Introduction: as outlined in my initial blog post, I am going to attempt to create the same basic game - that of the first few minutes of Gradius for NES - using a number of different game making platforms, one per day during my week off. I'm using GitHub to store the different projects. See my progress in the repo.
| Name | Godot v3.4.2 |
| Web site | https://godotengine.org/ |
| Alt web site | n/a |
| License | MIT license (also named Expat license) |
| Git/GitHub integration | Didn’t detect the .git folder or that I installed git so I guess not |
| My github for this project | https://github.com/tildesarecool/grad-dah-clone-godot-ed |
| Export format(s) | Windows, macOS, Linux, UWP, *BSD, HTML5, iOS and Android |
I tried the Godot engine back in 2019 (so says an old GitHub repo of mine) but never got very far. One thing about Godot though, it’s constantly being updated and there seems to be a fairly large community behind it.
I found a YouTube tutorial for a “vertical shooter in 20 minutes” but five minutes into the video I’m already producing syntax errors and blank screens. This is probably more the video creator’s fault than it is the software as he talks really fast, clicks really fast, clicks things not visible in the video and doesn’t explain anything he’s doing or why.
I know I shouldn’t give up so easily but I doubt any of the other tutorials will be much better. The video I chose is a year old and about as recent as any I found. For some reason I thought Godot was going to be a lot more about visual or at least more like GameMaker in the scripting being something that can be embraced but not necessarily required at first. But apparently there’s no getting around the scripting. I only complain about that because apparently parts of the language have been deprecated and don’t work at all. Even in year old videos.
It does look like the engine can output to quite a few different targets including regular Windows, HTML5 and some mobile platforms. It’s hard to find a free platform that will provide those export options.
I will complain about the UI and general use: it seems like it was made for Linux developers first. I mean at least it doesn’t default to saving files buried in the AppData folder of the user profile like Stencyl but the way to open an existing project is truly bizarre: I have to browse to the project folder every time and “import” every time. Then I started having this issue with a particular file no longer having write access on the filesystem level. It just says it can’t saving because it’s in use/don’t have permissions. It was saving like 30 seconds ago but doesn’t save now.
It also doesn’t seem to feel like integrating with git. I click on “setup source control” and it says “VSCode extension not detected”. That’s it. No link to help me do that, no “open VSCode and do this now” no “set up alternative”. Just a box that says “VSCode extension not detected”. I mean I say it seems aimed at Linux users but git is kind of thing on Linux so not already integrating with it from the word “go” is a little weird. Side note: I got around this by using the Git-for-Windows and separate “TortoiseGit” shell extensions. And this worked flawlessly for my GameMaker project so if that’s related to my file save issue it’s definitely an issue with Godot, not my work flow. It is cool if it wants to volunteer to integrate with VSCode though. Just wish it was a little smoother and more options.
I could always (dramatic pause) read a tutorial rather than using a YouTube video (sound of crowd gasping). That didn’t help with GDevelop. But I could try it.
At the end of the day
Since I skipped Christmas day for this project and Godot has already left me with bad taste in my mouth and apparently Steam has the Defold engine for free download…I’ve decided to leave my Godot experience as it is even though it feels like I hardly touched it.
References:
Tildes on the side 
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