Why Use The Godot Game Engine? 

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I have Godot on a portable USB drive. I just plug it into any computer, laptop and am able to code and develop from anywhere without syncing. It's just such a comfortable solution. No internet connection required, no accounts, no annoying updates.

How many people watching this after Unity price change?

I'm here because of the new Unity pricing plan. I was learning Unity, but now I'm switching to Godot.

As a hobbyist, Godot maximizes my time spent developing. GDScript or C# (4.0 vastly improved C#, btw), doesn't matter. When I have half an hour at the end of the day to develop, Godot is up and running in seconds, and I can have three featuers done by the time Unity would have opened my project and reimported my assets after a package update. I say this after ~15 years of working with Unity.

Great video but it left out one major thing that I absolutely love about Godot. The documentation is bundled in with the engine. If you're a weird tech enthusiast, like me, you might like working in weird situations. If you don't have internet and need to figure something out, all the documentation is built in. Everything is built in. You can develop so much with Godot, and all you need is a single file. The engine has a code editor and it includes documentation... it's incredible. I'll never get over the fact that I could make pretty much anything in a pinch as long as I have a usb with godot 3.5+ and godot 4+ on it and a device to run it on. That is all it takes to have a development suite that can create games, mobile apps, websocket servers... I've even built a prototype CDN using Godot as a little fun 1 day project. Heck, I even built a tool that syncs my current Godot scene into Neos using websockets, and I didn't have to use any external tools.

3:00 man this aged like fine wine.

TOTALLY INTERESTED in videos about "Why Not Use"

Unity just sent me to this video.

The Linux support in Godot is fantastic. At least with GDScript there is no friction in getting set up or using multiple versions of Godot. The platform feels very first party.

Welp there's a whole new reason now

this aged well

Aged like fine wine

The thing that sets Godot out above all other engines by far imo is how well it works with both 2D and 3D, meaning it's ideal for the new Octopath-style "HD-2D" style that's catching on in indies

I was recommended this video, for some mysterious reason.

Another reason is what happened last week, with the Runtime install fees from unity xD

I'm a full stack software engineer and I want to make an indie game as a side hustle. You've helped me decide that Godot is the path I will take. Thanks! :)

new reason to use godot.

Unity answered the question for us.

I'm re-learning C/C++ with Godot's source code. I heard a good things about Godot's clean code, modularity, and more. So far so good. No compilation error at all from master branch. Not related to game development but Godot's future is bright as long as contributors keep up with good code quality.

With Unity's hotly controversial Terms of Service update going into effect Jan 1st 2024, and major fees being retroactively applied to previous successful releases under Unity, Godot is looking more attractive than ever now!!

For the first time, RU-vid algorythm is on point lol

I think that it's fair to say that Unity themselves gave us an answer to this question.

The #1 reason to use Godot is the Node system imo. It's just a nice way of thinking about how games work. It's like the Unix philosophy of "everything is a file," but applied to the context of game dev rather than file systems.

i personally would like to hear more on the pros and cons of the 3 big engines.

Finally a good video on the topic. Having had experience with Unreal Engine, Unity, GameMaker Studio and Godot, I can say that Godot is a great place to start in gamedev. I taught gamedev a couple years ago and this question would pop often, so I had to explain over and over about how it all depends on what game you want to make and where you want to go with game development. If you're a hobbyist, Godot is the best place to be.

One thing you left out that is amazing about Godot is source control management. The file structure and the way scenes break down into xml makes it easy to check stuff in and out and of something like git. It also makes it easier to understand changes between code checkin. This is far superior to Unreal and Unity where most everything is stored as compressed binaries and you have no idea to see what was added or changed with the latest pull request.

well this video's about to jump in traffic LOL

another thing to consider is how long it takes to set up a project most of my experience has been in unreal, and while the complexity allows for you to do some crazy things, it all takes time godot can have a working demo in minutes so in settings where I need all the time I can get (i.e. game jams), godot is my engine of choice unless I'm expressly using a feature that unreal has

With the news about Unity that just came out, I am actually considering switching to Godot or UE.

For editor extensibility, you don't even have to write a full-scale plugin to do it. For example, let's say you want to easily adjust an enemy's field of view. You can make a few variables for the FOV angle and distance, add the export annotation, and then those variables will appear in the inspector window. Then, you can then annotate the node's script with the tool annotation and add some code to draw the FOV that runs in the editor, all without writing a separate plugin or even creating a separate script.

