War battles
In this tutorial you will create the embryo of a small shooter game. This is a good starting point if you are new to Defold.
Learning Hub
New to Defold? Switching from another engine? Or returning after a break? This is a great place for you to start! Pick your learning path from our curated list of written manuals, tutorials, courses, examples, videos or other tracks that match your next goal! Learn game development with Defold!
First steps
Get Defold onto your machine first, launch it, and jump straight into the guided routes - picking from whatever suits you best.
Step 1
Download Defold
Get Defold for your operating system. Click here to download Defold ↗
Step 2Install and launch
Unzip and launch it - that's it! No extra setup. Click here to read the details ↗
Step 3Start your journey
Start from an empty template, built-in tutorials or pick a learning resource below.
Introduction
Choose your path. If you are unsure where to start, open the first introductory manual and come back later for a more specific track.
New to gamedev?
Start with an introduction to Defold, and then create your first project by following a selected step-by-step tutorial.
Coming from Unity?
We've prepared a special guide for quick migration for Unity developers.
Experienced?
It's best to start with basic building blocks of Defold to get to know Defold quickly, and then the following manuals and API reference.
Manuals
Continue here when you want the editor workflow and Defold mental model explained more directly, without starting from another full project.
Editor overview
Get to know the editor layout, panes, welcome screen and learn how to use it conveniently.
Creating a project
Create a project from an empty setup, template, tutorial, or sample and choose the right first starting point.
Getting Help
Find support options, community resources, and tips on where to get your Defold questions answered quickly.
Glossary
Look up and understand Defold-specific terminology and jargon explained in clear, practical language.
Building Blocks
Understand collections, game objects, components, and the core Defold mental model before your project grows.
Components
Overview of Defold's main building blocks: collections, game objects, and components.
Tutorials
After the quick-start, continue with these guided tutorials. Those can be run directly from the editor.
Side scroller
This tutorial is intended to give a taste of what making games in Defold is about. It goes through creating a new project, based on a simple side-scroller. You will then learn how to tweak the game to make it more fun. Finally you will add a new game object. The tutorial should only take about 10 minutes.
Colorslide
In this medium difficulty tutorial you build an in-game GUI, a GUI screen for level selection and a start screen for a simple multi level mobile game.
Videos
Use videos if you learn best by watching, but keep the matching tutorial or manual pages nearby for follow-up depth and exact steps.
Defold Space Shooter - Gamedev Tutorial for Beginners - 1/3 Sprites, Inputs, Scripts
This video begins a tutorial series on making a simple space shooter game in Defold - similar to Galaga or Warblade, with a top down view and hordes of enemies you can shoot of with lasers and rockets.
Zelda Style Camera With Defold - Smooth Room Transition Camera
Learn how to create a camera solution with smooth room transitions.
Complete Defold Course - Learn Beginner/Intermediate Level
Master Defold - a free and powerful game engine for building 2D & 3D games!
Courses
Choose a course when you want a more structured learning sequence with less self-navigation between resources.
Defold 101 – Open-Source Game Development
In this course, you’ll dive into Defold, master how it works from scratch, and also explore essential fundamentals with the Lua scripting language. These skills will provide you the boost you need to start working with Defold in general and prepare you with the foundations for any sort of game you wish to build.
Deep Into the Space
Through this course, you will program a spaceship that moves through space. This will be a great opportunity to learn the basics of the Defold engine
Tilemap Farm Adventure
In this module, you’ll learn how to use Defold’s tilemap system to create a small environment, and you’ll be introduced to the concept of modules.
Examples, reference, and FAQ
Use these after your first tutorial when you need code patterns, exact API details, or answers to a specific problem.
Examples
A selection of code samples and examples to study, recreate and use in your games.
API Reference
Reference documentation for Defold Lua APIs and C++ extension APIs when you need exact definitions.
FAQ
Answers to common questions and recurring problems when you need a quick resolution.
Community example collections
Browse many different open-source examples, games, projects and resources from the Defold team members and from the Defold community.
Community
If you get stuck, want feedback, or want to learn from other teams using Defold, start with the community channels here.
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