game-state

name	game-state
description	Design Godot game/application state with explicit authority, lifecycle, transitions, save/load boundaries, scene synchronization, deterministic updates, and separation between durable state and presentation instances.

Godot Game State

Use when gameplay, simulation, UI, progression, world, or application state must survive or coordinate across scenes and systems.

Procedure

1. Classify state by authority and lifetime: transient scene/UI state, current session/run state, world/gameplay state, player/profile progression, configuration/preferences, and durable save data as relevant.
2. Give each fact one authoritative owner. Scene nodes may display or cache state, but avoid multiple mutable copies that can diverge without an explicit synchronization protocol.
3. Define state transitions/events and invariants before wiring signals. For multi-step modes, prefer explicit states/transitions over many independent booleans that permit impossible combinations.
4. Separate simulation/domain state from visual scene instances where reload, pooling, streaming, or multiple views can occur. Recreating a scene should not accidentally create a new authoritative world fact.
5. Decide which state belongs in scene ownership, Resources/data objects, autoload/application services, or dedicated model objects according to lifetime and project conventions rather than convenience alone.
6. Define initialization and synchronization order when a scene enters: load authoritative state, instantiate views, connect observers, then apply subsequent changes without duplicate initialization.
7. For save/load, version the durable format, validate inputs, define migration/default behavior, avoid serializing ephemeral node references, and test recovery from missing/older/partial data according to product requirements.
8. Handle pause, scene transition, restart/new game, respawn, disconnect/reconnect, rollback/reset, and duplicated event delivery where they affect state authority.
9. Keep state changes observable enough for UI/animation/audio/network systems without letting observers become hidden secondary writers.