Game folder structure
This is the guide on how to name things, where to put them, and over-all how we intend to organize the project files.
Considerations
The game project's file structure should achieve several key things:
- Organize multiple repositories into folder structures that can co-exist.
- One directory for the Godot project, a separate directory for the art source files that are created outside of the engine.
- These directories will each be a Git repository and should conform to the hyphenated naming convention.
- These names should make sense in and out of context, the top-level folder name should make sense when viewed as a tab in a Git GUI e.g:
- example-game
- example-art
- example-audio
- Splitting the repositories avoids having to sync large amounts of irrelevant content for your role on the project:
- Programmers / Dev Ops / Build Bots should only need to sync the example-game repository.
- Artists / Animators can sync example-art along side the example-game repository.
- Musicians / Foley Artists can sync example-audio along side the example-game repository.
- The folder structures should work without using Git sub-modules, since sub-modules add a lot of complexity and confusion without really adding value.
- The folder structures in these directories should mimic each other 1:1
- Tools and pipelines should be able to export / import content by simply swapping the root, e.g:
- example-art/art_assets/characters/main_character/main_character_diffuse.png
- |--->example-game/art_assets/characters/main_character/main_character_diffuse.png
- Ship-able game content should be the only thing going into the Godot project resource folder in the game repo.
- Art source content from tools like Blender, Gimp, Krita, etc... should be kept in the art repo.
- Music production files for a DAW should be kept in the audio repo.
Naming Conventions
- The repositories should use lowercase-hyphenated-case
- Files and folders should use snake_case unless otherwise required by third-party tools or conventions for the specific file e.g. README.md
- No spaces in file names.
- All directories should be plural:
- "characters" not "character"
- "environments" not "environment"
Compromises
No folder structure is perfect, but this structure should lead to the fewest problems. Here is a list of known compromises we've decided to accept:
Top level folder names repeat the game's name even though they are already inside of a top-level folder named after the game:
- example
- example-game
- example-art
- example-audio
While this introduces redundancy, folders don't cost anything, so this is okay.
Some intermediate sub-folders are empty and seem to be useless, but they keep the hierarchies between directories in perfect sync. For instance, example-art may never end up with content directly inside of it, most if not all content will be inside of its first sub-folder art_assets i.e. example-art/art_assets/ This is on purpose, since it ensures the game content is at the same hierarchical indentation level to the source content, making pipelines and paths extremely easy to work with; just swap the root and you're done!
You ought to have a directory on your computer for "BUGJam" projects. You can place this anywhere on your computer with a few considerations:
- Do not sync this directory with OneDrive, iCloud, Google Drive, or any other backup tool, this will break the Git repositories inside the folder since these services interfere with Git.
- Don't nest the folder too deep so you avoid file name length issues:
- Good (Windows style path):
C:\Users\xgreer\Projects\BUGJam - Good (MacOS / Linux):
/home/xgreer/Projects/BUGJam - Bad:
/home/xgreer/Projects/Extra Projects/Seattle Blender User Group/Game Projects/BUGJam
- Good (Windows style path):
Within the BUGJam directory there will be folders for each BUGJam project. For a project called 'Genesis' we will have a project folder called 'genesis' that serves as the root for all content necessary to develop the game.
