Logs/2025-11 on Himalaya's Dev Journal

November 26, 2025 — [Game] AI pathfinding and Godot signals

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Notes

Godot Signals

Signals are Godot’s implementation of the observer pattern
Use signal signal_name(param1, param2) to declare
Emit with emit_signal("signal_name", arg1, arg2)
Connect with object.connect("signal_name", self, "_on_signal_received")
Super useful for decoupling game systems (e.g., player health changes triggering UI updates)

AI Pathfinding

Started implementing AI for enemy AI
Key insight: the heuristic function matters a lot for performance
Using Manhattan distance for grid-based movement (no diagonals)
Need to cache paths and only recalculate when player moves significantly
Found a great visualization tool: pathfinding.js

Go Interfaces

Interfaces in Go are implicit - no need to declare implementation
Any type that implements all methods automatically satisfies the interface
Keep interfaces small (often just 1-2 methods)
“Accept interfaces, return structs” is a common pattern
The empty interface interface{} accepts any type (like any in newer Go versions)

Random

Discovered itch.io’s devlog feature - might cross-post there
Need to set up a better note-taking workflow (currently using Obsidian + manual conversion)
Read an interesting article about roguelike design patterns

Tomorrow

Implement basic AI pathfinding for enemies
Refactor player movement to use signals
Write up a proper blog post about system design