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From Player to Creator (Beta)
A Beginner's Guide to Making Your First Game in Godot
This book is 100% completeLast updated on 2026-08-12
Don’t just play games, create them! With this book, your ideas can become your own game in the Godot programming language. Share your game with friends and the world!
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About
About the Book
Every gamer has imagined making their own game. Now, it's time to make that a reality.
Written by developer Mack Hoh-Choi, From Player to Creator walks beginners step-by-step through the entire journey of game development — from a rough idea scribbled on paper to a finished game published online. Using their own real project, "Prank Your Mom," Mack shares the exact process, code, and lessons learned along the way, including behind-the-scenes screenshots of the actual project files.
Inside, students will learn how to:
- Brainstorm and scope a game idea without getting overwhelmed
- Design a character with real personality and purpose
- Build core mechanics — movement, interactions, NPCs, inventory, and UI — in Godot
- Debug and playtest like a real developer
- Iterate on feedback without losing momentum
- Add art, sound, and polish that make a game feel alive
- Export and publish a finished game for others to play
A bonus tutorial guides readers through building a complete two-player Pong-style game from scratch, complete with working code. An appendix of common bugs, fixes, and trusted free resources rounds out the guide, along with honest thoughts on using AI responsibly as a creative tool.
Part technical handbook, part personal encouragement, From Player to Creator is for any young person who has ever thought, "I could make my own game" — and just needs the roadmap to start.
For: Middle and high school students with basic coding experience
Tool: Godot 4
Includes: 7 chapters, a bonus paddle-game tutorial, troubleshooting appendix, and curated resource list
Author
About the Author
Mack Hoh Choi
Like many kids, Mack grew up playing computer games and mobile games like Minecraft and Doodle Jump. His love for games was further fueled by retro games like Pong and Centipede, introduced to him by his parents. They sparked his curiosity about how a well-designed game stays meaningful and bridges generations.
Mack toyed with designing his own games, starting with classic maze-style games and eventually making more than 50 games on Scratch, Pygame, and Unity. He transitioned to using Godot to design story-based games based on the psychological challenges he noticed that his generation was facing—like anxiety, loneliness, social pressures, and identity.
Thanks to Mack’s participation in middle school robotics competitions, he learned the importance of brainstorming, iterating, and teamwork. His teams earned Excellence and Innovation awards, and Mack was a three-time participant in the VEX World Championships. With that collaborative spirit, Mack decided to use his experiences and challenges in designing games to help aspiring young creators. He created the Game Development Club at his high school so his friends and classmates can harness their talents in storytelling, digital art, music, and coding.
Mack also gives back to the community with volunteer work, such as helping older adults learn to use technology better. He twice earned the President’s Volunteer Service Award.
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