Welcome to Playable Workshop

Who Am I?Jump to 0:10

My name is Nick Glenn.

I’ve always been interested in both art and technology, and my grandpa (an engineer and programmer) saw this and introduced me to computers and video games at a young age. The first of these was Combat on the Atari 2600. This would lead to me trying to make my own games using whatever software I could get my hands on1.

Now, I don’t have a degree in computer science or game development2 — instead I’m self taught. And now I’m here to teach you all the things I wish I had a teacher for when I was starting out. So let’s talk about what that is and what how Playable Workshop wants to do something different.

Introducing our first, free seriesJump to 1:11

I’ve been hard at work creating a series of videos to show you how to create a 3d action/adventure game in Godot. The project will be paying homage to two of my favorite games that inspired me growing up, which were Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.

The reason I’ve chosen these titles in particular isn’t just nostalgia or love of them. Rather it’s that they cover a broad range of systems that appear in many types of games. This means that by imitating these classics, we can cover a number of topics that will allow you to make your own 3D games.

Throughout this project we’ll…

• Cover the basics of game engines and related tooling used with them.
• Provide a friendly introduction to the world of programming.
• Creating a player character who can move around a 3d space.
• Implement a camera that will follow said player character, and adjust itself to the environment.
• Allow for players to lock onto targets they can interact with or attack.
• Design a combat system and create enemies that we can defeat.
• Construct the supporting components needed for dungeons, puzzles, quests, etc…

All while allowing the player to save their progress and return to it later.

We’ll also be borrowing the retro aesthetic as it can be more forgiving than something that is higher fidelity. The hope here is that this will allow us to focus more the mechanics, rather than getting hung up on the visual polish3.

Skipping the whitebox phaseJump to 1:50

When you go to create your own game you’ll want to use prototyping techniques like white boxing and capsules. This process will save you a lot of heartache in the long run, but when you’re first starting out this can be demotivating because it’s a barrier between you and seeing something that feels like a real game.

This is why I’ve been creating a set of assets that will be made available with each episode. These will include things like textured environments, items, and even characters with animation that will be needed for what’s being covered. The hope being that this by getting to the satisfying point of seeing a game come together sooner, you’ll feel more motivated to keep pushing forward.

Let’s talk about the websiteJump to 2:22

Video is a great medium for a lot of things, but it’s not always the best for teaching software development4. I believe the best way to do this is to adopt a mixed media approach. Each video we produce will accompanied by a page on this website, which you’re reading right now!

The goal of this page will be to supplement the video’s faster format with more content, links, downloads, you name it. This allows the video to operate as an entertaining and high level overview of what we’re doing - something that you can easily watch on a bus or in the bathroom. Then when you’re ready to sit down and try it out, you can follow along using the written version.

If you haven’t figured it out already, the written version doesn’t have to be a 1-to-1 copy of what’s said in the video either. This is great if we want to provide tangential information or make corrections and updates after the initial publication.

// Oh, and we can also provide completed code snippets ready for you
// to copy + paste into your own project.

// That way you don't have to constantly pause the video to
// type what you see on screen.

Growing with a communityJump to 2:57

Learning anything new can be challenging and game development is far from an exception to this. That’s not to say you can’t do it, you absolutely can! But something that can make a huge difference in your success is having a community of like minded people striving to achieve the same thing.

These are people who can celebrate your wins with you or give you encouragement to keep going when things get tough. This is why we’re setting up the Playable workshop discord server in hopes of fostering a community that can provide its members with this support.