ThinKing_2005
If you looked at the showcase, then you already know enough to answer that. However, I think you're laboring under a misapprehension -- that godot needs to be popular.

Unity needs popularity, because that's how they make their money. Free software doesn't have that requirement. You mentioned the supportive community, but the main reason that exists is because godot is a hobby project. People aren't being paid to come here -- they do it because they love godot. Multiply the population of users by ten, and I guarantee you'd see a certain coldness creep into the responses.

Personally, I'm not convinced that unity's popularity is strongly coupled to the number of exciting games made with the engine. I suspect it has more to do with the amount of unity assets for sale. Serious developers seem to put a lot of time into choosing an engine, and most of them will see godot mentioned at some point. Casual developers are less likely to notice it, but they are also less likely to make a great game on their own.

      Totally siding with @duane about the free software aspect, and I also appreciate it when people make their money with free software. It's included in the term "free" :-)

        Right, and Unity has a huge customer base. As of 2020 there were over 1.5 million active developers.

        Unity says as of June 30th, it has a “global reach” of 2 billion monthly active end users (read: consumers, not developers) adding up to 8 billion hours of gameplay per month, as well as 1.5 million monthly active creators. Those creators developed 8,000 apps and games each month with Unity in the six months prior to June 30th.

        https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/24/21399611/unity-ipo-game-engine-unreal-competitor-epic-app-store-revenue-profit

        And how many "super popular" games made by indie developers can you name? Certainly not 1 million, or even 100K. I mean, without using Google, you could probably name a few dozen at most. So the ratio is not that good. Given that Godot is less established, and much newer, there is a far smaller chance of there being hit recognizable games.

        In any case, what other people are doing, or have done, has no relevance. Evaluate the technology available for your use case. Does it have the features you need, are the graphics good enough, is the performance acceptable, is the cost within your budget, does it seem easy to use, is there help available, how is the documentation? Evaluate these things yourself and make your own decision. Most people don't know what the hell they are doing and have no experience, so figure it out yourself. I mean McDonald's is the most popular restaurant in the world, doesn't make it good food.

          duane Pixophir I agree with that, but there's also the fact that if it's not very popular, we're losing potential users who could end up joining the community, supporting Godot and helping the engine grow. For me personally, I would have never thought of using Godot if my PC couldn't run Unity (yes, my PC is historic). Plus, remember that community is Godot's life force... the bigger the community, the stronger the engine, and so the better programming experience for us! So, I think popularizing Godot IS beneficial.

          cybereality True, popular doesn't mean good. But, imagine a beginner who has no experience in programming and so no easy way of knowing which engine is better... of course beginners will be tempted to use the engine that's, even if not popular, has some "proof" games that it's capable of great things. Keep in mind that as a beginner, it is already overwhelming to learn programming, so normally s/he wouldn't want to have a hard time discovering which engine is better. At least, that's how I felt at the very beginning. But of course I now realize Godot is actually very capable and yet very user-friendly, even compared to the Unity!

          cybereality the_maven I really want to see those games happening in high quality after a couple of years! I mean, the rule of thumb is that progressing slowly is better than rushing things.

                    You're a Bedenkenträger, a "carrier of concern" :-) That's ok !

                    Aw, but if your PC can't run Unity you're likely to run into problems with Godot 4, too. It needs graphics that support Vulkan, so something post 2014 or so. Maybe you're lucky with a software stack on Linux, but that's not really an option for a modern day (at the time of writing :-)) game engine.

                    Apropos slow progression, if I am not mistaken - and somebody correct me if I am - Unity has an edge of 10 years over Godot.

                      I also wanted to say that I love that people working on Godot aren't exactly focusing on money. I absolutely do not want it to be consumed by corporations and greed. But then again, the bigger the community, the better, and popularizing Godot is definitely one way to expand the community.

                      Pixophir

                      Pixophir Aw, but if your PC can't run Unity you're likely to run into problems with Godot 4, too. It needs graphics that support Vulkan, so something post 2014 or so

                      "gulp", I guess I'll missing out on Godot 4 for some time...

                      Pixophir Apropos slow progression, if I am not mistaken - and somebody correct me if I am - Unity has an edge of 10 years over Godot.

                      And despite that, as cybereality said:

                      cybereality More seriously, Hollow Knight, Cuphead, and Undertale would all be fully possible in Godot, and easier to make than in Unity. For 2D I would say Godot is the best out there.

                      and I consider that a big achievement in such a short time.

                                @ThinKing_2005 I'll probably get me, when the generation changes, an AMD 5600G with a cheap board, 16GB of 3200/CL14 memory, a pci3 ssd of 500GB or so, in a mini atx box with a simple AIO cooler and full hd display. Should be around 800,- all together, low power consumption for the off-grid house at night, and certainly enough for development. Graphics in the range of an old GTX960 or so.

                                @the_maven It is not my invention :-)

                                Megalomaniak Laptop, WINDOWS10 (though originally WINDOWS7). I'm not sure about pci-e x16 slots, is there a way to check for that without having to disassemble my Laptop?

                                    ThinKing_2005 I'm not sure about pci-e x16 slots, is there a way to check for that without having to disassemble my Laptop?

                                    Nah, that would be applicable if it was a desktop. I might have been able to offer my previous GPU as an upgrade since I had recently bought a new one.

                                        There is a 'mxm' expansion slot mostly used by nvidia laptop graphics cards as far as I'm aware. It was always rather rare in it's use tho and only really used by some of the most expensive laptops. In most laptops the gpu is directly integrated into the main board.

                                          Some laptops can use external GPUs, I used to have one, but they are only available on newer or higher-end models. If your laptop is old, it's unlikely you can use desktop GPUs. It's called eGPU. This was the one I used to have.

                                            Megalomaniak cybereality
                                            Thanks for the comments, this means my Laptop probably doesn't support that. It's alright though, I'm not planning on using Godot 4 until it has a stable release, so I'll have time to prepare for that. Again, thanks all.

                                                9 months later

                                                One time when I was just learning what a motherboard was, I wanted to see if I could fit a PCI-e xSomethin inside an M.2 SATA port :-)
                                                Don't do it. I still don't know what I was thinking.
                                                I think I was 16 at the time. So I had the bravado of a dumb kid mixed with this mental illness called curiosity.

                                                Cruelty Squad was made with Godot and made over a million dollars. That's probably the biggest hit from an indie dev. Sonic Colors Ultimate was made by SEGA and released on consoles and that was (partially) made with Godot. Brotato was also fairly popular. Cassette Beasts just released, but looks high quality and on consoles, so could be a big game. You can see some of the better ones here: https://godotengine.org/showcase/

                                                2 years later

                                                Buckshot Roulette was popular for a while on youtube and it was made in godot

                                                5 days later

                                                Halls of torment, great game, you can get it for free on steam - prelude version.. honestly i could not find whats different from the paid version, but i paid for the full version.. you can import free version progress into the paid version.. try it out if you have chance..

                                                they use pre rendered 3D characters as sprites.. looks awsome.. has that diablo2 look and feel, kinda boring in other parts but great fun for few hours..