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How timely! I've just started looking into game development and more specifically Godot today. I'm not exactly sure how I should proceed if my intention is to m

How timely! I've just started looking into game development and more specifically Godot today. I'm not exactly sure how I should proceed if my intention is to make something like Flappy bird for both Android and iOS - Would Godot be overkill? Should I try to make it with Flutter or React Native (or would those two be even more overkill)? What size would be too big for it?

jfkebwjsbx 6y ago
Almost anything will work to make something as simple as the bird games, so don't worry too much. Even moving HTML elements with CSS animations triggered by Lua compiled to JS would probably work fast enough... PS: don't do that, don't create a monster!
- anonymoushn 6y ago
  You can trigger the CSS animations from a Lua interpreter written in JavaScript :) https://fengari.io/ https://fengari.io/
- notagamedev 6y ago
  I am crossing my fingers for a nice, cuddly monster! And thanks!
jkirkwood 6y ago
Check out Corona (https://coronalabs.com/ https://coronalabs.com/). It’s a pretty straightforward 2d engine with support for many platforms. Games are written in lua which isn’t hard to learn if you’re already familiar with JS.
- reificator 6y ago
  This is not the right time to give someone Corona. I'm not saying they should change their name, but maybe lay low for awhile.
- rhblake 6y ago
  Corona Labs is shutting down in a couple of weeks. While they're releasing everything under a permissive license (MIT) and turning it into an open source project, the future is very uncertain.
  - rstupek 6y ago
    the lead developer of the engine is continuing and has support on github to continue the development.
- notagamedev 6y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion!
hutzlibu 6y ago
If you just started game developement, and your intended game is simple, I would just use plain javascript, html elements for UI, audio and canvas and consider everything else overkill. ChromeDevTools are a very powerful IDE nowdays, but simple enough, that you can just use the debugger, without setting anything up. Very simple, but so you learn the basic concepts, without getting side tracked in millions and millions of different libaries and tools. And if you do things right, your game will then run anywhere, where a modern browser works.
- TuringTest 6y ago
  There's value in using the right tools for the job. Making games with plain javascript is HARD, there is too much complexity as the environment is simply designed for a different use case. There's much to learn in game development on itself, so using a dedicated library that will make the simple tasks easy is always a good idea.
  - hutzlibu 6y ago
    To say to not using any game engine was maybe exaggerating, but I believe it is important to understand the basic concepts. And when the goal is, to make a flappy bird like game, the canvas and some scripting would be a good start, I believe, if there is zero experience. On the other hand, I also started with Adobes Flash. You could draw and animate and script right away ... and get awesome results right away .. without having to google html audio element.
muststopmyths 6y ago
last I looked at it a few years ago, Cocos2D was a pretty good balance between powerful and newbie-friendly. The tutorial started from the basics of what makes a game program and built up from there. Quite a nice engine for 2D stuff.
- yboris 6y ago
  For cross-platfrom 2D (not mobile, but Windows, Mac, Linux) I recommend looking at Love2D https://love2d.org/ https://love2d.org/ Easy to use, good documentation, simple API, based off Lua. I suspect it's meant for smaller projects.
  - ASVVVAD 6y ago
    Actually, Love2D is for used mobile as well. Both android and iOS is supported and there are community ports for other platforms
- notagamedev 6y ago
  Thanks!
0xdeadbeefbabe 6y ago
Your output artifact will be larger with godot than with gideros. I really like the node scene system in godot though. I'd flip a coin (especially if you are new to programming :)).
- notagamedev 6y ago
  Thanks!
triptych 6y ago
Something like Flappy Bird is easily done in Godot and can help you learn the engine. I for one really like Godot and look forward to using it for many of my game projects. You'll really like the node system once you get into it. Look on YouTube for tutorials, there's quite a few.
- notagamedev 6y ago
  Thanks!

jfkebwjsbx 6y ago

Almost anything will work to make something as simple as the bird games, so don't worry too much. Even moving HTML elements with CSS animations triggered by Lua compiled to JS would probably work fast enough... PS: don't do that, don't create a monster!

anonymoushn 6y ago
You can trigger the CSS animations from a Lua interpreter written in JavaScript :) https://fengari.io/ https://fengari.io/
notagamedev 6y ago
I am crossing my fingers for a nice, cuddly monster! And thanks!

jkirkwood 6y ago

Check out Corona (https://coronalabs.com/ https://coronalabs.com/). It’s a pretty straightforward 2d engine with support for many platforms. Games are written in lua which isn’t hard to learn if you’re already familiar with JS.

reificator 6y ago
This is not the right time to give someone Corona. I'm not saying they should change their name, but maybe lay low for awhile.
rhblake 6y ago
Corona Labs is shutting down in a couple of weeks. While they're releasing everything under a permissive license (MIT) and turning it into an open source project, the future is very uncertain.
- rstupek 6y ago
  the lead developer of the engine is continuing and has support on github to continue the development.
notagamedev 6y ago
Thanks for the suggestion!

hutzlibu 6y ago

If you just started game developement, and your intended game is simple, I would just use plain javascript, html elements for UI, audio and canvas and consider everything else overkill. ChromeDevTools are a very powerful IDE nowdays, but simple enough, that you can just use the debugger, without setting anything up. Very simple, but so you learn the basic concepts, without getting side tracked in millions and millions of different libaries and tools. And if you do things right, your game will then run anywhere, where a modern browser works.

TuringTest 6y ago
There's value in using the right tools for the job. Making games with plain javascript is HARD, there is too much complexity as the environment is simply designed for a different use case. There's much to learn in game development on itself, so using a dedicated library that will make the simple tasks easy is always a good idea.
- hutzlibu 6y ago
  To say to not using any game engine was maybe exaggerating, but I believe it is important to understand the basic concepts. And when the goal is, to make a flappy bird like game, the canvas and some scripting would be a good start, I believe, if there is zero experience. On the other hand, I also started with Adobes Flash. You could draw and animate and script right away ... and get awesome results right away .. without having to google html audio element.

muststopmyths 6y ago

last I looked at it a few years ago, Cocos2D was a pretty good balance between powerful and newbie-friendly. The tutorial started from the basics of what makes a game program and built up from there. Quite a nice engine for 2D stuff.

yboris 6y ago
For cross-platfrom 2D (not mobile, but Windows, Mac, Linux) I recommend looking at Love2D https://love2d.org/ https://love2d.org/ Easy to use, good documentation, simple API, based off Lua. I suspect it's meant for smaller projects.
- ASVVVAD 6y ago
  Actually, Love2D is for used mobile as well. Both android and iOS is supported and there are community ports for other platforms
notagamedev 6y ago
Thanks!

0xdeadbeefbabe 6y ago

Your output artifact will be larger with godot than with gideros. I really like the node scene system in godot though. I'd flip a coin (especially if you are new to programming :)).

notagamedev 6y ago
Thanks!

triptych 6y ago

Something like Flappy Bird is easily done in Godot and can help you learn the engine. I for one really like Godot and look forward to using it for many of my game projects. You'll really like the node system once you get into it. Look on YouTube for tutorials, there's quite a few.

notagamedev 6y ago
Thanks!