Godot or Defold?

[Sentou Gakuen]

Godot[godot.community] or Defold?

Any thoughts from someone who've been using Defold for a while?

[ViTality]

Actual information in video Defold vs Godot - game engine comparison on Youtube channel Unfolding Gamedev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nfs6MNTNDo

[Moonlight]

As someone who's used Godot for a while and decided to move to Defold, I am hesitant to recommend it to anyone besides people who just started making their first game.
Godot's update cycle is extremely slow, it's unoptimized and is riddled with broken features and bugs which take years to address and the community surrounding the lead developers and its contributors can be a bit overzealous.
I recommend reading this book[waiting-for-blue-robot.gitlab.io] that goes into greater detail and points out ideological issues surrounding Godot Engine.

[Knight]

I say both

[Pkeod // Subsoap]

Anything 2D no questions asked it's Defold. For 3D I would go with Epic if you're going for a serious 3D game.

[Celestite]

@Scylorn just a bit overzealous?
Id say they think that the game industry is a disease and they are the cure.

[Moonlight]

@Celestite
I've been unsure what to think as I've only seen a handful of evidence so I've been careful not to exaggerate.
Currently I can most certainly add that they suffer from NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome and are constantly reinventing the wheel while putting finances into opening console development before it's even capable of making them without retrofitting the source code.
I have little trust in someone's Argentinian cultist hobby project that got so much hype.

[Moonlight]

As for my personal developments, after seeing how GameMaker had switched to perpetual license model I found it far more applicable for the thing that I want to work on. It has issues but it has proven to work for indies for years. I am hoping for C# implementation and UI updates to revive it.

[WarpedJoy]

huh this post was uploaded on my birthday lol

[potatorobot]

defold is better like realy better

[Holy Order Sol Enjoyer]

I've been using Defold for the past 2 months and Godot since February 2023.

Go with Defold. Here's Why.

Godot Pros:
Inbuilt Documentation.
Advanced 3D, compared to Defold at least.

Easy to Learn; GDScript is Object Oriented in nature. If you have experience with C# or Java Programming Languages, you'll understand how GDScript works a bit quicker.

Godot Cons:
Easy to set up, harder to export. You'll have to do a lot of fiddling for exporting projects to different platforms. Here's the order from easiest to hardest: Web, Linux, Windows and then Android (I have never exported to Mac or iOS) Setting up exports is sometimes Project dependent. You'll have to do the same tasks over and over again like generating debug and release keystores etc (tbf, debug keystores are now generated automatically on Godot 4.3+)

Not suitable for the long term. Looking to update and older project to use the latest SDKs, dependencies etc? Good luck. Godot Engine Updates sometimes breaks your projects and or addons/extensions, depending on the nodes you use on your project. Sometimes, some nodes get deprecated which is something no one can predict. Luckily, Export Templates are downloaded and or updated separately. So you can still work on the version you worked on the game before and update the game. However, this isnt a guarantee the process will be smooth.

Abysmal export sizes. I was working on a one-bit 2D Shmup where the whole assets (Tilesets, SFX, OST etc) were about 12MB. Exporting the project resulted in a 140MB project. This is because Godot Exports the Engine + your PCK (Containing all your files, code etc) You can howver use scons and other methods to reduce the size of the engine export to reduce the overall file export size. The bigger the engine becomes, the bigger your export will be.

Limited Export Targets. Godot has the smallest amount of targets where you can export to. It recently got the ability to export to GX Games. Other supported platforms are: Web, Linux, Windows, Android, Mac and iOS. Consoles are supported but through 3rd Parties.

Toxic Community (Sometimes) Considering what happened on September 30th 2024, the community has been on edge. You can sometimes provide valid criticism of something that needs to be addressed and you'll get responses like "Go Fork the project and fix it yourself" or "Go use Redot" Case in Point, Twitter and Youtube Comments under the official respective accounts.

Lack of Code Obfuscation. Godot Games are the easiest games to reverse engineer given how an export contains a PCK with all the files and code. This is useful in the case of modding, but there have been cases of Code Theft and plagiarism.

Vulkan Vs OpenGL. Projects made with the Forward+ Renderer (Vulkan) wont work on OpenGL machines and given the recent updates to the engine (4.3Stable+) That isnt about to change soon. Some games will straight up not boot on OpenGL Machines and need a command parameter in order to start up.

Defold Pros:
1 Click exports
1st party Console Exports for Nintendo Switch, PS4 & PS5 and Xbox; Coming soon (If you are a verified Developer)
Small Export sizes
Lots of Targets to export to; especially with Web (Notable mentions: Facebook Games, Google Play Instant Games, KaiOS)
Smoother Update Process; Suitable for Long Term Projects. This applies to both your engine and project (and dependencies too).
Code Obfuscation; with an extension

Defold Cons:
Lack of 3rd Party Documentation (Videos)
Limited in features compared to other engines.
Box2D physics are... something
'Strict' learning curve. Getting things up and running takes some time to get used to compared to other engines (Unity & Godot).
3D Support.

[GamelGub]

I think comparing two programs is like comparing Gimp with Photoshop. Ultimately, everyone should take a look at the software they are considering, try it out a bit and then make a decision for themselves. In the end, everyone has a different experience, their own preferences and tastes when it comes to usability and scope, etc. --- Test it for yourself, make a decision for yourself.