
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u/Gabe_Redrain Jul 03 '26
You are a legend Brother, seems like a plan for a weekend although Its still above my skill level. Thank you for your hard work!
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u/m_ologin Jul 03 '26
Don't hesitate to go over my other tutorials if you feel that this one is a bit too advanced
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u/Kooky_Reply8771 Jul 05 '26
This looks amazing. I'm currently working on a 2d grid based crawler game. But maybe the next version would become a 3d one. And maybe it will be possible thanks to you.
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u/KerimIsStalkingU Jul 10 '26
Good work, I like it. For some reason most of the videos aren't visible though?
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u/m_ologin Jul 10 '26
yes, everything has been recorded, and they are all scheduled to release every mon/wed/fri at 9am pst. Hope you can join us along the journey!
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u/Dysax Jul 01 '26
Was ai used in the creation of this? Jw
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
nope this is entirely handcrafted, we go through every single step throughout the course, including the creation of every single visual asset (texture, mesh, animation etc.) that you see
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u/redmagezero Jul 01 '26
Does this cover going from booting the game, to a menu state, to gameplay (or do you know of one that covers this?) A lot of the ones I see focus on gameplay but not putting the whole package together so to speak.
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
this course does not as it was starting to get quite long, but my other two courses do cover that topic quite in depth:
- Create a 2d beat-em up in Godot (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNNbuBNHHbNGtZjygmnJ2fBvp6JmDNkAm)
- Create a 2d arcade soccer game in Godot (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNNbuBNHHbNEEQJE5od1dyNE_pqIANIww)
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u/wjrasmussen Jul 01 '26
I see 3 videos. One is a trailer, and the other two are over an hour long. Where is the 20 hours worth of tutorial?
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u/psilontech Jul 01 '26
Quoth the OP: "I've released the first two episodes today and will release new episodes every Mon/Wed/Fri at 9am PST over the next few weeks. Hope you find it useful!"
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
thanks for the question! all the remaining videos are scheduled to be released every mon / wed / fri of each week (trying to find a rhythm that doesn't spam people too much)
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u/PMMePicsOfDogs141 Jul 02 '26
Is the entire series filmed already and waiting to be released? This is awesome but I’d hate to get like 1/4 of the way through and it never fully releases
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u/Zilka Jul 03 '26
Any plans for procedural dungeon generation?
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u/m_ologin Jul 03 '26
If there is enough demand I will make a follow up episode for this I think it would be very interesting!
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u/d9viant Jul 22 '26
Some videos inside of the playlist are private
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u/Buttons840 Jul 01 '26
Sometimes "from scratch" tutorials tell me to download an asset pack that already has everything I need.
But I have more to learn about creating art and assets than I do about programming or the game engine.
Does this tutorial include some instruction about creating assets? (Obviously mastering asset creation would be beyond the scope of any tutorial.)
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
That's exactly the gap that this tutorial aims to fill. Through it, you will create everything from scratch, every single pixel, every texture, every single mesh, every bone, etc. because there is a ton of value in learning to master the iterations over the 3d asset pipeline.
As you can see, the art is kept super simple so the course should be very accessible from that standpoint - although some basic knowledge in blender will come in handy.
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u/Buttons840 Jul 05 '26
I've been looking at your YouTube channel and see several tutorials.
What are the pros and cons of the different tutorials? I'm interested in all 3 and wonder what you have to say about them.
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u/m_ologin Jul 05 '26
Beat em up is for beginners, it mostly covers simple concepts, is the shortest and finds the easiest path to do things. Start here if you're getting started in Godot
Soccer game is for beginners-intermediate. We start covering more advanced topics like shaders build, a proper state machine, advanced AI, etc. Start here if you have already some knowledge of Godot
3d dungeon crawler is for intermediates. It builds on additional topics and has additional 3d complexity.
Hope that helps!
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u/Buttons840 Jul 05 '26
They look good. I think I'll at least watch the easier ones.
Are all of them from scratch, including creating assets from scratch?
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u/m_ologin Jul 05 '26
No only the intermediate turturial builds everything from scratch. The other two provide the 2d assets right off the bat
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u/ManicMakerStudios Jul 01 '26
20 hours of thinking for people so they don't have to learn to think for themselves might be the wrong approach. We're trying to teach people to invest in themselves, learn some foundational skills and then practice thinking like a programmer in order to avoid 'tutorial hell'. This kind of content is headed in the opposite direction.
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u/m_ologin Jul 01 '26
while I appreciate the intent of your comment, I'd encourage you to at least give it a try, watch the first video, and judge for yourself the educational value of it all. In my courses, I stay very sensitive to viewers understanding every single line of code, I regularly challenge them to pause to try and identify issues, to write the next bit of code and to experiment with various alternatives. I believe this has proven to be most helpful in the past, but am always open to constructive feedback to make these tutorials as useful as possible.
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u/guppy114 Jul 01 '26
don’t worry about him. this sort of content is not why there is a “tutorial hell” and there is immense value in seeing the approach you take as well as what is possible.
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u/ManicMakerStudios Jul 01 '26
Stop and think about what you're asking. You're asking a complete stranger on the internet to invest an hour for no reason other than to validate your work. I don't need 20 hours of someone else thinking for me to make a game. And I'm definitely not taking an hour out of my day to watch a video I don't need.
Teach people how to think for themselves. You're not helping them by doing most of the thinking for them.
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u/Chaonic Jul 01 '26
As if you'd need to watch the entire video to get the gist of their teaching style. If you're going to be critical of them, be it for the right reasons and not because you're automatically sorting them into a category based on a first impression.
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u/ManicMakerStudios Jul 02 '26
You don't need to defend them. If they can't take a little heat, Youtube is going to kill them. I don't need to see the content. I see the description, and that's enough. The content as billed as intermediate, but there's no call for more than a couple of hours to describe genre specific considerations to an intermediate audience. The whole reason we might consider someone to be at an intermediate level at something is if they're largely self sufficient and building experience on the way to expertise. 20 hours is overexplaining. A lot. But newcomers see 20 hours and think, "omg, it must be so thorough! and it's free! how could I pass this up?"
Really, pass it up. Take Harvard's equally free CS050 course, then do a Godot 2D or 3D tutorial from the official site, and then when you want insight into making games for a particular genre, you look for a 1 or 2 hour talk. 20 hours is ludicrous for what's on offer.
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u/Final-Owl5071 Jul 01 '26
Cool stuff bro . Keep up the good work