Scaffolding Godot Mini Games

The bundled assets/godot-base/ is infrastructure, not gameplay or visual/audio identity. After copying it, keep main.gd as orchestration and implement game-specific responsibilities in focused scripts.

Set SKILL_DIR to the absolute directory containing the loaded SKILL.md (including plugin installs). Inspect a nonempty destination first; never overwrite unrelated work without explicit fresh-scaffold authorization. Then run:

PROJECT_DIR=tmp/games/<slug>
mkdir -p "$PROJECT_DIR"
cp -R "${SKILL_DIR:?Set SKILL_DIR to this skill directory}/assets/godot-base/." "$PROJECT_DIR"/
mkdir -p "$PROJECT_DIR/logs" "$PROJECT_DIR/build/web"

Use project-local XDG directories for this and every later headless Godot command:

export XDG_DATA_HOME="$PROJECT_DIR/.godot-xdg/data"
export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$PROJECT_DIR/.godot-xdg/config"
export XDG_CACHE_HOME="$PROJECT_DIR/.godot-xdg/cache"
mkdir -p "$XDG_DATA_HOME" "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" "$XDG_CACHE_HOME"

if godot --headless --path "$PROJECT_DIR" --version > "$PROJECT_DIR/logs/version.log" 2>&1; then
  version_status=0
else
  version_status=$?
fi

if timeout 5s godot --headless --path "$PROJECT_DIR" > "$PROJECT_DIR/logs/smoke_main_initial.log" 2>&1; then
  smoke_status=0
else
  smoke_status=$?
fi

printf 'version_exit=%s\nsmoke_exit=%s\n' "$version_status" "$smoke_status"

Pass only when version_status=0, the log reports Godot 4.2+ with no missing project or parse error, and smoke_status=124 (the template has no quit hook). Any non-whitelisted SCRIPT ERROR or ERROR: in the startup log fails the check.

Validation milestones:

• Post-copy: version check plus startup smoke is enough; the template intentionally has no game-specific logic.
• Post-implementation: add or update project-specific res://tools/tests/run_tests.gd before claiming logic, telemetry, scoring, or balance coverage.
• Pre-export: run startup smoke again, run project-specific tests when present, then export Web to build/web/index.html.

Preserve Web canvas sizing unless project.godot, export_presets.cfg, and web/custom_shell.html change together. Never put machine-specific export-template paths in the bundled template; a copied project may use absolute local custom template paths with project-local XDG directories.

Before editing the template read assets/godot-base/TEMPLATE_SCOPE.md. For later Godot work, read references/visual-implementation-patterns.md when implementing directing-game-visuals, and references/godot-balance-pattern-examples.md when implementing evaluating-gameplay-balance patterns.