I think that videos about negatives of Godot 4 and other topics you mentioned at the end would be cool, can't wait for them 😉

Aged like fine whisky in an oak barrel

I also really like how godot handles UI development. Being able to setup a "style sheet" and just reference and override where needed is so convenient. I prefer that workflow over the widget/prefab workflow of Unreal and Unity. Unity is moving toward the web-markup design model but I think it's overly complicated at the moment.

Who's here because of the Unity news? 😂💀

Loved the features list and comparison. Please do it with other engines, too

Really good and objective video! I personally use Unity because i like to code in C# (yes, Godot "supports" C# but it doesn't feel first class as GD-Script) and the unity asset store. I really like the size and speed the Godot-Editor has, compared to it Unity feels very slow. But i am already too familar with Unity for giving it up. From time to time i "play" a bit with godot and maybe one day i might start some new project with it.

A fair analysis, indeed. Still, at this point, and at my snails pace workflow, I find unity fits my needs by means of support, learnings, and reliability on Mac or WIn11. Unity documentation is immense and there is more than enough help out there to master the important stuff in short. Godot, however, will continue to appeal to the open source community for a long time coming. I play with Godot and work with Unity, if that makes sense.

While Godot is the flagship free game development tool right now and the one with the greatest flexibility, I'd be interested to see how it ranks against modern iterations of other popular free engines such as Unigine, Flax, 03DE, Stride3D, Cocos, Gideros, GDevelop, Lumberyard, Defold, etc. Essentially, unless there are any other big developments set to release soon, I think it's about time for an update on recommendations for beginning developers on which engines to choose for specific use cases and the strengths and especially weaknesses of each one.

Thanks Unity, I am now learning about Godot!

It’s not perfect no, and 4 is it’s share of issues that I’m sure most of us are annoyed with but also have the highest hopes will be resolved, it’s a WONDERFUL engine that does plenty. I fell in love with it on my potato computer sooo much that when I could finally use Unreal on my brand new computer, I’m still using Godot. The nodes and scenes are just so intuitive to me now 😊

This video answered none of my questions, other than that it can build for linux and windows and it uses some sort of node-based scene data structure. How's the documentation? How does it do terrain? How does it do foliage? How does it handle modular assets? How's the physics? Collision performance? What about path finding? How's the animation system? How do states work? How's the sound system? Audio channel performance, effects? File handling? Does it import fbx well, what other formats? What about texture data? What about sound files? What about custom shaders? What about generative models and textures? How do you build a GUI? Are the widgets any good? Is it buggy? Are the builds buggy? How are the debugging tools?

I would also be interested in additional pro and con videos.

Personally, one of the things I was most impressed with while using Godot was the speed of getting prototypes up and running, along with the ability to run the game without having to build a windows/linux/mac/android build. From the editor hit the play button and you are testing on your platform in a second. You can also test the specific Scene that you are working on. On most other game engines you have to wait for much longer compilation times and I'm not sure if/how you can test individual scenes in unity/unreal

I would love to see a follow up where you talk the strengths and weaknesses of Godot, Unity and Unreal

Great Video! Yes please on those follow up Video's.

Great video, I came here knowing nothing about Godot. I would be interested in the vidoes you mentioned about Unreal and Unity like this. Also interested in the weaknesses of these engines.

Good thing you uploaded this 6 months in advance!

Based on the recent developments, the statment at 03:00 didn't age very well. Then again, I'm 100% certain that John Riticello didn't consult with you regarding Unity's latest decision. 😁

Thanks for the content. I would be interested in more of this. So yes, I would like to see a video like this about UE or Unity.

I'm a JS/TS developer professionally and I was working on a hobby game in Unity. But while using C# was nice and felt like the "right way" to do things, I tried Godot and fell in love with GDScript (especially the new incarnation from Godot 4). As you said - it was easy to get started with and the integration with the engine is amazing. It was really trivial to grasp and create functionality in no time.

Godot weight is literaly the reason why I ended up considering Godot. One aftertoon I downloaded Unity and Godot. Godot was downloaded first and ready to go the moment I clicked on it.

I'm a beginner in indie game development. I've purchased some Unity assets, including Adventure Creator and Playmaker, hoping to create games without programming. However, I'm uncertain whether I should start learning Godot given my waning trust in Unity after their policy change. I doubt I'll ever earn more than 200 thousand dollars, but... I feel like I'm losing faith in Unity.

