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Godot Game Engine – Tutorial Series

193 points by generic_user 10y ago

qwertyuiop924 10y ago
I haven't gotten into Godot, but it looks interesting. At the very least, their blog is interesting. And their annual April Fools posts (https://godotengine.org/article/godot-aims-mainstream https://godotengine.org/article/godot-aims-mainstream, https://godotengine.org/article/godot-now-really-free https://godotengine.org/article/godot-now-really-free) are fantastic.
giancarlostoro 10y ago
This engine is very interesting. I had seen it sometime back but seeing it on Steam is what made me really look at it. You can run the editor on Windows, Mac or Linux. The whole thing is BSD Licensed (or MIT) editor, engine and all. It is C++ code and features their own custom scripting language that is somewhat Python-like and influenced no doubt by other scripting languages. Also did I mention it publishes to Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux and even HTML5, and you can also grab the binaries off their side (20 MB ~) or source from GitHub. Neat project. Still havent had the joy of making anything great with it yet. Oh and it does either 2D or 3D.
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
  It's surprisingly complete and polished for an open-source project.
  - giancarlostoro 10y ago
    From what I read they used to use it for private use, so they would have clients and make games for them and they decided to open source it in the end.
    - TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
      Yes, that's probably why it's so good. Blender was also originally proprietary.
    - spacelizard 10y ago
      I remember when they first released it as free software, it's come a long way since then. It's remarkable to see how much traction they've gotten. Bravo!
- tomatsu 10y ago
  > custom scripting language that is somewhat Python-like You'll be able to use C# in 3.x.
  - giancarlostoro 10y ago
    I don't mind the Python-like language, but that is definitely interesting to hear.
- NKCSS 10y ago
  Sounds a lot like Unity, but open.
MrBra 10y ago
Happy to see this is alive and kicking since it became OS. I've never had the occasion to deep dive into it, so I wonder, from 10000 feet how does it differentiates from Unity?
- giancarlostoro 10y ago
  It's MIT Licensed, you could take the project compile it, and put a price tag on it as a tool, and it would be legal. You could make a game that makes you millions of dollars and not owe a penny to the developers. You would be considered many nasty things probably, but legally speaking the MIT License would not forbid you doing that. You could also always contribute back. The restrictions of Unity are not the restrictions of Godot. You can make the millions you want to, you can redo the whole engine / tooling however you see fit. Just keep the original copyright notice and remember you have no warranty any of it works basically.
- generic_user 10y ago
  > how does it differentiates from Unity? you can watch the first video. "A Closer Look at the Godot Game Engine"
- alxmdev 10y ago
  I know a lot of indie game developers that use Unity, and not having access to the source code to understand why something isn't working as expected is a very common complaint. Being able to dive into the code you're building on top of is a super power.
  - qwertyuiop924 10y ago
    Okay, but then the question becomes: why use Godot over UE4?
    - vinterdev 10y ago
      UE4 is massive and overkill for 2D games or low-poly 3D, especially if you intend to release on mobile (which Godot is designed to do well). It really depends on what you are trying to do.
CaptSpify 10y ago
Hey! I'm using that to write a game right now! It's just a hobby game, I doubt I'll do anything other than open-source it, but it's been fun. I don't have any experience with other engines, but this one has been great to learn on. The GDScript isn't too hard to figure out, but their documentation can be a bit lacking at times. It feels really polished for an OS project. I haven't used any other engines so I don't have any experience, but I would still recommend this for a beginner.
- rdavis 10y ago
  I've just started using Godot to create a hobby game too! GDScript is very nice and simple and the guide is quite good but I definitely agree with you that the docs are fairly sparse, especially the API and class reference. I've dabbled with Cocos2d-x in the past and am thoroughly impressed by the polish of Godot and so far have found it more approachable. The demo projects are also very full featured.
kriro 10y ago
It's a cool engine. I hope they will integrate AR capabilities some day (there's an open issue about this on GH). Maybe they could integrate with ARToolkit once v6 is released. Since all I do with game engines is AR my best option so far is Unity (sometimes with ARToolkit, sometimes with Vuforia)...which is good but not great. I'd actually love to switch over to an all open stack. Hopefully the C# support in v3 will be good to lure some Unity devs over :)
I_am_tiberius 10y ago
Oh no. I thought it is a game engine for Golang:-(
pawadu 10y ago
Has anyone used godot on mobile (android, ios)? How complicated is the build performance and how is performance?
FnuGk 10y ago
Why is it that game engines have to whole custom IDE's with their own programming language, text editor and all other kinds of GUI tools. Why can it not just be a library that you call functions from?
- thedaemon 10y ago
  Because that would be a Library, not an Engine.
rijoja 10y ago
This looks cool but when I start it I get an 1024x600 which makes it impossible for me to even browse my filesystem properly.
animal531 10y ago
I looked at all the major engines a while back. Of all the smaller engines (non-Unity/UE4) Godot had the greatest range of tutorials that just worked. However using it I kept running into issues in the editor. Lockups and weird niggly things that eventually put me off using it. I'll have another look when 3.x lands though.

