I am a big fan of the MOAI toolkit, which is similar to Godot in some ways - inasmuch as its a game engine toolkit with a Lua front-end - and with which I have

I am a big fan of the MOAI toolkit, which is similar to Godot in some ways - inasmuch as its a game engine toolkit with a Lua front-end - and with which I have created a number of 'non-game' GUI apps. It was easily one of the nicest projects I've ever done - no web stuff to deal with, only MOAI for the core layer, with Hanappe doing the regular work of providing the GUI controls and abstractions I need - scroller views, buttons, sliders, etc. And since that experience, I really yearn for a similar kind of framework on the better-supported engines out there (MOAI has gotten a bit long in the tooth in the last few years). Its really quite a neat feeling to ship an app that uses highly optimised game code for its lower interface abstractions, with a mid-layer framework on top of it - which then can be packaged and run on any platform: iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, MacOS - and looks the same, functions the same, on every platform. It does take some courage however. You do have to make a great UI experience for the end user - if its half-assed or buggy, the whole thing falls down. But, when it works, it works very well and blows away the whole Web framework. I really don't like doing apps any other way these days ..