This week for open source game appreciation month we would like to pay some tribute to our game engine of choice: Godot Game engine!
When comparing Godot to other solutions on the market, one is quick to notice that it is a relatively new engine (first released in 2014) that hasn’t seen any big game releases yet (although it did for example port Deponia to PS4 and iOS). As a result, choosing Godot as our main engine might seem like a daring decision and it is one that has thus seen some critique from others in the game industry. The things that made us fall in love with Godot go hand in hand with benefits that are deeply intertwined with the essence of FOSS (Free and open-source software).
The most logical one of these FOSS-related benefits is of course that any missing feature or, inevitable, bug present in the engine can either be requested from the community or even be implemented/fixed by yours truly. Avoiding any of the abhorrent ticket systems that plague the proprietary game engine landscape (and most proprietary software in general). During development of “Trip the Ark Fantastic” we make full use of these advantages and hope to help Godot grow alongside our project.
As this is but a simple post there is but place for a single one of Godot’s features that we would like put in the spotlight: Tool scripts! Explained in a layman’s fashion, these are scripts that can run inside of the editor without having to run the actual game, facilitating debugging and development tremendously.
Another, equally important reason for us, is that we actually really like working in Godot as it is, in our opinion, one of the more intuitive engines to prototype and work with that is out there. Godot supplies a wide arrangement of tools such as a mature animation system, fully native 2D support, a python-like custom scripting API, a node and scene system unlike anything found in other game engines and lots of other features that make the engine a joy to work in. But don’t take our word for it, try it out for yourself!