Godot-Go Multiplayer Project Template

Jumpstart your multiplayer project with this Godot-Go Protobuf-Websocket template. This template is designed to provide a solid foundation for your multiplayer game development, leveraging the power of Godot, Go, Protobuf, and Websockets.

Prerequisites

To get started with this template, you will need the following installed on your system:

• Godot v3.5 (I'm currently using v3.5 as the web export feature in v4 is not yet on par with v3.5)
• Protoc: Install it using the following command:

go install google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go@latest

• Make: This is usually pre-installed on Linux/Mac systems. If not, refer to your system's package manager to install it.

Getting Started

To get started with this template, clone the repository and install the necessary dependencies. Then, you can begin developing your multiplayer game. Happy coding!

Create a new packet

1. Define packet

message Test {
    string name = 1;
    int32 age = 2;
    repeated string nicknames = 3;
}

2. Generate them for both, server and client (see below)
3. Use the packet

client

var TestPacket = preload("res://net/packets/test.gd")
var a = TestPacket.Test.new()
	a.set_name("ignoxx")
	a.set_age(42)
	a.add_nicknames("moonsteroid")
	a.add_nicknames("TopG")
	a.add_nicknames("deez")
	var packed_bytes = a.to_bytes()

# send the packet
ws.get_peer(1).put_packet(packet)

server

_, msg, err := conn.ReadMessage()
// ...
packet := packets.Test{}
if err = proto.Unmarshal(msg, &packet); err != nil {
  return err
}

fmt.Println("Received test packet:")
fmt.Println(packet.Name)
fmt.Println(packet.Age)
fmt.Println(packet.Nicknames)

(Re)Generate protobuf files for client and server

If you updated your packets or created new ones, you will need to generate the packets for the server and client using:

make generate

Tech Choices

I've chosen Godot, Go, Protobuf, and Websockets for this template due to their efficiency, flexibility, and compatibility with web exports. These technologies provide a robust foundation for developing multiplayer games which works for all exports (tested only desktop and web)

Why Protobuf?

Protobuf, or Protocol Buffers, is a method of serializing structured data. It's a flexible, efficient, and automated mechanism for serializing structured data – think XML, but smaller, faster, and simpler.

By using Protobuf, we can define our packets once and reuse them in our server and client in a type-safe way. This not only reduces the likelihood of errors but also makes the process more efficient. Protobuf is a superior choice over JSON for this purpose, as it eliminates the need to manually write your bytes in order and prevents human errors.

Contributing

We welcome contributions to this template. If you have a feature request, bug report, or proposal for improvement, please open an issue on GitHub. We appreciate your help in making this template better.