File Tree Structure Example
BUGJam <!-- Top-level folder for the entire studio. -->
├── genesis <!-- Top-level folder that contains all repositories for the game. -->
│ ├── genesis-art <!-- Repository for large art content, stored outside of the Godot project. -->
│ │ ├── .forgejo <!-- Hidden content used for resources on Forgejo -->
│ │ │ └── banner
│ │ │ └── genesis_art_banner.png
│ │ ├── art_assets <!-- Source files for creating art -->
│ │ │ └── characters
│ │ │ ├── main_character
│ │ │ │ ├── animations
│ │ │ │ │ └── idle.blend
│ │ │ │ ├── main_character_diffuse.png
│ │ │ │ └── main_character_rig.blend
│ │ │ └── monster
│ │ │ ├── animations
│ │ │ │ └── walk.blend
│ │ │ ├── monster_diffuse.png
│ │ │ └── monster_rig.blend
│ │ ├── audio_assets <!-- Source files for music and sound effects -->
│ │ │ ├── dialogue
│ │ │ ├── music
│ │ │ └── sound_effects
│ │ └── pipeline <!-- Pipeline tools for producing content outside of the game -->
│ │ ├── addons
│ │ ├── extensions
│ │ └── scripts
│ └── genesis-game <!-- This is the Godot root for resources: 'res://' -->
│ ├── .forgejo <!-- Hidden content used for resources on Forgejo -->
│ │ └── banner
│ │ └── genesis_game_banner.png
│ ├── addons <!-- Godot plugins -->
│ ├── art_assets <!-- A 1:1 mirrored file structure with the genesis-art repository. -->
│ │ ├── characters
│ │ │ ├── main_character
│ │ │ │ ├── main_character_mat.tres <!-- Material -->
│ │ │ │ ├── main_character_diffuse.png <!-- Texture -->
│ │ │ │ ├── main_character_diffuse.png.import <!-- Import settings and UID -->
│ │ │ │ ├── main_character_rig.bin <!-- Binary data for the model file -->
│ │ │ │ ├── main_character_rig.gltf <!-- Model file -->
│ │ │ │ └── main_character_rig.gltf.import <!-- Import settings and UID -->
│ │ │ └── monster
│ │ │ ├── monster_mat.tres <!-- Material -->
│ │ │ ├── monster_diffuse.png <!-- Texture -->
│ │ │ ├── monster_rig.bin <!-- Binary data for the model file -->
│ │ │ ├── monster_rig.gltf <!-- Model file -->
│ │ │ └── monster_rig.gltf.import <!-- Import settings and UID -->
│ │ ├── common
│ │ │ └── textures
│ │ │ └── blue_noise_64.png
│ │ ├── environments
│ │ │ ├── rock
│ │ │ │ └── [...]
│ │ │ └── wall
│ │ │ └── [...]
│ │ └── interactables <!-- Core puzzle elements for designing levels. -->
│ │ ├── coin
│ │ │ └── [...]
│ │ └── door
│ │ └── [...]
│ ├── audio_assets <!-- A 1:1 mirrored file structure with the genesis-audio repository. -->
│ │ ├── dialogue
│ │ ├── music
│ │ └── sound_effects
│ ├── entities <!-- Complete assets that are ready to drag and drop into a level. -->
│ │ ├── characters
│ │ │ ├── main_character.tscn
│ │ │ └── monster.tscn
│ │ ├── environments <!-- Stuff without direct gameplay mechanics. -->
│ │ │ ├── rock.tscn
│ │ │ └── wall.tscn
│ │ └── puzzle_elements <!-- Core puzzle elements for designing levels. -->
│ │ ├── button.tscn
│ │ └── pusher.tscn
│ ├── levels <!-- Playable levels. -->
│ │ ├── level_packs <!-- Data assets that organize levels into packs. -->
│ │ │ ├── world1.gd
│ │ │ └── world2.gd
│ │ ├── epilogue.tscn
│ │ ├── intro.tscn
│ │ └── open_world.tscn
│ ├── scripts
│ │ └── player.gd
│ ├── shaders
│ │ └── iris.gdshader
│ ├── ui
│ │ └── icons.png
│ ├── .gitignore
│ ├── icon.png
│ ├── project.godot <!-- Main Godot project file -->
│ └── README.md
└── logo <!-- Example of other stuff for the studio that is not directly related to the game. -->
Just looking at the folder names, I highly recommend trying to have short names instead of long. For example, art_assets/characters should probably be assets/chr. The reason for this is to prevent any issues with the Windows max path length (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=registry).
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