When you look at both Unreal and Unity Engines, there are those well-recieved AAA games usually for being big and polished, or those smaller indie games that are special, clever and very fun to play. In both engines, those polished games are very very popular, and hence help the engines themselves popular.

But, when talking about Godot, I can definitely see a great potential for masterpiece games, but these games simply do not exist. I mean, there is Sonic Colors Ultimate, but it's not exactly that well receive, plus it's just a remaster. As for indie games, I have seen examples, but they either remain in beta or simply are not exactly interesting nor special enough to guarantee success.

Now of course, some will say that "Godot 3D is not advanced enough so it's not popular, and that's getting fixed in Godot 4." But I disagree. For example, Hollow Knight, Cuphead, Undertale all are 2D games, still VERY POPULAR! Guess what, they're made with Unity (according to my knowledge)! That's why it puzzles me, why such examples are simply not there for Godot? The games showcased for Godot are never talked about on social media platforms, and so Godot as an engine remains dormant.

Now, I'm starting to speculate here, but I think part of the problem is the mindset of those who work on Godot. What is special about this community is that it's caring and supportive, generally having fun in programming and simply creating games. Of course that's a big plus that I would never want to go away. However, on the other side of the coin, this also means that the community of Godot isn't usually trying to make the next big revolutionary game (even if a simple one). There's also a lack of marketing. Of course this is normal, because people's focus is not on money in this community (I can count the total number of posts in the professional tab on this forum). Despite how good that sounds to be friendly, this causes the engine to be seen as "not serious". It's not because the engine is weak, but rather because marketing is weak. And what better way of marketing is there than making marketable video games?

The games made using Godot are mostly proof of concepts, or proof that "Godot is capable of making games." I believe that Godot 4 alone won't be enough on its own to popularize Godot, but rather the games made with Godot 4. And for those games to become reality, I think the mindset going into making the game should be altered...

What do you think? Did I miss something? Are there actually some popular Godot games?

    Well I hope my game will be that "super popular" one. Might take me like 2 years to finish, though. 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. For 3D, I will admit Godot is not as good as Unity or Unreal, but it comes close. You can see one of my demos, Ella, that I built in under 1 month. I paid an artist for the models, but basically everything else was done by me in Godot.

    https://cybereality.itch.io/ella-a-study-in-realism

      Can only speak for myself. To realize my plans, I need some boiler plate code, in either engine. That's also an opportunity to cut my teeth on C++. Will it become popular ? Well, there are many more games than interested people out there, and people's attention span is becoming ever shorter. So, no, probably not.

      Apart from that I can think of a lot of 2D games, original or remakes, that would be fun to make, should I become busted and hungry.

      And I won't get away with 2 years. I can't dedicate all of my time to this ... you now, the day only has 24h around here, and even if I use the night as well, it won't be enough :-)

      Well the minimum to make a real game should be what, 3 years?
      A lone wolf would need how much, 5 years?

      I'm a beginner. Started this year.
      So to learn all that's needed to craft a game and make a polished one, being extreme optimistic, 2027 would be the minimum. Just to make a first game.

      Between the line, gathering info of Godot from people talking about it and extrapolating as possible users, I think most of real games are on the baking process. They will take a couple of years still (extrapolating mind you).

      Most in Godot, I believe, are beginner. And those whom aren't must be in low profile doing their stuff.
      It's very difficult craft a game.

      So I believe it's more a matter of when and not why.
      Even Godot Engine is developing faster recently, getting more financial support.

      We'll need to wait a little longer to more of us have enough time.
      Godot 4 is just around the corner so, learn it again, port projects, sort out bugs.
      It will take time.

        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.