Why I Chose Godot (and why I almost quit)

After using Godot to create my first commercial video game, I wanted to reflect back on the best and worst things about the engine.

Wild's Edge is an indie game I've been developing over the past 4 years. Go check it out on Steam!

[andyschannel]

Congrats on getting a game released, 4 years is quite a commitment. Looks pretty good too.

[unrighteous]

Honestly, bugs are the most frustrating part of using any piece of software. I've been using Unity for years and it's certainly had more than its fair share of bugs. One of the worst bugs I've ever seen was a package that got shipped with actual errors in its code; if they had just tested it for one second, they'd have realized it was broken. Unity also takes months to answer bug reports and then months more to actually fix anything.

[Dogman_]

Man my first thought was "Wow he started on Godot 2?"

And then I remembered four years ago was fucking _2019_

[eldereth]

I started using Godot a couple months ago. I'm a game development teacher and I always worked with Unity. What I like about Godot, besides what easy it is to work with, is that you have one official version of every tool (with the option to find alternatives in the Asset Library). In Unity you have 3 versions of the same tool or system, 2 of them are deprecated and the remaining 1 feels like a constant work in progress, so you end up having to rely on an asset from the Asset Store which will be useful as long as the person that sells it decides to keep it updated.

[naturally_rob]

"There's plenty of complexity to be uncovered in the features and through the code, but you don't have to see it or deal with it until you have a specific need for it."

You have put into words what I have felt with this game engine since I first used it in 2018. This quote is the reason I use Godot for nearly every media project I've done. It's progressed so much and has so much versatility, yet you only discover something as you need it. It was perfect for teenager me back in 2018 to learn.

[fuzzy-]

You can actually recolor Godot from its cheap blue to the professional dark gray or black.
It gives you +10 moral boost

[JuhoSprite]

Finishing up a game you worked on for so long must feel so damn good. Good work man.

[princeedhwardhezmi]

as someone who's been with godot since it's early release 2018, Godot 4 definitely the big upgrade, everything was pretty organized and what back then was impossible was now possible, I've finally able to make a platform game prototype woth my friend as his Final Year project where he'll work on UI/UX design while I'm the code dev,

It was very exiciting

[MrSpicky]

Godot is getting better exponentially. The only thing I could say that is holding it back is allowing more control over the render pipeline. Which I know is being worked on. When I tried Godot 3 it just wasn't hitting how I'd like. But Godot 4 is good enough for me to stick around for the long run.

[NICK....]

I think an "experimental" option like the one blender has would be good for godot. Especially given how new it is.

[kurushimee]

I can agree with you a lot. I've just picked up Godot 4, and recently finished my first project in it, a simple 2D game for a week-long jam (Run For It on itch). I can prototype _really_ fast, getting features ready in absolutely no time with Godot. The workflow is indeed simple and fast, and the scripts end up being simple as well.

But from a different side: I've noticed that if you ever need to do something pretty complex in code, it ends up being a pretty unpolished experience, compared to Unity for example. C# support is still visibly fresh, and GDScript seems to lack some general editing features, in my case when using VSCode for everything (it feels as if external editor support is treated as a second-class citizen).

Nevertheless, I'm going to keep using Godot for my little projects, and maybe I'll do something big with it in the future. I won't leave Unity any time soon, because I want to get a job in game dev, and there aren't much Godot dev positions where I'm from, so I need to keep adding Unity projects to my resume.

[jonathanmaywood]

Trust me, unity is waaaay more frustrating to learn and use. I used unity for 2 years and was ok with the engine. But once I tried godot I’ve never looked back. Watched a few tutorial series and I was hooked. Unity always gave me a headache for the simplest things

[eedoan]

Oh I totally get it, I'm currently developing a small mobile game in Godot and had some issues with the particle system, whenever I used spritesheet in the particles it crashed on my phone, but it was happening only on my phone, I have sended the game to my friends and the problem never happened, I opened an issue in the github and turns out it is a problem with the renderer in low spec android devices. All of it made me think: what if I had a better phone and released the game? A bunch of users would have the problem and I would be clueless. Anyway, I love developing in Godot, and the team working on it has an amazing support, the issue that I opened was responded in the same day and also appear to be already fixed in future releases, but man, you gotta be careful.

[leonardoraele]

Using Godot is a rollercoster of being amazed about how it's so simple to use and powerful in some areas and being frustrated about how it sucks in others.

My pain points right now are:
- The existing solution for IK in Godot 4 is deprecated and has no replacement
- Godot 4 dropped support for C# in web builds
- The GridMap and TileMap features kinda work, but have terrible user experience

[matterhorn]

Been getting into Godot recently myself and it's been very intuitive for the most part!
Quick side note, I think you may want to check your audio balance, as this video was very quiet for me even with fully maxed volume.

[kevinfischer]

I’m going to check out your game! My favorite part about using godot in college was contributing bug fixes; it’s so satisfying to fix issues!

[brahillms]

Pretty cool how you’ve stuck with the engine over the past few years, I’m frequently impressed in its throughput and quality updates. Sometimes it feels like it updates *too* quickly, but it’s great all the same.

[XxXAllukardXxX]

Godot is really awesome engine which is sticking to me, I was quite experienced in Construct2/3, tried Unity and Unreal, but GODOT just looks most friendly and promising. Rate at which it grows and polishes only rising. I imagine GODOT in few years will stand against the big two. I only hope they will deal somehow with consoles support, but trust me, when GODOT will become one of industry standarts, Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft will slack on requierments.

[roastinpeace]

Started working on Unreal and it has even more bugs than Godot lol. One would say that Unreal would be more polished but nope.

[sunofabeach]

it is not "constantly" being developed, it is "forever" being developed. kinda ironic, considering where the name of this engine came from