Thank you for this vid, it was really helpful! I think simplicity is its shining feature for me. As much as I like Unreal’s strengths and how “proven” it is, it’s an overstimulating bloated mess to get started in. G4 def came at the right time

How long do you think it's gonna take people to flock to godot and give it a complete makeover after Unity did what they did?

Cuz c# and no installment fees babyyyyy

Would love to see more added to this series 👍

Speaking of UE and Verse, Epic just very recently announced Unreal Editor for Fornite (I reckon it'll be akin to Source 2 Hammer Editor for HL Alyx), which is coming out next week, and includes Verse. So, yeah, it's officially out there, at least in this capacity.

Thank you very much. Please if possible make similar videos about Unreal engine and Unity.

Man, Epic has a great business model when it comes to Unreal Engine. Epic is a games company that also happened to release their engine for others to consume but it's definitely not their largest money maker. Their largest money makers by far are Fortnite and their game store. This also allows Epic to do things like help fund Godot without hurting their business. It's good PR, people see this and are like "Okay, lets release on the Epic game store". They are extremely business savvy in this way.

This video needs to be updated

Just about to start taking lessons on the engine The 4.1 or whatever update looks pretty solid

I love godot, but would like to see videos for the other engines as well

Great video! Cheers

this video is brilliant, alonf with those screen shots of Godot engine ... absolutely convinced me!! over to godot I go!

I know quite well unity and few other engines. I could simply choose for you - use any engine you like which keeps you motivated. If you are a game enthusiast it’s a valid option. If you want to work in the industry, to publish games on different platforms with commercial features such as monetization, metrics so on - just pick unity or unreal.

Can confirm: Godot runs well on a 12-13 year old Lenovo ThinkPad T520 with Windows 10 and just 4GB of RAM. I got it working just a couple of days ago. Had to quite a struggle with the graphics drivers. It took a bit to find out that NVidia still offers updates to the Quadro M4200 graphics chip used in it. The one that comes with Win10 is just too old and Godot fails to load with it. I would recommend sticking to 3.5 atm. 4.0 works in compatibilty mode (Vulcan is not supported by the graphics chip), but since that's not completed yet, it doesn't make much sense to use it right now.

great video!

You can run it on a raspberry pi! Someone compiled the editor for it

well that aged well

Linux + Vulkan + Godot =

When using Unity, I never succeeded to get to writing a shader. I could use the visual shader editor but could never find how to write directly the shader in text. That basically prevented me from adding raymarching clouds in my game. There were too many unity versions, too many renderers, none of the tutorials I found would work. With Godot, you just open the shader editor and you can start playing. Simple.

You are not out of date about Unreal or Unity on Linux, it's a big reason why I use Godot

By far the most unique feature to Godot in this context I think is the eNet scene tree integration. You can with incredible ease create games with serverless multiplayer without having to handle barely any of the weird quirks of network programming. It just works!

just with the first reason, I was sold, when I was running Unity my pc wanted to burst into flames

well theres one more reason now lol

Amazing. Bit have you finished any product with it

the only games i know that were made in godot were all 2d, so i was a little worried I'd have to finagle my way into a 3d game if i wanted. And with Unity self destructing, i was worried that i might have to pay for 2 different engines to try and make the 2d and 3d games i want to make. so thanks for the reassurance that godot can be my replacement of unity!

Funny how the youtube algorythm brings me this video just when every dev is now abandoning Unity due to their new fee per install.

This week would be a good time for an update, eh?

Is UPBGE worth talking about? Its a GPL license instead of MIT, but I'm wondering if it stacks up.

Here is a big one compared to Unity: you can code in the Editor. You do not need to hook up an external VS Code and the bash your head against the wall if it decides to be stupid and suddenly kill your code completion. You just have it, no questions asked

I didn't have any problem with build for Linux and mac on Unity, but if you don't check if your project build good you can have problem even in Windows

so nodes. would they be remnescient of how one controls scenario flow in arma 3 editor?

Run a demo project and look at your htop stats / system resources. Also Godot compiles in seconds. That really surprised me. It's like it only does a cleanup run and copies that to a bundle.

How is it for folks who have never developed a full game? I'm just getting started with unity, and feel like I'm getting the hang of C#. But it's my first exposure to programming. For someone who is a total noob, is it worth switching to Godot now? Or would you recommend finishing some games in unity first and then switching later?

