I Used Godot For 100 Hours, Here’s What I Learned

The speaker shares their experience with the Godot game engine over 100 hours of use, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. They clarify that the review is based on the current state of Godot, not its future updates like Godot 4.0. The speaker, coming from a Unity background, makes several comparisons between the two engines, emphasizing that all engines have their pros and cons. Despite not being a professional developer, the speaker aims to provide insights for hobbyists like themselves. They also mention their journey of focusing solely on Godot after experimenting with multiple engines and how this dedication helped them better understand and appreciate Godot's unique features.

This section delves into Godot's user interface, praising its quick start-up, efficient loading, and visually appealing design. The speaker contrasts Godot's single-window, non-customizable workspace unfavorably with Unity's flexibility but acknowledges finding a productive workflow within these constraints. They also introduce Godot's node system as a different but effective organizational structure compared to Unity's component-based approach, explaining how it promotes a more organized and modular design methodology. The speaker appreciates the clarity and intuitiveness of Godot's UI and its encouragement of exploration and experimentation.

The narrative shifts to coding in Godot, specifically the use of GDScript, Godot's Python-like scripting language. Despite initial reservations due to a preference for C# and its syntax, the speaker has adapted to GDScript. They discuss the limitations of Godot's scripting workspace, including its inability to separate the code editor into a new window, and the challenges with the engine's intellisense feature. The speaker also touches on difficulties in referencing nodes and managing node paths, suggesting improvements and expressing hope for future updates to address these issues.

This section critiques Godot's physics and 3D capabilities, noting some inconsistencies and limitations in physics interactions and the jitteriness in smaller scale simulations. The speaker also praises Godot for its support of non-convex colliders and its straightforward 3D navigation and editor controls. They highlight the comprehensive options for 3D appearance customization but mention challenges with importing meshes and the occasional unresponsiveness of the engine to updates in 3D assets. Despite these issues, the speaker acknowledges Godot's potential for 3D development with further optimization.

Focusing on Godot's 2D engine and GUI system, the speaker appreciates the separate node families for 2D and 3D, which simplify coding for 2D games and UI development. They highlight the extensive and intuitive control nodes for GUI creation but note the complexity and confusion that can arise from the multitude of options and settings. The section also addresses the challenges of working with fonts and themes in Godot, indicating that while powerful, the GUI system has a steep learning curve.

The speaker discusses the documentation and community support for Godot, acknowledging the documentation's limitations but praising the community's helpfulness and supportiveness. They share their learning journey through various tutorials and resources, highlighting the importance of community-driven support and the difference it makes in overcoming the engine's learning curve. The section emphasizes the value of the Godot community in providing practical solutions and fostering a positive environment for developers at all skill levels.

In the concluding section, the speaker reflects on their overall experience with Godot, expressing a strong preference for it over other game engines. They appreciate Godot's simplicity, control, and community focus, contrasting it with their experiences with Unity and Unreal Engine. Despite the challenges and limitations faced, the speaker's affection for Godot is clear, highlighting the engine's potential for hobbyists and indie developers. They call for more participation in the Godot community to further improve the engine and its documentation, ending on a note of encouragement and hope for the future of Godot development.