Game engines used to be cordoned off to the community, built and held by gaming companies themselves. While there are still plenty of these—such as Frostbite, Ubisoft Anvil and Creation Engine to name a few—today we have lots of game engines which are free to use for indie game developers.

The main contenders for free/cheap game engines are Unity, Unreal Engine and, more recently, Godot. But what is Godot? And is it really worth using if the other two are so popular?

Let’s take a look.

Games Made in Godot

While Godot is one of the lesser known, and somewhat lesser used, free game engines that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been used in large projects. Let’s look at three.

Slay the Spire – The now classic indie game was made in Godot!
Sonic Colors – This remaster of the beloved Sonic game chose Godot as its game engine; proving that even large studios can build their iconic IP in the game engine.
Cruelty Squad – Yep, this FPS game with crazy aesthetics was built in Godot too. Showing that it’s not just for clean, cute games. You can also get VERY experimental.

Why Godot?

1. Open Source and Free:

This is perhaps the biggest draw of Godot. It’s totally free. Totally open source. No matter the revenue of your game, you’ll never owe any company a dime—although, if you are very successful you should definitely support them.

Being open source means that the development is community focused, tailoring it more to the needs of indie developers than large AAA studios.

2. Powerful and Versatile:

A few years ago people would say that Godot was only good for 2D. While that may have been true back then, things have changed. Despite being free, Godot is no slouch. It has powerful tools for 2D and 3D development, is capable of rendering stunning visuals and undertaking complex physics simulations. And some crafty people have even started to integrate VR capabilities. Ultimately, it can be used for any gaming use case, giving you flexibility.

3. Programming Flexibility:

Godot can be used with GDScript—a custom script inspired by Python— or C++ or C#. This flexibility lets developers choose their desired language. And, if you’re inexperienced with programming, GDScript is a great starting point thanks to its similarities with Python (often argued to be one of the most beginner friendly programming languages out there).

4. Cross-Platform Compatibility:

Godot accommodates a lot of different approaches during game development, and that trend continues when shipping. It has great cross-platform compatibility. Offering seamless deployment across platforms from PC to console to mobile and even web. This means that you probably won’t need to worry too much about publishing.

This can be especially useful if you’re aiming to publish across platforms. Such as with games like pubg mobile. Speaking of which, buy pubg uc to look that bit better in your next session.

5. Active and Supportive Community:

Unity and Unreal have huge communities—but so does Godot! Thanks to the open source nature of the engine, Godot has attracted many developers over the years, building its community greatly. This means that there are plenty of tutorials, forums and documentation to help you learn the engine and overcome challenges in your development cycle.

6. Constant Development and Future-Proof:

I already mentioned that Godot is open source. But I think we need to hit home what that actually means. A few years back, Unity changed their pricing model sending shockwaves through the industry and forcing developers—even ones mid-way through development—to consider whether they can continue developing on the platform. Nothing like this could ever happen to Godot.

Ever.

As a piece of open source software, Godot will always be free to use. Period. This commitment to open source means that it stable in a way which other game engines simply are not. Making it a great option for game development at all levels.

Godot is a powerful tool, and if you’re interested in it chances are the best way to figure out if it’s the tool for you is to simply try it out. After all, the game engine is totally free to download and is VERY lightweight. This means you can get started on a project in less than 5 minutes from now. Yes, seriously.

So what are you waiting for?

Photo: Dreamstime.com

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