While the code-base isn't bad as other engines (probably), it honestly isn't that easy unless you are used to setting up code-bases. There is a good bit of setup with scons, visual studio stuff, etc. Also, getting used to the boilerplate and how to structure your code takes time in order to be effective. I agree that the source code is nice to extend, but you write it off as being easy (almost make it sound near effortless) when it is not. It is just flexible is the right word. I (for instance) love using C++ for classes across my project and gdscript for everything else just because I am not a big fan of how gdscript does classes (just my personal opinion). Edit: The documentation is also incredibly sparse, and the stuff you do find will probably be out of date (which is hard to verify before you find out nothing is working). Expect to set aside a week for development if you are not comfortable with setting up specialized C++ code bases. Learning Godot's source code feels like you just got a new job tbh

I started making a rust extension for the core loop in my game, and Godot-Rust is really well done. I've also written a C++ extension which felt more kludgy because Rust's macro system is incredible even though the engine's written in C++! Unfortunately, godot-rust is not finished, especially for Godot 4. It's way better than it was a year ago when Godot 4 was in beta. Hopefully they'll add iOS and Android support by the time the game's done.

tbh i wanted to use Godot because "you own what you make" but i dont like the mainly supported language GScript or what ever you call idk and it doesnt have an ECS or similar system built-in so i have been looking into Bevy game engine, it seems cool but just waiting for better alternatives, using unity atm this might change later

1:50 though I'd love to see an UNREALER Engine.

Newbie here, if i first use godot will it be hard to switch to unity? Since my college using unity as an engine. But i always want to try Godot xD

Godot made me learn why python can run same functions across systems of windows and Linux because I'd say any other language to language per system swap functions across win and Linux and Mac, and yes I have 2 Godot's apks on my device with a game .... Terminal. Terminal. So I can create subshells and now I can give players terminal commands. I can go into something deep.

Thanks for your enlightning video, I'm completely sold! I liked & subscribed in one video. Good job!

Question: Is 3D game development in Godot4 a viable option now compared to Godot3? I have heard 3D development wasn't fully feature complete in Godot3 or to say it differently: Godot3 was (what I have heard) not yet well suited for simple, easy and hassle-free 3D development. - Has Godot4 improved in a way so now a game dev novice / beginner can develop 3D games with Godot4 without much hassle or headache? - How would 3D development compare between Godot4 and Unity? - What are features for 3D development which are currently still not available / lacking in Godot4 compared to Unity? Or are the 3D features in Godot4 now "good enough"? Thanks for any constructive answers. Please no flame war or fan club ideology (for either engine). I just want simple, honest answers. Thank you.

Can you show how to install open moonray Is possible to install in windows

@8:30 This is why I'm using Godot! Started my 2D pet project using Unreal 4 but just ran into too many issues, mainly because I'm an inexperienced programmer (hobbyist) of course, but I have not encountered any of the Unreal issues in Godot so far, touch wood.

"There is never going to be a price tag on the unity engine, if there is, it's because you're making bank." Ahead of it's time lmao

i have an odd question, anyone know what would be the best to make a program? ive been wanting to make a TTRPG DM assistant sort of thing and not sure where to start.

Im here because of "Unity Fee Armageddon". We have mobile game with 100 mln downloads. We are discussing the idea of rewriting the game with different game engine, the game is actually 2.5D puzzle so it could be done 1 month of all game logic (except the support of ads, analytics and other back-end bullshit) Godot could be good choice for us, because of it's support of C#, so migration could me quite fast, as a lot of source code could be reused but... Godot 4.0 does not support C# for iOS. Godot just dont seems to be ready to replace Unity as mobile first engine. And this is sad. Godot is the most similiar engine to Unity (and Unreal) so of cource it COULD replace Unity for mobile, but it would definitely take time for engine to has that production quality. As far as I understand, the big problem might be the performance of the games. Benchmark does not show any advantage of Godot over Unity, its even a bit slower. Please if im wrong tell me!!! So no advantages as far as I understand. P.S. In our case we are looking as Defold to be alternative, as it is much faster then Unity and we would be able to produce web HTML5 version also. Godot like Unity lacks of WebGL support.

And...it a weird question to ask, but...is it very, very beginner friednly where tt explains enough for someone liek say me, who want to make 3d or even 2d games. I won't feel lost with the menus and such? And when you say open source- which I know you mean coding and such. But that means I can also import existing things or posisble creation I already made? Or is it possible to make characters and whatnot within the Godot engine? Or I still need to sue something like Blender and such for 3d character making and landscapes and whatnot? If that make sense of course lol.