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Hello everyone

I am relatively new to game development and I have very little experience with programming. I'm considering to start using Godot to make games, but I'm not sure if it's the right engine for me. I'm having a hard time finding a successful game that is made in Godot, and this makes me doubt my decision of whether I should be learning Godot or not. By successful I mean a rather unique game that is popular and is selling pretty well on various platforms. Like: Limbo, Angry Birds, Among Us, Minecraft, Stardew Valley.

My current idea for a project is this. I would like to make a 2D game and I want to start relatively simple. The goal is to create a mix of: Point and click adventure, (action?) RPG, survival, puzzle.

I have a few questions about Godot.

1). Which limitations would you say Godot has compared to other engines?

My main worries with Godot are (and these are just thoughts based on ignorance and prejudice): It's not mainstream enough. It's not powerful enough and probably has too many limitations compared to, let's say, Unity. * It's not good enough to make a game that can become popular and give a significant profit

2). Would you say I am wrong about these worries? Please feel free to prove me wrong.

Let's say I create a simple game in Godot and it starts to gain popularity.

3). Would it be hard for me to make this game available on various platforms (compared to say, Unity) like mobile devices, consoles, Steam, GOG, etc.?

4). And also, regarding Godot being open source: If I am aiming for commercial success of a game, will it be harder for me to retain the rights of this game when Godot is open source? Especially in regard to whether someone would be able to "steal" my code and use it for their own game against my own will. Or even steal my game and sell it as their own.

I'm perfectly aware that piracy will always be there no matter what, and in some cases it might even be beneficial. So I guess I could take it as a compliment if someone tries to pirate my game. But still, there are bills to be paid and expenses to be covered. So passion is one thing, ofcourse but unfortunately in this realistic world we're living in one has to think about rules, money, etc.

I know this might seem silly, shooting for the stars when I haven't even created my first game yet. But on the other hand I want to feel prepared and motivated to use Godot. Prepared to face those aforementioned challenges and to eliminate confusions. And not worry about little things.

And I don't want to sound too greedy and capitalistic. I'm aware that the idea of Godot is being free, open-source and available to everyone. But there's just this little voice inside of me that makes me doubt and worry about: What if I do strike gold with an idea of a game, and this game will become more and more popular. Will I regret creating that game in Godot compared to other game engines. But specifically, why would I regret it, in this case.

Thank you for reading my topic.

Welcome to the forums @Aleque!

1). Which limitations would you say Godot has compared to other engines?

I'd say it really depends on what you are trying to do and what type of project(s) you want to create. Godot does have some limitations, generally with 3D performance (though Godot 4.0 is improving this dramatically), but for the most part I haven't ran into anything where I couldn't overcome it through some means.

In my opinion, Godot's biggest limitation currently is that there is the occasional bug in releases in something semi-obscure that goes undetected. This can cause something working to suddenly break in a future release, which can be frustrating at times. That said, other game engines suffer from this too, so its not really Godot specific.

GDScript is also a bit slower than the primary programming languages offered in other game engines, but C# support and GDNative work around this limitation nicely. For the most part though, even GDScript being sower isn't much of an issue in the majority of projects I have worked on.

To answer the concerns you brought up directly:

  • It's not mainstream enough.

Well, this is a bit of a chicken and the egg problem, as Godot cannot become mainstream without users using it, but if they do not use it because it is not mainstream then they cannot become mainstream :smile:

But in all seriousness, you are correct that Godot isn't as popular or recognizable as some of the big name game engines out there. Godot is gaining popularity at a rapid pace though! Additionally, more and more indie studios are using Godot as their game engine of choice, and Godot games are starting to appear more frequently.

  • It's not powerful enough and probably has too many limitations compared to, let's say, Unity.

Depends on what you mean by "powerful enough" and what aspects of Unity you are comparing it to. I used Unity for several years before migrating primarily to Godot, and for the most part anything one can do the other can too, it may just take some additional effort.

One thing I should mention is that Godot does generally require a bit more work to get certain things commonly done in Unity working, but there are other things (like Kinematic characters) that Godot makes way easier than Unity. I find that working with Godot is a bit more low level, but it also allows for greater control and flexibility.

  • It's not good enough to make a game that can become popular and give a significant profit

Godot, Unity, Unreal, etc are all just tools, you theoretically make any game in any of them with enough time, patience, and determination. As for getting popular, its generally seems to be luck based rather than a limitation (or lack thereof) in the game engine the game was made in.

For profit, I cannot say right off, but I imagine it is similar to popularity: the tool probably doesn't influence the sales of the game directly, and therefore doesn't have much of an impact on profit. That said, this is not counting development time/effort. Like any tool though, you want to use the one you think is best for the project in question!

@Aleque said: 2). Would you say I am wrong about these worries? Please feel free to prove me wrong.

