Roguelike: Part 1: Into the Cave

Create tile-based dungeon rooms, implement grid-snapped movement with Input actions, and build the core game loop for a turn-based roguelike in GDScript.

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Chapter 1

The World

Every roguelike starts with a grid. You'll declare the scene type, define tile constants for walls and floors, and wire up the TileMapLayer. Watch the game panel -- the dungeon grid appears once the tilemap is connected in beat 4.

TileMapLayer and atlas constants are the foundation of every tile-based game in Godot.

Loading game...

Click the game window to interact with it

What You'll Build

You will create a tile-based dungeon room with a player that moves on a grid. Movement is turn-based: each key press advances the player by one tile. The dungeon is drawn on a TileMapLayer with wall and floor tiles. This part establishes the core loop that every later part builds on.

Learning Goals

✓TileMapLayer for grid-based level design
✓Grid-snapped movement with Input.is_action_just_pressed()
✓Converting pixel positions to tile coordinates and back
✓Basic turn-based game loop structure

GDScript Concepts in This Part

GDScript Foundations PracticeLearn the first lines of every Godot 4 script: extends, typed vars, @export, @onready, signals, and lifecycle callbacks (_init, _ready). Includes copy-paste templates + drills.GDScript Movement PracticeCopy-paste movement scripts for Godot 4: top-down + platformer. Learn velocity, move_and_slide(), _physics_process vs _process, delta rules, slope snapping, and Physics Interpolation jitter fixes.GDScript TileMapLayer PracticeLearn TileMapLayer in Godot 4: set_cell, erase_cell, get_cell_source_id, map_to_local, local_to_map, multi-layer patterns, and fog-of-war. Build tile-based maps in GDScript.

Tips

✨Use Input.is_action_just_pressed() instead of is_action_pressed() for turn-based games — it fires once per key press, giving you discrete turns.
✨Store positions in grid coordinates (Vector2i) and convert to pixels only for display.