Defold Project Setup

Setup Defold Project

Downloads and extracts Defold library dependencies and engine builtins into the .deps/ directory, which is used as read-only context for resolving module references. Also provides recommended game.project settings for new projects.

When to Run

• Before any task if the .deps/ folder does not exist or is empty.
• After editing dependencies in game.project (any [project] dependencies#N entry was added, removed, or changed).

How to Run

Execute the setup script from the project root:

Windows (PowerShell):

python .agents/skills/defold-project-setup/scripts/fetch_deps.py

Linux/macOS:

python3 .agents/skills/defold-project-setup/scripts/fetch_deps.py

Use --dry-run to print what would be done without downloading or extracting anything.

What It Does

1. Reads game.project and parses all [project] dependencies#N URLs.
2. Downloads each dependency zip to a temporary directory.
3. Inspects each zip's game.project for [library] include_dirs.
4. Extracts only the declared include directories into .deps/.
5. Downloads Defold engine builtins into .deps/builtins/ (from the latest stable release).

After Running

• The .deps/ folder is ready for use as a read-only include directory.

Recommended game.project settings

When creating a new project or reviewing game.project, apply these recommended baseline settings. They provide sensible defaults for most Defold games.

[html5]

[html5]
scale_mode = Stretch
heap_size = 64
cssfile = /builtins/manifests/web/dark_theme.css
retry_count = 1000

• scale_mode = Stretch — the HTML5 canvas fills the entire browser window.
• heap_size = 64 — 64 MB is enough for most games; the engine will allocate more if needed.
• cssfile = /builtins/manifests/web/dark_theme.css — dark theme is a better default than white.
• retry_count = 1000 — the engine retries loading game files up to 1000 times on network issues, preventing failures on slow connections.

[engine]

[engine]
fixed_update_frequency = 60
max_time_step = 0.05

• fixed_update_frequency = 60 — fixed update runs at 60 FPS (this is the Defold default).
• max_time_step = 0.05 — the game runs without slowdowns down to 20 FPS. Below that, the game slows down instead of skipping large time chunks.

[physics]

[physics]
gravity_y = -1000.0
scale = 0.01
velocity_threshold = 100.0
use_fixed_timestep = 1
max_fixed_timesteps = 0

• gravity_y = -1000.0 — this value is multiplied by physics.scale, so internally the physics engine sees -10 m/s² (Earth gravity).
• scale = 0.01 — for 2D games this is typically 0.01 (1 pixel = 0.01 m). For 3D games use 1.0 (1 unit = 1 m).
• velocity_threshold = 100.0 — (2D physics only) for stable physics this should be 1.0 / physics.scale, so 100.0 when scale is 0.01.
• use_fixed_timestep = 1 — physics runs in fixed timestep mode. Move object interpolation between physics steps via the object_interpolation extension.
• max_fixed_timesteps = 0 — (3D physics only) passes fixed dt directly from the Defold engine to Bullet3D and disables Bullet3D's internal accumulator.