Once upon a time it was a matter of picking the right engine for the game you wanted to make, as each engine had it's own strengths and weaknesses. Nowadays it's more important to just pick the engine you're most comfortable with and/or excited by. Good luck and have fun :D !
Godot is popping off rn, lots of exciting new stuff happening. I've been having a go at learning the engine, and it's been a ton of fun, very rewarding to learn this stuff. I've only really dabbled in programming before, so this is one of my biggest attempts to learn how to program, and it's kind of sinking in. I've been watching tons of tutorials and been piecing together a shooter platformer, I'm trying to adhere to a composition structure. Currently I'm trying to figure out layers and masks, because things aren't quite interacting how they should, but it's fun making and being able to play the thing you made.
You're wrong about the limitations of Godot, I am currently making an open-world 3d platformer and Godot is performing excellently. I'm only 6 months in, but I have yet to find anything that Godot can't do. The only downside to Godot is that it is the newest so there is the least information available when you search for errors, but that is counteracted a thousandfold because the community is so friendly and shares the open-source, information-should-be-free, attitude. Try learning anything in Unity and you'll have to hurdle dozens of grifters trying to sell you their educational video courses. Godot is king!
After you’ve spent a bit of time with Godot you may find some other engines a bit easier to wrap your head around. I really like using Unity, but I tried out a few tools (including Godot) first. Definitely good to try a few different options and see what fits you best, but revisit those decisions from time to time. No need to get locked into one approach!
If you are using C# then Stride engine is better for 3d and entirely free. If you are going 2d consider using Lua language with Love2d or Defold engine as other options which are free.
Your analogy was super spot on and that's the same feeling I got the couple times I poked my head in firing up Unity. I was still lost coming into Godot the first time using it blindly because it's unlike anything I've ever used but once I started following along to a couple of 2D tutorials then it was off to the races for me and everything clicked. It's also reassuring that it supports C# because if at any point I start running into a performance hitch with GDScript, then I can go the extra mile and experiment with that approach.
i have working my way into the topic and as far as i know you're even able to use c++ with it or use it in a c++ project which makes it even better in terms of performance but maybe you'll lose the editor then? not sure yet haha.
I have been trying to use Godot, but I have been busy with school so far so I haven't been able to do much. Looking forward to graduating soon so I can have more time for live. I am getting a Computer Science degree too!
I have one year left on my computer science degree. I been using Gadot for the last two weeks. I like it. I am also going to try unity because it's free using my student ID. But I like Gadot a lot so far
I find it personally so hard to comprehend code. Like this vocabulary to me sounds like a foreign language, which it is. im trying to make a 2d-hd game top down but something inside me wants to go with a more node based engine with lots of assets available, such as unreal engine, but that is like a mega factory in how intimidating it is...
Definitely intimidating, but you could always try to make something small (like a pong clone or something) to try to keep it less daunting at first just to get a feel for the tools. Who knows, it might just click with you once you play around with it :)
I use GDevelop and Click Team Fusion, mainly because I don't have the patience to learn coding or memorize it, I tried, so the two engines I chose eliminate the need to learn code, yet still being powerful, though not saying its easy to make a good game on it, no games easy to make.
I really liked your factory analogy. I felt the same way (just with unreal engine). On the other end of the spectrum I also tried bevy, where I have to say I loved the solid concepts and opinionated set of ecs rules that come with it, However you also end up building the workshop yourself, from scratch. In the end I also decided to go with learning godot for now.
Well I like RPGMaker and GDevelop, sometimes even Defold (because it has Lua). As a kid I loved GameMaker by Mark Overmars because it was totally free back then.
I've tried three game engines: Godot, GDevelop, and BuildBox3. Godot had a clear structure, with nodes, scenes, etc. Great for animations, but I always felt like I couldn't focus on the game; I got distracted by scripts, and it took some time to get to know the individual "tools." It was great for creating complex folder structures. Working with nodes and scenes made sense... Then I tried GDevelop. First impression: not for me... But then I discovered how simple it is to create a player, set them in motion, use effects. So full focus on game design. BuildBox3 surprised me with 3D games! Super easy to create, but the ways to publish them are limited. Even there, GDevelop has many advantages. Godot is a great engine, but for me, it's like a big ship with many features. GDevelop seems more like a small, fast boat. The important thing is: Find out which engine suits you and what you want to do. For me, GDevelop slightly edges out Godot. But for larger, complex projects, Godot surely has decisive advantages.
@luciole_games keep it up! I've been. Trying godot on and off for a few months and it's not going well XD but I'm still learning, so respect for you and your soul project. Looks great.
Marching toward going back to school for data analytics / IT. Figured coding would be a good hobby to pick up this summer, or a good skill to start learning. Do you thing game development would be a good *applicable* context for learning to code? Especially with a tool like GODOT that uses coding like you said? Also, without spoilers, what are some of your game ideas that fit in the scope of GODOT? Just curious
I think game development is a great way to get familiar with code, particularly around the essential concepts. It forces you to learn to think logically as you apply concepts like conditional statements, loops, variables and scopes, objects - with the added bonus of visually seeing what is going on when you hit play. Godot isn’t as code heavy as other options so it won’t teach you some of the more advanced topics, but personally, I find that the essentials are a lot more valuable. There are thousands of programming languages, but if you learn the basics and learn to “think like a programmer” (which game dev can definitely do) you can apply them to any language. And I’ve got a mix of small scoped 2D sim games sketched out, like maintaining a coffee shop downtown with a twist, to some 3D puzzle rpgs akin to tunic (again with my own spin on it). Good luck with your studies and if you do start messing around with game dev I hope you enjoy it!
