Thread by @Xrayez

@godotengine: A Definitive Guide on How to Become an Excellent #GodotEngine Developer

The first thing that you'd need to do is to learn @godotengine, of course. Take some time to learn GDScript, create prototypes, funny projects, and generally experiment with the engine. It should only take you like 2-4 weeks to master the basics of game development with Godot.

Join Godot community channels. I recommend joining Godot's Discord server first. Introduce yourself there. You'll quickly get bombarded with love from Godot moderators and other users there. Tell them that you're new to Godot and say that it's awesome!

Post your progress at showcase channels. This way, you're going to let the community know that you're seriously interested in using Godot for your projects.

Start helping people to solve their programming or design tasks with Godot and recommend Godot to others. It's important to get noticed by Godot developers at this point.

Go to "Godot Contributors Chat" and join "new-contributors" channel. This channel is designed specifically to invite new contributors to let them work on the engine's codebase, and not only.

Again, say out loud that "Godot is awesome!" and ask what you can do in order to help Godot. You'll likely get a response from Godot's project manager, @Akien, and he will give you further instructions on how to proceed. Be polite: say "Thanks!" and do exactly what he says.

Fortunately, Godot has enough bugs to be fixed. So at this point, it's a good time to join Godot's GitHub community. Create pull requests that aim to fix bugs, or write documentation even if you don't really know how a feature works. Triage bug reports to get privileges quicker.

Always use "Godot Improvement Proposals" for new features in Godot. But do not create proposals for something you want yourself, you don't want to look selfish. Look for what users want instead, and propose to implement existing proposals to satisfy user requests.

But please, for the love of Godot, do not propose to change Godot's icon, they hate this:

github.com/godotengine/go…

Your success at this point is not necessarily determined by your level of programming expertise. You can either become an "advisor" or "core developer". It's crucially important not to show any signs of so-called "troublemaking attitude" when you speak to Godot developers.

Do not speak like an "asshole" there. Godot does not tolerate any kind of criticism. Always say that Godot is the engine you've been waiting for, and that commercial engines suck because they want people to pay royalties or subscription fee. Capitalism is boo. Donate via Patreon.

Do not even think to talk negatively about Godot, anywhere, under any circumstance, period. Even if you think that you have something constructive to say, in most likelihood you'll regret it. Even if you think that it was a joke.

Even if you say something that you think is constructive, Godot core developers may interpret this kind of criticism as "insinuations". Therefore, I advice against speaking out in Godot unless it's for the benefit of promoting Godot.

Always show that you share Godot's vision and development philosophy, even if you have no clue what exactly that vision or philosophy represent in Godot. Due to this, you have to get inspired by what leaders of Godot say, specifically @reduzio, and repeat after them.

Do not miss a single opportunity to say nice things about @reduzio or the work that he does in Godot. He really enjoys flattery. Whenever @reduzio makes a new feature in Godot, say: "Nice!", and don't forget to give out a lot of positive emojis, such as: 👍 🎉 ❤ 👀

Oh, I almost forgot: do not miss @reduzio birthdays! Call him "Alpaca"! Very important!

github.com/godotengine/go…

Say that you sympathize @Akien for spending so much time merging PRs all day long, and call him "Akimerge"!

As I said, being a professional programmer is not necessary in Godot. Just be extremely welcoming to newcomers, spend 8 hours a day helping others. At some point you'll either receive moderator or maintainer privileges in Godot for all the hard work!

If you somehow mess up, you may receive angry private messages, either from @reduzio or @Akien. If this happens, say that you're really sorry and promise not to say or do anything wrong in the future. They will show you Godot's Code of Conduct and you should say: "Yes!"

If you have money to spend, you should consider donating to Godot via Patreon. You'll get power to vote on what's the next proposal to implement out of all existing proposals at "Godot Improvement Proposals" created by mere mortals. Regular 👍 on GitHub do not determine anything.

And of course, if you pay lots of money, they can even forgive your "troublemaking attitude". Just look at @YuriSizov (aka pycbouh, aka "РусВоиН", aka "Русский ВоиН", aka "Russian Warrior") and you'll get what I mean.

Speaking of @YuriSizov, I advise to avoid talking to him at all cost. He's a Russian maintainer in Godot, and he's very stubborn, oftentimes goes on lengthy rants to prove you wrong, or saying that you shouldn't "spread misinformation" even if you repeat after the leaders.

I repeat: even if you notice some core developers talking non-sense, you should not say that they are mistaken. If you really think that you should point them this out, I'd suggest taking these matters on private channels at least. Whenever possible, I recommend to ignore them.

Given that you follow everything written above, eventually you should become a maintainer of Godot's codebase and/or moderator of Godot communities. Generally speaking, you must be able not only maintain the codebase, but also the behavior of people in Godot community.

For instance, if you're a moderator of Godot's Discord, you should ban at least someone. Don't worry, these are not people, these are just usernames. You'll get an opportunity to ban every year. If you notice some nickname saying: "I don't like veganism", ban them!

If you know that there exist former members of Godot that got permanently banned from the project, use their story against them and make scapegoats out of them. Call them biased, one-sided, tell them that they need professional help even if you're not a mental health expert.

At the same time, act politely and extremely welcoming to newcomers. Get preoccupied with bringing new contributors to Godot, write marketing blog posts asking to support Godot. Keep telling that Godot is unique and innovative. Demonize outsiders, especially capitalists.

In short, you should do everything @reduzio and @Akien do, and attempt to replicate their behavior. This is the only definite way to become an official Godot developer. The rule of thumb is simple: never question the decisions, always comply, block any criticism towards Godot.

But if you have conscience, you may start to feel sick. This symptom may be a byproduct of condition called "Godotitis", a case of Godot addiction:

github.com/godotengine/go…

If this happens, then you have two choices:

1. Do what @reduzio does, and keep waiting for Godot.
2. Do what @Xrayez does, and #CancelGodotEngine!

Thank you!