I tried Godot for few days and this is why I like it!

This is my first post and I will try to encourage YOU to try Godot if you like game development.

Now, Let's go straight to the point.

I want to make a 2D game and publish it and I will do it with Godot.

Last few years I am working as React developer so my game engines skills are rusty, but I worked as game developer for around 3 years in the past. In that time I made games with:

• libGDX (Java library for game dev - mostly my learning time)
• Game Maker Studio ~ 2 years
• Unity (C#) ~ 1 year

You would ask me now - why Godot then? I just like to try new(for me at least) technologies and since I am doing this as a hobby I don't rush anywhere.

Also some other reasons why Godot:

• It's free and open source game engine
• You can make 2D and 3D games
• Export your game on Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS or web
• You can write scripts with GDScript(very easy to learn), C#, Visual Scripting and C++
• and now after few days of using it I can add - it is insanely easy to use!

I like to get my hands dirty from the begging so I went straight for the new project and opened the editor - this is what I saw:

As you can see on the left side you have 'Scene' tab on top and 'FileSystem' tab on bottom.

In the middle you have large window which is your scene view (currently empty), and above it you can see different options: '2D', '3D', 'Script', 'AssetLib'. Momentarily I clicked '2D' and changed the view to 2D - 3D sometimes can be scary. :)

On the right side of the screen you have 'Inspector' tab and 'Node' tab.

At this moment I realized that it is better to put my ego aside and go for the documentation.

I just typed 'Godot docs' on google and opened the official docs page for Godot engine.

The documentation is absolutely amazing!

At first you get welcome message and little introduction. After that you can see a long bullet list with different topics. There is like six main sections:

* General
* Getting started
* Tutorials
* Development
* Community
* Class reference

I read a little bit about the engine and went for 'Your first 2D game' in 'Getting started' section.

The tutorial is easy to follow and beginner friendly. Goal is to create your first 2D game with character that is avoiding the random spawning enemies. There is no camera and advanced techniques. Player movement is fixed to the view screen and goal is to avoid enemies for as long as you can. Score is calculated by the time passed. Here is the gif from their official tutorial:

Also you get the feeling of the engine and the tabs that I mentioned earlier. For me as someone who is experienced developer, this tutorial was awesome start point to overcome all the questioning that I had with myself about starting with the new engine.

Yes, I almost forgot - GDScript language! I am working as React developer so I am used to JavaScript now, but I think that GDScript language is similar to python (I think I read somewhere that python was the inspiration for the language - not 100% sure) and it is extremely easy to write. I got used to the syntax after few hours spent in the engine and after that it filled like I worked with it my whole time.

Conclusion

My opinion is that Godot is very easy to learn and use game engine. If you are just starting out I think Godot can be awesome way to start your journey. If you are on the other hand experienced developer and didn't use Godot before, now is your chance!

I just went trough 'Make your first 2D game' tutorial and right after that I felt comfortable and started my project - few days after I already have moving character and parallax background effect! I think my next feature will be particle effects ( yes, that is probably stupid when you don't have almost nothing done, but I just enjoy seeing my character running with a small clouds spawning around his feet :D).

Hope you enjoyed my post and that you are one step closer to start your journey in game development.

Cover image credits:
Image by catalyststuff on Freepik

Comments

[O.T.A]

This is great, during covid I was really into using godot and sort of fell off ... I really want to try to do it more often.

[Zoran]

I am glad that you liked the article! That happen to me with many different technologies many times , but at some point I decided to follow my progress and set goals - it helped a lot, at least in my case.

I also find a lot inspiration in itch.io game jams videos, when I see what people create it is really awesome!