RPG Template (Godot 4, C#/Mono)

A minimal top-down RPG starter built for Godot 4.7 with the .NET (C#) build. It's a from-scratch scaffold rather than a fork of an existing template — a survey of existing options found nothing that was both Godot-Mono and RPG-specific (the well-known "Open RPG" demo is GDScript; existing C# templates are generic, not RPG-oriented) — so this repo builds that combination directly, informed by common patterns from those projects.

Requirements

• Godot 4.7 .NET/Mono build (the editor build with C# support, not the standard build)
• .NET SDK 8.0+

Getting started

./bootstrap.sh        # installs Godot .NET + .NET SDK if needed, imports the project
./run-smoke-test.sh   # verifies the whole thing works (65 checks)

bootstrap.sh handles macOS, SteamOS and generic Linux, and is safe to re-run. Use ./bootstrap.sh --check to see what is missing without installing anything.

Then open project.godot in the Godot 4.7 .NET editor and press F5. It starts on the title screen; "Start Game" loads scenes/World/TestLevel.tscn.

To set up by hand instead: open project.godot in the .NET editor (it generates the C# solution on first open), build with Project > Tools > C# > Create/Build, then press F5.

Verifying

./run-smoke-test.sh

Runs the game headlessly and checks the input map, movement, collision layers, item pickups, the dialogue signal chain, stats, inventory and save/load — 65 checks in total. It exits non-zero on any failure, so it works as a CI gate. The suite lives in scripts/Tests/SmokeTest.cs.

Controls

Action	Keyboard	Gamepad
Move	Arrow keys / WASD	Left stick / D-pad
Interact	E	A (bottom face button)

Every action is a project-defined action in project.godot (move_left, move_right, move_up, move_down, interact) rather than one of Godot's built-in ui_* actions, so gameplay input and menu navigation stay independent. Keyboard bindings use physical keycodes, so WASD lands on the same physical keys as ZQSD on an AZERTY layout.

Every binding has a gamepad equivalent and matches any connected device, so the template is playable on a Steam Deck in Game Mode with no remapping.

Project structure

project.godot          Engine + autoload + input map config
RPGTemplate.csproj      C# project file (Godot.NET.Sdk, net8.0)
scripts/
  Autoload/             Singletons: GameManager (scene/pause), EventBus (global signals)
  Player/               PlayerController (movement/interaction), PlayerStats (health/leveling)
  Systems/              Inventory, InventoryItem, ItemPickup, SaveSystem, IInteractable
  NPC/                  NPC.cs (dialogue-triggering interactable)
  UI/                   HUD, DialogueBox, TitleScreen
scenes/
  TitleScreen.tscn
  Player.tscn           CharacterBody2D + Inventory + interaction Area2D
  NPC.tscn
  ItemPickup.tscn
  World/TestLevel.tscn  Playable room wiring it all together
  UI/HUD.tscn
  UI/DialogueBox.tscn
resources/items/
  health_potion.tres    Sample InventoryItem resource

How the systems fit together

• EventBus (scripts/Autoload/EventBus.cs) is a global signal hub — PlayerHealthChanged, PlayerLeveledUp, DialogueStarted, DialogueEnded, InventoryChanged. UI listens to it instead of polling the player directly, so HUD/dialogue stay decoupled from gameplay code.
• PlayerStats is a Resource (health, attack, defense, leveling via AddExperience), so it can be saved, swapped, or authored as a preset.
• Inventory is a plain component Node — attach it to any actor (already on Player.tscn) and call AddItem/RemoveItem.
• IInteractable is implemented by NPC.cs; PlayerController tracks interactables in range via its InteractionArea and calls Interact() on the nearest one when you press interact. Add new interactable types (chests, signs, doors) by implementing the same interface.
• SaveSystem is a static utility (SaveSystem.Save/Load) that (de)serializes PlayerStats to user://savegame.json. It's not wired to a menu yet — call it from wherever you add save points.

Extending

• New item: duplicate resources/items/health_potion.tres, change its Id/DisplayName/icon, point an ItemPickup.tscn instance at it.
• New NPC: instance scenes/NPC.tscn, set NpcName/DialogueText in the Inspector — no code needed for simple one-line dialogue.
• New enemy/combat: PlayerStats.TakeDamage(int) already applies defense mitigation and fires PlayerHealthChanged; hang an enemy AI + attack script off the same pattern.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development workflow and the checks required before opening a pull request. AGENTS.md carries the same rules in more depth for AI coding agents, plus the macOS and SteamOS platform notes.

Sources consulted

• chickensoft-games/GodotGame — C# project template conventions (.csproj/SDK setup) for Godot 4
• gdquest-demos/godot-open-rpg — reference for RPG project structure (GDScript, not C#)
• Godot 4 C# documentation — signals, autoloads, GlobalClass resources