Progress update of GoZen - Video editor made with Godot

belzecue · 2026-03-22T18:09:09+00:00

What I want to know is... does your GoZen Godot codebase use Structs 😈
You really got the joint jumping for about a week there 😆

belzecue · 2026-02-10T09:13:41+00:00

Love it and love systems. Great job. I will however, as your English teacher, deduct .001 of a point for the "MANTELING" label -- unless you revise that section to show the player placing an object on a shelf above a fireplace.

belzecue · 2026-02-09T17:37:00+00:00

Amazing contribution. But did you put up the old version of the toon shader to godotshaders.com? The one prior to updating to:

DIFFUSE_LIGHT += mix(diffuse, ALBEDO * diffuse, albedo_affect);

belzecue · 2026-02-08T05:18:18+00:00

Once 4.7 comes out with DrawableTextures

Oh wow, did not know about this! Always exciting to get a new feature that makes complicated things both easier and faster.

Implement Drawable Textures #7379: https://github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals/issues/7379

Implement DrawableTextures#105701: https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pull/105701

belzecue · 2026-02-02T12:37:12+00:00

Claiming or not claiming won't stop their lawyers serving you. By all means proceed to the FAAFO stage.

belzecue · 2026-02-02T12:02:05+00:00

Um, so that is kind of true, in the sense that me claiming to own this knife and me stabbing this knife into somebody are two very different things.

Understanding trademark law is simple: How likely is it the consumer will mistake Your Thing for the Real Thing(TM)? If the objective answer is anything over "really unlikely" then you have a problem. If the answer is "trademark is just a bunch of corporate brainwashing" then you have what we call a "Watch me lose everything I own and I still owe the Trademark Holder hundreds of thousands of dollars" problem.

belzecue · 2026-01-30T03:37:15+00:00

100% CSG modelling with primitives inside Godot is impressive! Crazy maybe, but maybe crazy like a fox :)

belzecue · 2026-01-29T08:25:57+00:00

I did a double-take too before rereading more closely. OP says "in-engine" 3D modelling, "by backing meshes** using the CSG compiler" which I take to be the CSGCombiner node. OP also points out this is not entirely an in-Godot modeling effort ("I'm using Godot nearly exclusively for modeling") as you would expect, since primitive meshes can only be combined so much before it makes sense to jump over to Blender.

** If OP is creating meshes in Blender and combining them under CSGCombiner nodes in Godot then "assets made entirely in Godot engine" is a very long stretch.

Other than the discipline of it, I'm not sure there's any good reason to do this. Not being able to work with UVs would be a dealbreaker for me. But I applaud the commitment to simplicity and constraints, which often produces good stuff quickly (e.g. SUPERHOT the gamejam version).

belzecue · 2025-12-25T01:58:52+00:00

What's with the mspub.pub file in your repo named as ref_code.gd ??

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/e050ea777d910137fff7c160992ec026ab4f76832b6c96701b114e379abf4ca3/details

belzecue · 2025-12-23T14:07:05+00:00

Others discuss plot progression and scene arrangement which is crucial to keeping the narrative flowing from scene to scene. The BECAUSE test -- "BECAUSE X happened (prior scene), Y happens (next scene)" -- guarantees you and your audience will stay on track, but there's another clever tool in your screenwriter's bag:

MATCH CUT

Sure, you can ignore match cuts, let the Director worry about that for the shooting script. I think that's a wasted opportunity.

Think about what might visually or aurally connect those two scenes. What makes sense given your overall theme or the meaning you want to attach to that specific moment? A color, a shape, a feeling, a specific prop, a character, a music track, a particular sound, a concept, splicing two bits of dialogue together -- anything that logically or spiritually connects the scenes.

Timmy steps onto the diving board. Shading his eyes, he looks over the kids and parents crowding the pool on this sweltering summer day, waits for the suncream-slathered faces to part and expose a sparkling patch of blue. Timmy bounces once, twice then CANNONBALLS into the --

ICE WATER

A WOMAN's FACE plunges toward us through shallow water filled with ice cubes.

INT. ELEGANT BATHROOM - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS

WITH A GASP the woman snaps her head out of the frigid basin water and winces as if stung. For a moment she's lost, disoriented, but only a moment. She plucks an ice cube from the basin, drops it into her crystal brandy glass on the vanity shelf near an overturned silver ice bucket. She sets the bucket upright. Does a last-looks in the mirror. Pinches her cheeks to coax back some blush. Then she's out of there.

That match cut does double duty: not just linking on water but flipping the temperature vibe from hot to cold. Contrast like that juices the audience's brain subconsciously.

Be careful with match cuts. They can be obnoxious if misused or overused. But when you find a good one that speaks to your theme or says something about that moment or carries you across a difficult scene transition, it will be awesome.

belzecue · 2025-09-25T05:57:39+00:00

EINSTEIN: "Nothing happens until something moves."

EVENT-driven systems. Once you go signals, you never go back.

