Okay, so today I decided to mess around with making a game. I’ve always been a bit fascinated by those simple, almost silly-looking games that somehow get really addictive. I thought, “Why not try making one myself?” I had this random idea of a bear playing golf, so I just went with it – “The Bear Golfer.”
Getting Started
First things first, I needed a basic game engine. I’m no coding wizard, so I wanted something relatively easy to use. I remembered hearing about Godot, so I downloaded it and started poking around. The interface was a little intimidating at first, but there are tons of tutorials online, thankfully.
I followed a basic “getting started” tutorial, just to get the hang of how Godot works. Setting up a scene, adding a sprite – that sort of stuff. It took a bit of trial and error, but eventually, I had a basic green background (my “golf course”) and a little circle representing my bear.
Making the Bear Move
Next up was making the bear move. This was a bit trickier. I needed a way to control the bear’s “swing.” I ended up using the mouse: click and drag to determine the power and direction of the shot. I fumbled around with Godot’s input system and some basic physics. Let me tell you, figuring out how to translate mouse movement into a force vector was a headache!
- I spent a good hour just tweaking values to get the feel right.
- Too much power, and the bear would launch the ball into orbit.
- Too little, and it would barely move.
Eventually, I got something that felt somewhat decent. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to actually “play” the game in a very rudimentary way.
Adding the “Golf Ball” and Hole
Of course, a golf game needs a ball and a hole! I added another sprite for the ball, a simple white circle. For the hole, I just used a black circle. I placed them randomly on the “course.” Again, I messed with the physics a bit to make the ball react to the bear’s swing.
The Frustrating Part
The most frustrating part was definitely getting the ball to interact with the hole. I wanted some kind of “win” condition when the ball entered the hole. I struggled with Godot’s collision detection system for a while. It seemed simple on paper, but getting it to work consistently was another story. I think I spent more time on this than anything else.
Finally “Finished”
After a few hours of tinkering, I had something that resembled a very, very basic golf game. It was rough around the edges, sure, but it worked! I could click and drag to make the bear swing, the ball would fly (sometimes in the right direction!), and if I was lucky, it would even go into the hole.
It’s not going to win any awards, that’s for sure, but the final result is that I have a bear and a golf ball. It has achieved my expectations.
It was a fun little experiment. It definitely gave me a new appreciation for how much work goes into even the simplest of games. I also, I learned that game developmet is * I’ll add some obstacles or something later, but for now, I’m calling it a day.
