Godot in Senza

This is Naveen's submission for the Synamedia Senza hackathon. Here I have a basic top down 2d rpg template that was made in the Godot Game Engine. Godot is a free and O.S.S. Game Engine under the MIT License.

The template I'm using is written in Godot's built in scripting language called GD Script. The engine is able to export this project into files that can be served in the browser.

Since this template was not made with the Senza remote in mind, and this is also my first time ever using the Godot Engine, I will also use the debugger to showcase some features.

The Demo here is not meant to wow you with gameplay, rather I'm demonstrating the potential of senza as a cloud console for the Godot Engine.

Regardless, I am still impressed by how painless this was to set up. The template works relatively well out-of-the-box all things considered, especially when paired with itch.io, a popular host for static web games.

Assuming the senza device has been connected to wifi, the build process was easy.

Step 1. clone the template repo, then import the project file into Godot.

1. export the project with web as the target

2. zip up the exported files in one archive

3. upload the zip archive to a free itch.io account

4. retrieve the direct public url in your itch.io account

5. insert the url and senza device id into the senza gateway admin portal.

finally, press the home button on the senza remote

The first thing you'll notice is there is quite a bit of latency between the remote and the device. This seems to be an issue with the wifi and network, since you can see the debugger appears much more responsive.

The second thing you'll notice is that even in the debugger, the arrow keys provide a much more fluid experience than the remote. this is likely due to quirks between godot's web export process and how senza interprets key input.

despite this, it is cool that movement, interaction, and menu navigation work out of the box. let's demo some of these features with the remote.

then lets look at some features that only work in the debugger like jump and attack. considering the smooth U.X. in the debugger, I am extremely confident that the cloud connector can be improved significantly without too much complexity.

considering the limitations of unstable wifi and the device remote, the most feasible game types will likely be turn based games or idle games.

Again, the purpose of this demo is to showcase a developer friendly build process for Godot Game Engine developers who might see value in a cloud hosted console where the possibilities are not constrained by disk space.

i am looking forward to tinkering with the cloud connector and Godot a lot more. thank you for taking the time to review this demo, I hope you enjoyed.

Built With

• gdscript
• godot
• itch.io
• senza