A lot of the concerns above really depends on your projects, needs, and experience, and even if it didn't, it doesn't matter what I think! What matters is what you think is the best tool for you.

Let's say I create a simple game in Godot and it starts to gain popularity.

3). Would it be hard for me to make this game available on various platforms (compared to say, Unity) like mobile devices, consoles, Steam, GOG, etc.?

Godot supports exporting to all major desktop operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux) and mobile platforms (Android, iOS) out of the box and with minimal setup.

Releasing on Steam, Epic Game Store, Itch.io, Gamejolt, GOG, etc is totally doable, as Godot supports all major desktop platforms. It should be as easy as exporting the binary from the Godot editor for the platform of your choosing, and then uploading it to the store. For iOS and Android, you need to have a bit more setup so you can build the app. Android requires having the Android SDK stuff, while iOS requires a Mac computer as you need Xcode. After that though, the generated app should be able to be uploaded to the app stores.

Finally, for consoles its a bit different. Because Godot is open source, they cannot officially support consoles due to their closed nature and NDAs. However, many Godot games have been ported to consoles (primary the Switch from what I have seen) through third party providers who have working Godot export templates for console platforms, so its totally doable.

4). And also, regarding Godot being open source: If I am aiming for commercial success of a game, will it be harder for me to retain the rights of this game when Godot is open source? Especially in regard to whether someone would be able to "steal" my code and use it for their own game against my own will. Or even steal my game and sell it as their own.

Godot being open source shouldn't affect your ability to retain the rights to your game, nor do I think it would have an impact on the commercial success of your game.

The concerns about someone stealing your game or game content would be an issue no matter what game engine you choose. Even if you implement something like DRM in an attempt to prevent piracy/hacking, it would likely be cracked (as what happens with AAA games).

Additionally, something to remember is that stealing a game and selling it as your own is illegal anyway, so if this occurs you can pursue legal recourse, like contacting the platform the game is hosted on and asking them to remove it, issuing a takedown request, etc. (Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer though! Please take my advice with a grain of salt and consult legal professionals if you want to know what you can and cannot do with legal stuff like this)

I really wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage anyway, as by the time you get a game closer to release, you will likely have some ideas on what you want to do to tackle the issue of piracy. Additionally, those who would pirate/steal your game are unlikely to buy it anyway (hence why they are stealing), so there is that to consider too, as putting in complicated ways to stop them could be more obtrusive to your non-stealing users than it stops stealing ones. Ultimately though, the issue of piracy would be a problem no matter what game engine you choose, whether its Godot or a big name game engine.

Hopefully this helps answer your questions and concerns!

@TwistedTwigleg said: Hopefully this helps answer your questions and concerns!

This helped me a lot, thank you so much!

a month later

Can someone please make a game with Godot that becomes massively popular, so we can all point to it and say "See! Godot can do it!" Who knows, maybe it will be me someday. =)

Godot is definitely not as mature as Unity or Unreal, but I also don't see why any game idea could not be realized with Godot. In some sense, the default graphics aren't as good as say Unreal, but a lot of this comes down to quality artwork, as well as writing custom shaders, so I think the visuals can look quite good.

What we need is a "killer app" for Godot. Something that proves it can hang with the big guys. I definitely think it is possible, and it doesn't necessarily need to be a AAA-level game. Even something on the level of Flappy Bird, if it became wildly successful, would be enough for people to notice. Also, 3D games don't all need to be AAA, I see things like PSX horror titles that have a niche following and could be easily done in Godot. And this would be possible for a small indie team or even a talented solo dev.

So it is somewhat of a chicken and an egg. Developers looking at Godot may not be impressed with the simpler titles that have been launched, thinking that is all that is possible. But much more is possible, developers just need to take a chance and find out for themselves.

Maybe it will be one of my games (I hope) I just have trouble finishing things.

Curious, does anyone know what happened to Brave Bran? I've seen the video of it, and it looks really professional.

What we need is a "killer app" for Godot.

Perhaps my game-under-development will be that app. :p

@DaveTheCoder said:

What we need is a "killer app" for Godot.

Perhaps my game-under-development will be that app. :p

Go for it! =)

I think an excellent 'killer app' would actually be a art-shiny benchmark similar to what say heaven, valley or superposition are to the Unigine Engine.

But boy would that be a lot of work! Potentially really useful for engine developers though as well...

@Megalomaniak said: I think an excellent 'killer app' would actually be a art-shiny benchmark similar to what say heaven, valley or superposition are to the Unigine Engine.

But boy would that be a lot of work! Potentially really useful for engine developers though as well...

Yeah, but we'll probably have to wait for Godot 4.0 for that, when 3D support will improve a lot, but I agree. Either way, though, stylized graphics can still look awesome, although they won't prove the performance as well.