5 ms·

I remember when Unity first appeared and what it felt like to read its materials, its pitch. It was like... whoa, this might actually be something. This feels

by bentt 1y ago

I remember when Unity first appeared and what it felt like to read its materials, its pitch. It was like... whoa, this might actually be something. This feels similar. Sometimes you can just tell by the communications and the spirit of the language that the team has the goods. The fact that they have such comprehensive multiplatform export right now is big. One of Godot's biggest hurdles has been console support. My ONLY beef, from what I saw, was that it was Lua only. If it was C# I would have been more excited. But at least it's not a full C++ recompile like SOME engines. :)

tapoxi 1y ago
Godot does support consoles, they just choose to move that to third parties. There's community Switch support if you're a registered Switch developer, and W4 Games licenses export plugins. One of the reasons for this is because console plugins can't be developed in the open like the rest of the engine, because the console SDKs are behind NDAs. It's a pretty ridiculous holdover from when consoles were more specialized.
- saejox 1y ago
  i wish people would stop mentioning W4 Games as a porting option. their lowest revenue tier costs $2000 a year. most indie games sell a few hundred copies.
  - tapoxi 1y ago
    Most indie games sell on Steam/Steam Deck first and port to consoles later, usually after being picked up by an indie publisher. The $2000 is also to port to all three console platforms, it's $800 per. This makes it feasible to say, only target PlayStation with W4 and use the community Switch port.
  - japhib 1y ago
    You'd be hard pressed to find console support for much less than that - compare it with Unity or GameMaker's console support tier and you'll find it's pretty similar. It can take hundreds of dev-hours to port your engine to consoles yourself, so having another company handle it for you, for all 3 consoles, for only $2000 is a pretty good deal!
- bentt 1y ago
  Yeah I really like Godot and you're right, the third parties are working hard on that front. It's been a trial for them though. I guess the roots with King have made things easier for Defold?
- neonsunset 1y ago
  That third party is owned by Godot's leadership and management. Your Godot contributions go towards their pockets.
  - maheart 1y ago
    Here's a list of other 3rd party porters: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/platform/consoles.html#third-party-support https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/platform/co... Stop spreading FUD. It's FOSS. It's like saying contributing to systemd lines the pockets of Red Hat.
    - neonsunset 1y ago
      The situation with systemd cannot be compared to special circumstances of Godot and shady practices of its management. It's an essentially open core but privately owned product. I guess this is a better arrangement than Unity but it is not a true FOSS engine in the sense of the word.
      - maheart 1y ago
        How do you expect W4 games (or any other porter) to release FOSS exporters to proprietary consoles, when they rely on SDKs that are covered by an NDA?
xandrius 1y ago
Exactly, read Lua and got out instantly. Games are complicated beasts, something along the lines of C# help massively the development and the avoidance of bugs. Python, <X>Script and Lua are not languages I'd wish to switch to from the coziness of C#. I'd consider Go or Java (although not as hip as it used to be).
- japhib 1y ago
  If you just want static typing, you can write Typescript and compile to Lua: https://typescripttolua.github.io/ https://typescripttolua.github.io/
  - anentropic 1y ago
    The Defold site recommends: > Optional typed Lua using Teal. https://defold.com/product/ https://defold.com/product/ https://defold.com/assets/teal/ https://defold.com/assets/teal/ https://github.com/teal-language/tl https://github.com/teal-language/tl
  - britzl 1y ago
    Also https://ts-defold.dev/ https://ts-defold.dev/
japhib 1y ago
They recently added C# support: https://forum.defold.com/t/defold-c-support/79479 https://forum.defold.com/t/defold-c-support/79479
- britzl 1y ago
  C# support is still experimental and under development, but it is at least ready for testing for those that are curious. Note that it is C# with Native AOT so it's compilation and linking involved, not "scripting and hotreload".

by bentt 1y ago

tapoxi 1y ago

Godot does support consoles, they just choose to move that to third parties. There's community Switch support if you're a registered Switch developer, and W4 Games licenses export plugins. One of the reasons for this is because console plugins can't be developed in the open like the rest of the engine, because the console SDKs are behind NDAs. It's a pretty ridiculous holdover from when consoles were more specialized.

saejox 1y ago
i wish people would stop mentioning W4 Games as a porting option. their lowest revenue tier costs $2000 a year. most indie games sell a few hundred copies.
- tapoxi 1y ago
  Most indie games sell on Steam/Steam Deck first and port to consoles later, usually after being picked up by an indie publisher. The $2000 is also to port to all three console platforms, it's $800 per. This makes it feasible to say, only target PlayStation with W4 and use the community Switch port.
- japhib 1y ago
  You'd be hard pressed to find console support for much less than that - compare it with Unity or GameMaker's console support tier and you'll find it's pretty similar. It can take hundreds of dev-hours to port your engine to consoles yourself, so having another company handle it for you, for all 3 consoles, for only $2000 is a pretty good deal!
bentt 1y ago
Yeah I really like Godot and you're right, the third parties are working hard on that front. It's been a trial for them though. I guess the roots with King have made things easier for Defold?
neonsunset 1y ago
That third party is owned by Godot's leadership and management. Your Godot contributions go towards their pockets.
- maheart 1y ago
  Here's a list of other 3rd party porters: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/platform/consoles.html#third-party-support https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/platform/co... Stop spreading FUD. It's FOSS. It's like saying contributing to systemd lines the pockets of Red Hat.
  - neonsunset 1y ago
    The situation with systemd cannot be compared to special circumstances of Godot and shady practices of its management. It's an essentially open core but privately owned product. I guess this is a better arrangement than Unity but it is not a true FOSS engine in the sense of the word.
    - maheart 1y ago
      How do you expect W4 games (or any other porter) to release FOSS exporters to proprietary consoles, when they rely on SDKs that are covered by an NDA?

xandrius 1y ago

Exactly, read Lua and got out instantly. Games are complicated beasts, something along the lines of C# help massively the development and the avoidance of bugs. Python, <X>Script and Lua are not languages I'd wish to switch to from the coziness of C#. I'd consider Go or Java (although not as hip as it used to be).

japhib 1y ago
If you just want static typing, you can write Typescript and compile to Lua: https://typescripttolua.github.io/ https://typescripttolua.github.io/
- anentropic 1y ago
  The Defold site recommends: > Optional typed Lua using Teal. https://defold.com/product/ https://defold.com/product/ https://defold.com/assets/teal/ https://defold.com/assets/teal/ https://github.com/teal-language/tl https://github.com/teal-language/tl
- britzl 1y ago
  Also https://ts-defold.dev/ https://ts-defold.dev/

japhib 1y ago

They recently added C# support: https://forum.defold.com/t/defold-c-support/79479 https://forum.defold.com/t/defold-c-support/79479

britzl 1y ago
C# support is still experimental and under development, but it is at least ready for testing for those that are curious. Note that it is C# with Native AOT so it's compilation and linking involved, not "scripting and hotreload".