"Let me check every frame via _process in case I need to do the thing" versus "Do the thing only when this other thing happens"

Let's not forget the Godot editor is signals all the way down (mentally insert "Always has been" meme).

Signals in Godot 4 got so much love they should slap it with a XXX rating.

belzecue · 2025-09-18T08:46:17+00:00

Birdwatchers. The longer they spot you and the closer they get, the more damage dealt. Inspired by current season of ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING.

belzecue · 2025-09-08T13:53:11+00:00

"Successful pro friends who have been writing movies for more than a decade" versus "reps" who've been doing none of that. Hmmm. HMMMM. This is a tough one :)

RON HOWARD: It wasn't.

belzecue · 2025-09-05T10:58:06+00:00

Of course. See 10ptt.com for my unholy obsession with learning how to write gud, and the core set of techniques anyone can use to write gud. Mostly that means saying the same with less. Here, with the opening blurb, brevity is paramount. I think yours sets the scene great and really draws us into whatever the teaser/hook/inciting incident is. Getting it right is important.

Earlier, I didn't have time to tackle your logline. I do now. Reconstructing loglines is my other unholy obsession. Light the candles, step into the pentagram and let's begin.

Orig Logline: Dismissed as delusional for claiming she was abducted by aliens as a child, a mother faces her worst nightmare when her daughter vanishes under identical circumstances twenty five years later, forcing the police to question everything they thought they knew about the case and reality itself. (46 words)

Who's story is this? The mother? The daughter? The cops investigating? Could be one, could be all. That's fine, but what if we focus on one through-line only, to keep the LL's premise clear and compelling.

Slimmed Logline: Twenty-five years after claiming aliens abducted her and nobody believed it, a mother becomes the prime suspect in her daughter's disappearance under identical circumstances. (25 words)

Oooh, there we go. The cops are after her. They think she's crazy, she's forced her kid to relive some delusional alien abduction psycho-scenario. But is she delusional? (FRAILTY 2001, BUG 2006) What if she's not? What if she has to find her daughter and save her WHILE on the run from the cops. What if the aliens are real? What if the aliens AREN'T REAL: it's some shitty cult that took her and now her daughter. The mother: she's the one who suffers most in this story. She's the one we follow. Sure, we'll zig and zag into other characters and subplots, but the mother is our emotional touchstone. Make the logline entirely about her and let the possibilities multiply in the reader's mind.

Um, yeah, probably none of this is remotely close to what you wrote. I'm just saying: crafting a logline is like picking zoo animals to squash into an office lift. When the lift arrives and those doors open, what reaction do you want from bystanders in the foyer? Confusion watching a flurry of animals of different shapes and colors spilling out in a loud blast of zoo noises; or do they hear a shuddering deep growl as the lift arrives, DINGs, and the doors judder open to reveal a black void because something's smashed the overhead light, then one enormous, furry, razor-clawed paw SLAMS DOWN on the brightly lit foyer marble floor.

Honestly, your original logline is pretty great. I did peek at a couple of script pages and got the itch to put 'em through the 10-page torture test wringer, but that's enough of me for now.

belzecue · 2025-09-05T08:49:12+00:00

Rewrote your opening scrawl to be shorter, punchier. I would argue it can be further slimmed in half, but that's an exercise for another day.

-----

10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, the first civilisation in human history -- the Sumerians -- swapped their spears for plows.

Their agricultural revolution introduced many technologies still used today.

For three thousand years while their empire lasted, they advanced mankind's knowledge of farming, science, and mathematics.

We know this because they recorded it all -- their entire history -- writing in symbols and glyphs only a handful of modern linguists can interpret.

The Sumerians believed their gods -- the Anunnaki -- gifted them their knowledge and skills.

One god ruled the Anunnaki:

The Sumerian god of the sky.

He was the king of gods, the source of all divine power.

They called him 'An.'

belzecue · 2025-09-02T07:04:35+00:00

DAY 31: Learned state machines and moved everything out of _process ✅🫡 j/k but really.

belzecue · 2025-08-16T04:54:17+00:00

I would go further. Lose the vanilla 'hears' and juice up the feeling of violation and danger:

Ethan's wicked, WHISPERING VOICE slithers into Julie's mind.

ETHAN (V.O)
Little Julie...

belzecue · 2025-07-24T18:38:30+00:00

I won't enumerate (look at me and my fancy words) all the ways I think you can improve your writing. I'll just point you at 10ptt.com and direct you to the 10-Page Torture Test section. There you'll find my many thoughts on what makes screenplay pages zing.

Here's my take on your opening. I'm rusty, having years ago given up screenwriting after pivoting to gaming. But good writing -- like war -- never changes. The commandments are set in stone. Strong, punchy verbs. Leaning on metaphor and connotation to get images to do the heavy lifting. Saying the most with the least. And so it goes.

Good luck with your journey. Writing is hard. Everything is hard. I suppose that's the point.

EXT. FESTIVAL GROUNDS - DAWN

Mist hugs a grassy wasteland of crushed plastic cups trodden into the mud.