193 points by generic_user 10y ago

I haven't gotten into Godot, but it looks interesting. At the very least, their blog is interesting. And their annual April Fools posts (https://godotengine.org/article/godot-aims-mainstream https://godotengine.org/article/godot-aims-mainstream, https://godotengine.org/article/godot-now-really-free https://godotengine.org/article/godot-now-really-free) are fantastic.

giancarlostoro 10y ago

This engine is very interesting. I had seen it sometime back but seeing it on Steam is what made me really look at it. You can run the editor on Windows, Mac or Linux. The whole thing is BSD Licensed (or MIT) editor, engine and all. It is C++ code and features their own custom scripting language that is somewhat Python-like and influenced no doubt by other scripting languages. Also did I mention it publishes to Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux and even HTML5, and you can also grab the binaries off their side (20 MB ~) or source from GitHub. Neat project. Still havent had the joy of making anything great with it yet. Oh and it does either 2D or 3D.

TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
It's surprisingly complete and polished for an open-source project.
- giancarlostoro 10y ago
  From what I read they used to use it for private use, so they would have clients and make games for them and they decided to open source it in the end.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
    Yes, that's probably why it's so good. Blender was also originally proprietary.
  - spacelizard 10y ago
    I remember when they first released it as free software, it's come a long way since then. It's remarkable to see how much traction they've gotten. Bravo!
tomatsu 10y ago
> custom scripting language that is somewhat Python-like You'll be able to use C# in 3.x.
- giancarlostoro 10y ago
  I don't mind the Python-like language, but that is definitely interesting to hear.
NKCSS 10y ago
Sounds a lot like Unity, but open.

MrBra 10y ago

Happy to see this is alive and kicking since it became OS. I've never had the occasion to deep dive into it, so I wonder, from 10000 feet how does it differentiates from Unity?

giancarlostoro 10y ago
It's MIT Licensed, you could take the project compile it, and put a price tag on it as a tool, and it would be legal. You could make a game that makes you millions of dollars and not owe a penny to the developers. You would be considered many nasty things probably, but legally speaking the MIT License would not forbid you doing that. You could also always contribute back. The restrictions of Unity are not the restrictions of Godot. You can make the millions you want to, you can redo the whole engine / tooling however you see fit. Just keep the original copyright notice and remember you have no warranty any of it works basically.
generic_user 10y ago
> how does it differentiates from Unity? you can watch the first video. "A Closer Look at the Godot Game Engine"
alxmdev 10y ago
I know a lot of indie game developers that use Unity, and not having access to the source code to understand why something isn't working as expected is a very common complaint. Being able to dive into the code you're building on top of is a super power.
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  Okay, but then the question becomes: why use Godot over UE4?
  - vinterdev 10y ago
    UE4 is massive and overkill for 2D games or low-poly 3D, especially if you intend to release on mobile (which Godot is designed to do well). It really depends on what you are trying to do.

CaptSpify 10y ago

Hey! I'm using that to write a game right now! It's just a hobby game, I doubt I'll do anything other than open-source it, but it's been fun. I don't have any experience with other engines, but this one has been great to learn on. The GDScript isn't too hard to figure out, but their documentation can be a bit lacking at times. It feels really polished for an OS project. I haven't used any other engines so I don't have any experience, but I would still recommend this for a beginner.

rdavis 10y ago
I've just started using Godot to create a hobby game too! GDScript is very nice and simple and the guide is quite good but I definitely agree with you that the docs are fairly sparse, especially the API and class reference. I've dabbled with Cocos2d-x in the past and am thoroughly impressed by the polish of Godot and so far have found it more approachable. The demo projects are also very full featured.

kriro 10y ago

It's a cool engine. I hope they will integrate AR capabilities some day (there's an open issue about this on GH). Maybe they could integrate with ARToolkit once v6 is released. Since all I do with game engines is AR my best option so far is Unity (sometimes with ARToolkit, sometimes with Vuforia)...which is good but not great. I'd actually love to switch over to an all open stack. Hopefully the C# support in v3 will be good to lure some Unity devs over :)

I_am_tiberius 10y ago

Oh no. I thought it is a game engine for Golang:-(

pawadu 10y ago

Has anyone used godot on mobile (android, ios)? How complicated is the build performance and how is performance?

FnuGk 10y ago

Why is it that game engines have to whole custom IDE's with their own programming language, text editor and all other kinds of GUI tools. Why can it not just be a library that you call functions from?

thedaemon 10y ago
Because that would be a Library, not an Engine.

rijoja 10y ago

This looks cool but when I start it I get an 1024x600 which makes it impossible for me to even browse my filesystem properly.

animal531 10y ago

I looked at all the major engines a while back. Of all the smaller engines (non-Unity/UE4) Godot had the greatest range of tutorials that just worked. However using it I kept running into issues in the editor. Lockups and weird niggly things that eventually put me off using it. I'll have another look when 3.x lands though.