README.fr.md — 🇫🇷 Version française (French version)

Godot Project Structure Template

A descriptive guide abour structuring and organizing a Godot project.

Tip

Ready-to-use Godot project template you can directly open in Godot.

This template is a starting point for organising a Godot Project. Use it as inspiration and adapt it to your preferences and needs.

I created this template because I wanted a resource to share with people who asked me about structuring Godot projects, but most examples I found were either too specific or simply mirrored Unity’s scenes/scripts split, which I find less practical for Godot due to duplication.
So here it is.

Principles

This project structure is based on a few principles that tend to scale well:

• Group related topics together.
• Separate raw assets from Godot-specific files.
• Keep structure shallow unless depth improves clarity.
• Favor consistency across naming, file layout, and behavior.
• All folder and file names should use snake_case (recommended by the Godot style guide).

You can adapt these principles or extend them to match your own style.
Following them often leads to practical benefits, especially as projects grow:

Benefits

Having a clear and consistent folder structure:

• Makes collaboration smoother as everyone knows where things go.
• Speeds up onboarding for new team members.
• Helps avoid duplicated files or logic.
• Reduces time spent searching for assets or scripts.
• Scales naturally as your game grows in complexity.

Whether you’re working solo or with a team, structure becomes invisible when it works and painful when it doesn’t.

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Root Folder

.
├── assets/      # Raw assets (art, audio, fonts, etc.)
├── data/        # Data files (saves, configs, translations, etc.)
└── source/      # All Godot scenes, scripts, and resources

• assets/ and data/ allow artists and non-programmers to contribute without navigating in your code source structure.
• You can merge assets/ and data/ if your team prefers.

source/ Folder

source/
├── main.tscn        # Entry point of the project
├── main.gd
├── features/        # Gameplay systems (map, entities, etc.)
├── ui/              # UI screens and reusable components
│   ├── common/
│   └── theme/
├── autoload/        # Global managers/singletons
├── utils/           # Optional: Helper scripts
└── shaders/         # Optional: Godot shaders

Project Entry Point: main.tscn / main.gd

• Use main.tscn and main.gd to perform initial checks (settings, save migration, platform-specific logic, splash screens, etc.) before loading the actual game or menu.

This is a common pattern I personally use in my Godot projects and helps keep startup logic separate from main scenes.

features/ Folder

The features/ folder groups major gameplay systems. In smaller projects, you may choose to place these folders directly under source/ for simplicity.

Each major system gets its own folder:

features/
├── map/
│   ├── map.gd
│   ├── map.tscn
│   └── levels/                  # Individual map levels
│       ├── dungeon.tscn
│       └── shop.tscn
├── entities/
│   ├── entity.gd                # Base entity (class_name Entity)
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── attack.gd
│   │   └── health.gd
│   ├── enemies/
│   │   ├── enemy.gd             # Base enemy logic (extends entity.gd)
│   │   └── skeleton/
│   │       ├── skeleton.gd      # Skeleton-specific logic (extends enemy.gd)
│   │       └── skeleton.tscn
│   └── player/
│       ├── player.gd            # Player logic (extends entity.gd)
│       └── player.tscn
└── item/
	├── item.gd
	└── resources/
		├── bow.tres
		└── sword.tres

• Favor clarity over minimalism: it's okay to have a few levels of nesting if it helps organize logic.

ui/ Folder

Separate reusable components from full UI screens.

ui/
├── common/
│   ├── button.tscn
│   ├── popup.tscn
│   └── panel.tscn
├── theme/
│   ├── theme.tres
│   └── halloween.tres
├── boot_screen/
│   └── boot_screen.tscn
├── main_menu/
│   ├── main_menu.gd
│   └── main_menu.tscn
└── inventory/
	├── inventory.tscn
	├── inventory.gd
	└── item_slot.gd

autoload/ Folder

For global managers or systems that need to be accessible from anywhere:

autoload/
├── game_state.gd         # GameState autoload
├── event_bus.gd          # EventBus autoload 
└── transition_manager/   # TransitionManager autoload
	├── transition_manager.gd
	└── transition_manager.tscn

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Closing Notes

• Consider all the above as a helpful foundation, not a rulebook, but a flexible starting point you can adapt. Feel free to pick and choose what works best for your needs and preferences.
• Prefer a shallow structure where possible, it's often easier to navigate. But if more depth helps clarify ownership or logic, don't hesitate to use it.
• The default addons/ folder is logically separate from the main project structure as each addon is self-contained and may organize its own assets/, data/, and source/ folders in their own way.
• For multiplayer project examples, check out my other repos:
  • godot-tiny-mmo
  • godot-dedicated-server-example

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How to Use

1. Click "Use this template" on GitHub
2. Clone and open in Godot
3. Adapt the structure to your needs

Contributing

Suggestions and PRs welcome! If you have a structure that works well for your team, feel free to share it.

Credits

Thanks to Axel (from the Godot Discord) for thoughtful feedback and suggestions that helped shape this template.