Linux Godot Automatically Build and Deploy to itch.io

This is a script I wrote to make it ridiculously easy to automatically build for all release platforms using godot --headless and automatically deploy them to itch.io using the itch.io butler utility.

This is useful for deploying initial releases and updating releases for games you have on itch.io.

I created this for my own use and distributed it as others are likely to find it useful. I consider this feature complete so there will not be updates to this unless there are bugs found or changes to the tools the script uses.

You should setup the following in your Godot project before using this script:

Godot Export Presets:

You need to set the Godot Export Presets in Godot which you can do by going to the Project menu and then Export. This will create the export_presets.cfg file which is needed by the godot --headless command for building your project.

The default export preset names used in this script are:

• web
• win64
• linux_x64
• linux_arm64
• mac

You also need the export templates downloaded for your version of Godot.

Godot Project Settings:

You need to set the following values in the Godot Project Settings which you can do by going to the Project menu then Project Settings... then in the General tab go to the Application secction and set the Name and Version values.

Name is the name of your project and will be used for the game executable name. e.g. name.exe, name.app etc.

Version is the version of the build for the game and is used by the butler utility for itch.io keeping track of versions.

User defined values in this script:

I have made it easy for users to use this script in their project by making minimal changes. Most the values are read from the project.godot file.

itch_path="user_name/game_name" for this user_name is your itch.io username and game_name is the game name used in the url. So if the itch.io game url is https://examplegames.itch.io/example-game then the itch_path variable would be set as itch_path="examplegames/example-game".

use_git=false If you want the script to do a git pull before building the project then you change it the value to true.

deploy_to_itch=true If you want to do testing before deploying to itch.io you can change the value to false and the script will build for the platforms defined in the export presets but not upload the builds to itch.io.

Godot Export Preset Names:

As mentioned earlier the default preset names are as follows:

• web="web"
• linux_x64="linux_x64"
• linux_arm64="linux_arm64"
• win64="win64"
• mac="mac"

If you dont' want to build for one or more of these presets then you can comment them out. For example, if you don't want to build for the web then you can comment it out by doing the following #web="web"

Change the values to the presets you set in the Godot Export Settings.

Using Command Line Arguments

Running the script to build and deploy/Running the script to only build or only deploy:

• To run the script with the default options run ./deploy.sh without any arguments.
• To run the script without building the project run ./deploy.sh --no-build or ./deploy.sh -nb
• To run the script without deploying to itch.io run ./deploy.sh --no-deploy or ./deploy.sh -nd

Getting help:

You can display help at the command line by running ./deploy.sh --help or ./deploy.sh -h.

Display deployment information:

You can display information about the build before running the ./deploy.sh script to see what the script will do. You can get this information by running ./deploy.sh --info or ./deploy.sh -i

Example output:

-----------------------
Deployment information:
-----------------------

Do git pull before build: false
Building projects with Godot: true
Deploying to itch.io: true
Project Version: 1.0
Project Filename: game-name (.exe .app etc) (Web build is always index.html)

-------------------------------------
Building for the following platforms:
-------------------------------------

- Web to /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/build/web
- Linux x86_64 to /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/build/linux_x64
- Linux arm64 to /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/build/linux_arm64
- Windows 64 bit to /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/build/win64
- MacOS to /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/build/mac

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The following distribution files will be included in relevant builds:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

- All builds from /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/dist/all
- Web builds only from /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/dist/web
- All Linux builds from /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/dist/linux_all
- Linux x86_64 builds only from /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/dist/linux_x64
- Linux arm64 builds only from /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/dist/linux_arm64
- Windows 64 bit builds only from /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/dist/win64
- MacOS builds only from /home/username/repos/Godot/game-name/dist/mac

Distributing additional files with your release builds:

You can distribute extra files that are not part of the Godot Project from a dist directory. You can distribute files to all platforms and files to specific platforms. You can generate the dist directories by running ./deploy.sh --generate-dist-dirs or ./deploy.sh -g After the directories are generated you can add extra files to the dist directories to be added to builds.

Deleting the build directories:

You can safely delete the build directories and they will be regenerated. You can delete the build directories by running ./deploy.sh --delete-build-dirs or ./deploy.sh -db

Deleting the dist directories:

WARNING: You probably don't want to do this because these are files you put there and are not dynamically created. You can delete the dist directories by running ./deploy.sh --delete-dist-dirs or ./deploy.sh -dd

Troubleshooting:

The executable files are run_game.exe, run_game.app etc. If this is the case then the Name is not set in the Application section in the General tab of the Godot Project Settings.

The version is always 1.0.0 If this is the case then the Version is not set in the Application section in the General tab of the Godot Project Settings.

Butler is not uploading the game files Make sure you have installed butler and have logged into butler at least once, it remembers your credentials. See the buttler documentation below for further details. Also, make sure the itch_path value is correct and that the builds/ directory exists with the game build files.

The web export is a downloadable zip file instead of playable in the browser After your first deployment to itch.io you need to tell itch.io which file is the html playable version. Go to the itch.io Creator Dashboard then click edit on the game. Then set the Kind of project to html then tick the This file will be played in the web browser checkbox and set the settings for the html embedded game.

Other documentation:

• https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/editor/command_line_tutorial.html#exporting
• https://itch.io/docs/butler/