How I handle quests in godot

For a long time, I’ve been maintaining a quest addon for Godot 4, QuestSystem, which I initially intended as a simple system for my projects.

But how do i use it?

How to get started with QuestSystem

Before anything else, how do I install the addon in my projects?

Thankfully, it’s as easy as opening Godot and searching it on the asset store!

First step	Second step ⠀

Then you’re ready to start working with QuestSystem!

How I design the quests’ code

Being QuestSystem a generalized system, it may be hard for newcomers to understand how to work with it, and they may prefer more user-friendly addons, like Questify (which provides a Graph Node based approach).

QuestSystem is intended to be easy, but requires at least some coding knowledge.

While I prefer a code-based approach, it’s not scalable to some extent, and does not play well with Godot’s composition over inheritance philosophy.

That’s why I designed my quest script to be just one file that handles all quest resources.

Breakdown of the BaseQuestResource class

Here’s a breakdown of the symbols in the BaseQuestResource class

# base_quest_resource.gd
extends Quest
class_name BaseQuestResource

@export var steps: Array[QuestStep]

# Quest specific methods

func start(...):
    ...

func complete(...):
    ...

func get_quest_step(idx: int) -> QuestStep:
    ...

func complete_step(idx: int) -> Error:
    ...

func get_first_uncompleted_step() -> QuestStep:
    ...


# Serialize and deserialize

func serialize() -> Dictionary:
    ...

func deserialize(data: Dictionary) -> void:
    ...

As you might have noticed, there’s a QuestStep class that has appeared.
That’s exactly how I handle quests in my project: each quest has a collection of steps that need to be completed before the quest itself can be considered complete.

Here’s the code for QuestStep

Why make a QuestStep class?

QuestStep is a custom Resource that has to be extended to make more specific logic, and still allow for a composition approach.

Making this new resource allows us to define a generalized step that can be reused for many different quests, and edit its properties directly in Godot’s Inspector.

Here’s the example quest in the advanced-quest-system-example repo:

The inspector	The quest step inspector

The power of a modular quest system

QuestSystem not only allows you to create custom quests, but also enables you to extend the manager (autoload) itself.

This is incredibly useful for iterating (or adapt) the quest system across different projects with different needs without needing to modify the addon itself.

To achieve this, you can create a new script that extends QuestSystemManagerAPI, implement new methods (or override existing ones), and update the autoload path in the project settings.

Integrating with other addons

In my projects, I often integrate QuestSystem with Pandora, a fantastic addon to define RPG data and more.

Furthermore, QuestSystem has been used with many other plugins, such as DialogueManager by Nathan Hoad, Dialogic by Emilio, and has been used as template for Cogito’s QuestSystem.

Useful Resources & projects using the addon

Projects & Resources

• QuestSystem documentation
• QuestSystem
• Advanced Quest System Example
• Cogito

Videos using QuestSystem

• Trobugno: [“What’s new? Quests and more

  Arkaruh’s Tale Devlog 2”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFB74hBJawA)

• LandonDevelops: [“Creating a quest system for my indie RPG game

  Godot devlog”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6X2Ex6m0vk)

Actually designing the quests

To design the actual content of the quests, I use PuzzleDependencies charts, which allow me to divide the quest flow into different logical steps.

Here’s a simple chart representing the “Help Nathan” quest in the Advanced Quest System Example project:

Doing this, it’s easy to see how the steps should be implemented and ordered.

Then I hop into Godot’s editor and make a new quest resource and fill in all necessary data (Quest name, description, etc).

I reuse the quest steps scripts (or make new ones if needed) and, again, fill the fields with the appropriate data (Name of the step, description, and specific data such as an Item to deliver or an NPC to interact with).

Conclusions

This is just a small example of how I handle quests in my projects, but the addon is very flexible and can be used for many different purposes.