godot-2d-movement

Godot 2D Movement (4.x)

Build responsive 2D character controllers with CharacterBody2D and the argument-less move_and_slide(). Targets Godot 4.7.

When to use

• Use when scripting a 2D player/enemy that moves and collides: platformer (gravity + jump) or top-down (free 8-direction), slope walking, or wall/floor detection.
• Use when move_and_slide() "does nothing", the character sinks through floors, or is_on_floor() is always false.

When not to use: dynamic rigid bodies, areas, raycasts, collision layers → godot-physics; tile-based levels → godot-tilemap; full platformer game template → the platformer genre skill; engine-agnostic feel tuning → physics-tuning.

Core workflow

1. Use CharacterBody2D with a CollisionShape2D child. It is script-driven: it does not fall or react to forces on its own.
2. Set the velocity property, then call move_and_slide() (no arguments in 4.x). The method reads velocity, moves the body, slides along surfaces, and updates velocity to reflect what actually happened.
3. Do it in _physics_process(delta) — move_and_slide() uses the physics step's delta internally, so do not multiply velocity by delta yourself.
4. Platformer: add gravity to velocity.y each tick, jump by setting velocity.y negative when is_on_floor().
5. Top-down: build a direction from input and scale by speed; set motion_mode = MOTION_MODE_FLOATING so there is no "floor/wall" distinction.
6. Read results with is_on_floor(), is_on_wall(), get_wall_normal(), and get_slide_collision(i) after the call.

Patterns

1. Platformer controller (gravity, jump, slopes)

extends CharacterBody2D

@export var speed := 200.0
@export var jump_velocity := -400.0
@export var gravity := 1200.0          # pixels/sec^2 (tune to taste)

func _physics_process(delta: float) -> void:
    # Apply gravity while airborne.
    if not is_on_floor():
        velocity.y += gravity * delta

    # Jump only when grounded (Input action set in Project Settings > Input Map).
    if Input.is_action_just_pressed("jump") and is_on_floor():
        velocity.y = jump_velocity

    # Horizontal input: -1, 0, or 1.
    var dir := Input.get_axis("move_left", "move_right")
    if dir != 0.0:
        velocity.x = dir * speed
    else:
        velocity.x = move_toward(velocity.x, 0.0, speed)   # decelerate to a stop

    move_and_slide()   # 4.x: no arguments; uses and updates `velocity`