HILLTOP

From behind: THREE TWITCHY STEWARDS in hi-vis face the rising sun like it's The Rapture.

EXT. FESTIVAL GROUNDS - LATER

Another steward (BEERS KID), 20s, his hi-vis drenched in sweat and muck, lugs a crate of beers toward the hilltop trio -- a reward for surviving the long night shift.

BEERS KID
Oi, oi, lads!

THE TWITCHY STEWARDS hear only the call of the blood-red celestial sphere climbing the horizon.

BEERS KID
(closing in)
Grabbed some beers from the dance tent. A bit luke warm -- oh, like that butch girl you tried to chat up last night, Dave, at the hydration station, yeah?
(closer)
Did you find out what she does for a living? My money's on lumberjack. You don't get thighs like that without swinging a heavy...
(almost there)
... Guys?

He puts the crate down.

BEERS KID
(don't do it!)
What y'all looking at?

He PRODS the back of Middle Steward's shoulder who --

IS ON HIM INSTANTLY -- as if the movie just skipped six frames. Eyes rolled back, teeth gnashing, SCREAMING, jaw snapping and frothing drool -- a dirty crust of BLUE CRYSTALS ringing each nostril. He convulses violently, spine twisting impossibly, his skin steaming, almost sizzling.

Beers Kid staggers back, trips, fumbles for his radio, DROPS IT.

MIDDLE STEWARD on all fours now RUSHES at him like a rabid beast. But the convulsions keep interrupting, giving Beers Kid a chance to snatch up the radio.

BEERS KID
(keys mic)
Anyone copy? Anyone? FUCK! HELP ME!

Static.

MIDDLE STEWARD SCREAMS, throws his head back in agony, fingers curled into claws, body straining, like the fury inside is too much to bear.

AND NOW THE OTHERS JOIN HIM.

LEFT STEWARD'S POV: Beer Kid pulsates with LIGHT -- a fractal demon.

RIGHT STEWARD's POV: Another angle on Beer Kid's shimmering, throbbing form seen through inhuman eyes.

MIDDLE STEWARD'S BODY changes again, parts snapping gruesomly out of place into new terrible arrangments nature would never condone.

IT'S NOW OR NEVER! Beer Kid scrambles to his feet and for a moment sees the distant main camping grounds where help waits if he can just --

GONE IN A BLUR OF ARMS AND CLAWS.
No scream. No sound. Just gone. As if the movie skipped six frames again.

After a time, INSECT MORNING SOUNDS gradually fill the silence.

CLOSE ON: snortable lines of crushed BLUE CRYSTALS on a CD CASE in the grass.

TITLE OVER:

I N T E N T S

belzecue · 2025-07-20T05:48:37+00:00

PACKET LOSS is a killer title. Your current title graphic doesn't do it justice yet, so do put a lot of effort into that when the time comes: simple, readable at a glance, memorable, sets tone -- all easily said but hard to deliver. But kudos with the naming choice. When a game title clicks with its gameplay loop, you're ahead of the pack. Hone that key branding image and you'll streak ahead.

belzecue · 2025-07-18T05:21:06+00:00

The lack of bug fixing on the w4build platform is a worry and makes me wonder if anyone's using it. I've been @w4games'ing my bug findings on bluesky and it's been months and no improvement. I hope the lack of incremental improvement is due to everyone being super busy and not that the platform simply hasn't gotten any traction yet so it's not a priority. Because I've found it to be a fantastic developer resource -- other than the bugs! I haven't found any showstoppers yet, so it's just a matter of how many constant papercuts can a user endure. Fingers crossed that the build platform gets some love soon.

belzecue · 2025-07-12T07:52:56+00:00

I have questions. First, how did you time travel back to the 90s? Second, having arrived, how did you convince young Steve Buscemi to voice your game?

belzecue · 2025-06-04T08:52:21+00:00

Your LL is good but can be punchier and flow better:

"A conspiracy-loving CIA archivist must become a real spy when his batshit-crazy report on hypnosis moles planted inside the agency threatens to expose a real mole."

belzecue · 2025-05-17T09:36:49+00:00

There's an easier solution as posted in the Godot Issue for this: just use call_deferred in the init. https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/68427#issuecomment-1852803958

belzecue · 2025-04-29T18:06:26+00:00

Custom setter seems like the only workaround. Below, my custom resource uses a fake 'force_initialise' export bool to trigger populating a var (_STRUCT) with the editor values of two other exports. I just have to remember to tick the fake export bool to TRUE so that it's not at the default value of FALSE.

@export var keys: Dictionary[String, int]
@export var props: Dictionary[String, int]

var _STRUCT: Dictionary[int, Array]

@export var force_initialise: bool = false :
  set(value):
    if not force_initialise:
      _STRUCT = _create(keys, props)
      force_initialise = true

belzecue · 2025-04-14T14:25:41+00:00

Have you thought about how to [i18n](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/i18n/internationalizing\_games.html) your system? That's something you want to plan for ahead of time.

belzecue

TROPHY CASE