# Building the Godot way Knowing the commands is not enough. These craft references teach an agent to build like a Godot developer, each concept paired with a real swallowtail recipe verified against the live engine. Two rules thread through all of them: **decouple with signals**, not polling or `get_node("../../")` chains, and **never trust a remembered API signature**. Confirm it against 4.7 with `engine class-info` or `engine search` before you write it. ## Foundations - [GDScript style](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/gdscript-style/): Idioms a competent Godot dev ships: static typing, signals over polling, Resources for data. - [Game patterns](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/game-patterns/): Buildable patterns mapped to command sequences: movement, game feel vs juice, components, state machines, HUD. - [Project structure](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/project-structure/): How a shipped project is laid out to scale: code/asset separation, feature slices, data/view split, composition. - [GDScript architecture](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/gdscript-architecture/): Large-scale runtime architecture: autoload tiering, service locator, path-addressed stores, scene routing. ## 2D - [2D platformers](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/platformer-2d/): The component actor, an intent API, physics-expression AnimationTree transitions, codeless moving platforms. - [Top-down 2D](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/topdown-2d/): Layered TileMapLayer stacks, gameplay as terrain painting, a component library, the one-clock day/night pattern. - [2D UI polish](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/ui-polish-2d/): Comp-faithful UI: a design-token class, drawn controls, the screen-builder traps that silently swallow writes. - [2D lighting](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/lighting-2d/): The full 2D lighting stack: the CanvasModulate/PointLight2D/occluder triad, emissive exemptions, real glow, SDF. - [Constraint tiling](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/tile-constraint/): The Townscaper/Bad North PCG family: the dual-grid fix, Wave Function Collapse from an example, variant buckets. ## 3D and spatial - [Level design](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/level-design/): Playable greybox levels: the Big to Small risk order, spatial-communication tactics, interiors, exteriors, 2D spaces, and pacing without combat. - [3D character controllers](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/character-3d/): One camera-relative movement core for FPS, third-person, and platformer, plus the floor contract and rigs. - [Environment art](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/environment-art/): The art pass after the greybox is proven: PBR materials, real lighting, post restraint, set dressing, the paper diorama. ## Systems - [Steering and agent movement](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/ai-steering/): Movement that reads as a creature rather than a cursor: arrive, flee, pursue and separation as summable forces, blending vs priority. - [Menus and settings](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/menus-settings/): The meta-game screens: pause done right, the settings widget family, ConfigFile persistence, input remapping. - [Audio and music](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/audio-music/): Bus architecture, SFX variation, interactive music, sidechain ducking, spectrum-driven visuals, loop points. - [Shaders and VFX](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/shaders-vfx/): gdshader authoring and wiring, the 2D VFX kit, and a programmatic compile-verification loop. - [Save systems](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/save-systems/): Authoritative vs derived state, the persist-group collector, the five-format tradeoff, atomic autosave. - [Multiplayer](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/multiplayer-patterns/): Scene-tree replication, ENet, authority gates, @rpc arguments, the co-op skeleton, intent RPCs vs synced state. - [Mobile and touch](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/mobile-touch/): Index-keyed multitouch, on-screen controls, pinch/pan gestures, safe-area HUD insets. - [Rhythm games](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/rhythm-games/): The corrected audio clock pushed down the tree, beatmap data, notes as functions of time, windowed judging. - [In-game docs](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/in-game-docs/): Gyms, zoos, and museums: document the game in-game with doc.* recipes so it never goes stale. - [Shipping and export](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/shipping-export/): The release pipeline across desktop, Android, web, macOS, and iOS: dev tooling out of the pck, encryption, and verifying by receipts. - [Videos and trailers](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/game-trailers/): Filming the game with the engine itself: duration and delivery profiles from a 15 s hook to 9:16 vertical, a director scene, the movie writer, the render matrix. ## Genres - [Event / decision games](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/event-deck-games/): Reigns-like architecture: immutable cards plus a mutable overlay that is the save, weighted selection, condition DSLs. - [Run-based / roguelite](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/run-based-games/): The reactive data blackboard, wave assembly under a weight budget, seeded staged worldgen with a self-audit. - [Deckbuilders](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/deckbuilder-patterns/): The logic layer: an action queue, a hook pipeline for powers and relics, data-driven cards, event-sourced history. - [Narrative / visual novel](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/narrative-game-patterns/): Both families (Ink and graph dialogue) plus the manifest-driven product shell: boot flow, versioned saves, chapter select. ## Interop - [Unreal import cleanup](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/unreal-import-cleanup/): Fixing a scene exported from Unreal: env, lights, junk, imports order, and why it comes in washed out. - [Porting between Godot versionsbeta](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/porting-godot-versions/): Moving a 4.x project up to 4.7 with evidence on both sides: a replayable baseline drive, the per-minor break list, and a measured noise floor to read the after numbers against. - [C# in Godot](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/csharp-godot/): C#-in-Godot idioms for editing a C# project. Pair with the csharp group: setup scaffolds the solution, build compiles with structured diagnostics.