Week 3 · September 10 · 50 minutes left

Meet the engine.

Computers open. Go to editor.gdevelop.io. Then hands off for a few minutes – watch first.

Scope small, finish strong.

AI is your assistant, not your author. You decide.

50 left · The tour

A game is a scene full of objects. Everything else is a tool for those two.

You are about to see far more than you need today. That is on purpose. You do not have to remember any of it – just that it exists.

the sceneobjectsspritesthe asset store behaviorseffectsthe sprite editorparticles tilemapstextshape painterlightspreview

Key words

Scene: A screen in your game – a level, the title screen, the game-over screen.
Object: A thing in your scene – the player, a coin, a wall, an enemy. Your game is made of these.

42 left · Before you touch anything

You just saw about twenty things. How many do you want to go poke at right now?

Chase it now

You lose the rest of class and probably break something.

Forget it

By next week it is gone.

Write it down. Keep working.

Hold it for twenty minutes. That is the whole skill.

42 left · The Spark List

When something catches your eye, that is a spark. Write one down now.

What caught my eye

The thing itself.

Where I saw it

The path back. “Object properties → Effects tab → Outline.” Without this it is gone in seven days.

What I want to try

Turns a noticed thing into a plan.

Went back?

Fill in later. Date, and what happened.

Star anything you want to ask me about, and I’ll come to you first.

Key words

Spark: Something in the engine that caught your attention and is not what you are working on right now. Curiosity is the asset. The skill is holding it without losing it.
Path: Exactly where you saw it, written so that future-you can find it in ten seconds.

39 left · Studio

One object. Make it move. Then preview it.

Add an object to the sceneAny sprite. From the asset store or drawn – it does not matter today.
Make it moveArrow keys, or on its own. Ask if you are stuck – being stuck is a phase, not a failure.
PreviewWatch it move. That is a game. Now do not touch it – we need it working in a minute.

Key word

Preview: Run your game and play it, right now, without leaving the editor. Preview constantly. It is how you find out what you actually built.

23 left · Everybody, on purpose

Now wreck it.

Delete the player object

Delete an event

Change numbers at random

Preview it. Make sure it is really broken.

23 left · By yourself

Now bring it back.

Roll back to the version that worked. Then preview again.

Key word

Roll back: Go back to an earlier copy of your project that worked. GDevelop keeps them as you go. The first thing to reach for when you are lost, not the last.

23 left · Remember this one

You cannot permanently ruin your game. Go try things.

A backup nobody has restored from is not a backup. You just restored from one.

16 left · Studio

Keep going. Try something from the tour.

Starred a spark? I’m coming to you first.

Got a bad answer from anything today? Say so.

There is a whole self-paced course inside GDevelop. Chapter 1 is the tour we just did. Chapter 2 is building a scene. Nobody is going to quiz you on any of it.

5 left · Check

Preview one more time. Then three questions.

Does it still move?

✅ solid · ⚠️ shaky · ❌ broken

Did any spark get answered?

Cross it off.

What do I do first next week?

One line, on your Spark List. Future-you will thank you.