Top-down movement

Problem

You’re making a 2D top-down game, and you want to control a character’s movement.

Solution

For this solution, we’ll assume you have the following input actions defined:

We will also assume you’re using a CharacterBody2D node.

We can solve this problem in many ways, depending on what type of behavior you’re looking for.

Option 1: 8-way movement

In this scenario, the player uses the four directional keys to move (including diagonals).

extends CharacterBody2D

var speed = 400  # speed in pixels/sec

func _physics_process(delta):
    var direction = Input.get_vector("left", "right", "up", "down")
    velocity = direction * speed

    move_and_slide()

Option 2: Rotate and move

In this scenario, the left/right actions rotate the character and up/down move the character forward and back in whatever direction it’s facing. This is sometimes referred to as “Asteroids-style” movement.

extends CharacterBody2D

var speed = 400  # move speed in pixels/sec
var rotation_speed = 1.5  # turning speed in radians/sec

func _physics_process(delta):
    var move_input = Input.get_axis("down", "up")
    var rotation_direction = Input.get_axis("left", "right")
    velocity = transform.x * move_input * speed
    rotation += rotation_direction * rotation_speed * delta
    move_and_slide()

Option 3: Aim with mouse

Similar to option 2, but this time the character rotation is controlled with the mouse (ie the character always points towards the mouse). Forward/back movement is done with the keys as before.

extends CharacterBody2D

var speed = 400  # move speed in pixels/sec

func _physics_process(delta):
    look_at(get_global_mouse_position())
    var move_input = Input.get_axis("down", "up")
    velocity = transform.x * move_input * speed
    move_and_slide()

Option 4: Click and move

In this option, the character moves to the clicked location.

extends CharacterBody2D

var speed = 400  # move speed in pixels/sec
var target = null

func _input(event):
    if event.is_action_pressed("click"):
        target = get_global_mouse_position()

func _physics_process(delta):
    if target:
        # look_at(target)
        velocity = position.direction_to(target) * speed
        if position.distance_to(target) < 10:
            velocity = Vector2.ZERO
    move_and_slide()

Note that we stop moving if we get close to the target position. If you don’t do this, the character will “jiggle” back and forth as it moves a little bit past the target, moves back, goes a little past it, and so on. Optionally, you can use look_at() to face in the direction of movement.

Download This Project

Download the project code here: https://github.com/godotrecipes/topdown_movement