I wanted to get an idea on the actual forums if people are using Godot for solutions other than strictly game development. I have been creating enterprise tools such as a making use of my csv viewer: https://github.com/nickcordero/godot_csv_view as a makeshift tableview with additional filtering capabilities for inventory lookup. I have been prototyping a lot of different things some game related and some not but have come to the conclusion that godot is powerful and has the potential to be a game changer for software development as a whole.

I think if godot positioned itself for strong application development it could secure more funding and development resources. Even if it had a separate "godot app engine" or whatever.

Here is a link to my older reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/godot/comments/a809ij/godot_for_application_development/

Here is a link to an in depth article that goes in to much more detail: https://medium.com/swlh/what-makes-godot-engine-great-for-advance-gui-applications-b1cfb941df3b

I invite you to check out either of the links above and I am curious how others might be using godot for more than just games. The links go in to a lot more detail.

Thanks

I think Godot supports GUI apps just fine as is, I don't think the developers need to pivot to focus on it. I used to be a Flash developer, and made some business apps using Flex, which was just about the easiest thing at the time. I've only done basic tutorials in Qt, but I found the whole thing bloated and not intuitive. Also messed with Electron, which is not a bad option if you know web dev already.

But I think Godot is a great choice for general software applications: it is very easy to work with, controls can be easily themed, coding is simple, good support for integrating 2D/3D graphics, fast compile time and iteration, good cross-platform support. It's already there.

I don't want to see it get over reliant on GUI either. Like with 4 coming, it's really just becoming competitive in 3d apps similar to Unity. Maybe not there, but close enough so people can do about anything they want with it. The GUI is definitely adequate especially for someone doing a mixed presentation with graphics. You look at browsers, they've kind of topped out really. Who gets excited about that stuff anymore? What I want to see is games that move further into exploration and away from guns, guns, and more guns. A tool like Godot means a greater chance for it.

Right. If you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being nothing to no one. Godot is positioned as a game engine, and I think that is the right call. It is flexible enough that you could write general software in it, and while it may not be the best choice for everything, I think it suffices for most stuff.

Depending on your software project, you might not want to use Godot as you might need tighter access to the underlying operating system and the default GUI elements. This is less relevant these days, as you see apps like Steam, Spotify, etc. use custom designs and don't rely on the OS GUI (like the file menu, etc.). But maybe like 10 or 15 years ago, I think people would think it was "unprofessional" to have an app with all custom GUI (and also, back then a lot of the graphic design was questionable like with things like Winamp). But today, customers would rather a clean design and no legacy OS menus, which Godot can provide.

Also, not to derail the discussion, but I do think the game industry is too focused on gun violence. I mean, we have the capabilities to make photo-realistic worlds out of our imagination and the first thing people do is grab a gun and shoot each other. At least some indie developers are exploring interesting non-violent topics, stuff like Gone Home, The Stanley Parable, Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Marie's Room, Virginia, Beyond Eyes, Wide Ocean Big Jacket. I mean, I do enjoy shooters as well, but we need more diversity of experience.