Making Moonlit Beacon
This course takes you from a blank Godot 4 project to installing the game on a phone and shipping it on itch.io. There are 16 lessons in total.
The game you will make is Moonlit Beacon. It is a 2D top-down avoidance game: you light three beacons in a night forest, dodge the spirits that chase you, and escape through the moonlight gate. You hold the phone in landscape and play with both thumbs.
| Engine | Godot 4.7.1 · GDScript |
| Screen | Landscape lock, internal resolution 808 × 360 |
| Controls | Move with the left thumb, dash with the right thumb |
| Release | Android APK · itch.io |
| Assets | All free (CC0 · OFL) |
The promise of this course
When each lesson ends, you can see a game on screen.
Most game courses spend the first few lessons on setup and gray rectangles. This one does not. After Lesson 1, a title screen is already running on the phone, and that screen is good enough to use as a store screenshot. The same is true for every lesson after that.
The last column of each lesson is what will be on your screen when you finish that lesson. If that screen is not there, the lesson is not done.
Syllabus
| What you learn | What you see when this lesson is done | |
|---|---|---|
| Lesson 1 | Project setup · Assets and licenses · Title screen | A title screen on the phone: a beacon burning over a night forest, the title, and a blinking "Tap to start" |
| Lesson 2 | Nodes and scenes | In a night-forest clearing with moonlight and drifting mist, one beacon burns with flame, embers, and smoke |
| Lesson 3 | Instances | Tapping the title takes you into the arena, where three beacons in different spots burn at the same time |
| Lesson 4 | Your first script | Three unlit beacons catch fire one after another, and the forest moonlight brightens a step with each one |
| Lesson 5 | The player scene and animation | A ninja stands beside a beacon, casting a shadow and playing a breathing idle |
| Lesson 6 | Handling input | Pressing the lower left of the screen with a thumb brings up a joystick, and the ninja walks in that direction |
| Lesson 7 | Signals | Standing next to a beacon fills a light ring at your feet, and the beacon flares when the ring completes |
| Lesson 8 | Creating enemies | A spirit appears from the dark, chases the ninja, and the screen flashes red on contact |
| Lesson 9 | Start and end of a run | Lighting every beacon opens a moonlight gate at the far end of the forest; walking in shows the victory panel |
| Lesson 10 | On-screen information | Three hearts, remaining time, and Beacons 0/3 appear in wooden UI, and the timer counts down |
| Lesson 11 | Install and play on a phone | Tapping the home-screen icon launches the game in landscape, and you can play a full run |
| Lesson 12 | Dash | Flicking the stick with the right thumb sends the ninja through the spirits with an afterimage |
| Lesson 13 | Three enemy types and the final guardian | The moment the last beacon lights, the music changes and a huge guardian cuts through the forest |
| Lesson 14 | Score and saving records | On the results screen the score ticks up line by line, and an S-rank stamp lands at the end |
| Lesson 15 | Settings · Korean and English · Credits | Switching the language to English in the settings window changes every on-screen string in place |
| Lesson 16 | Wrap-up and release | A signed APK is installed and running on the phone, and the game is live on its itch.io page |
What to prepare
- Godot 4.7.1 Standard
- Git
- Five asset packs — all free
- An Android device — you use it from Lesson 1. At the end of every lesson you put the build on the phone and check it.
adb(Android Platform Tools) — you will use it in Lesson 1, section 8.
Without a phone you can follow along on a computer window through Lesson 10, but two-finger controls (Lesson 6) and interruption handling (Lesson 11) can only be verified on a phone. You will not be able to tick the "on the phone" items in each lesson's completion checklist.
You do not need a gamepad. Controls are touch, and on a computer the same controls are tested with the mouse.
Good to know
We follow the concept order of Godot's official intro course as-is. Nodes and scenes, instances, scripts, input, signals, the main scene, HUD — we skip none of them. We do not, however, rebuild the official sample. The concepts are the same; the game you make is different.
We do not cover Windows or Web releases. During development you run and check the game on a computer, but the finished build ships as Android and itch.io.