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2D movement overview

Introduction

Every beginner has been there: "How do I move my character?" Depending on the style of game you're making, you may have special requirements, but in general the movement in most 2D games is based on a small number of designs.

We'll use CharacterBody2D for these examples, but the principles will apply to other node types (Area2D, RigidBody2D) as well.

Setup

Each example below uses the same scene setup. Start with a CharacterBody2D with two children: Sprite2D and CollisionShape2D. You can use the Godot icon ("icon.png") for the Sprite2D's texture or use any other 2D image you have.

Open Project -> Project Settings and select the "Input Map" tab. Add the following input actions (see InputEvent for details):

8-way movement

In this scenario, you want the user to press the four directional keys (up/left/down/right or W/A/S/D) and move in the selected direction. The name "8-way movement" comes from the fact that the player can move diagonally by pressing two keys at the same time.

Add a script to the character body and add the following code:

GDScriptC#

extends CharacterBody2D

@export var speed = 400

func get_input():
    var input_direction = Input.get_vector("left", "right", "up", "down")
    velocity = input_direction * speed

func _physics_process(delta):
    get_input()
    move_and_slide()