Two Years After Unity Controversy: Godot Engine Progress

Since its public release in 2014, the Godot game engine has maintained a relatively low profile within the development community. However, this changed in 2023 when Unity made several questionable decisions, prompting indie developers to reconsider their future with the engine. It appears that developers have indeed voted with their feet, resulting in a significant increase in Godot's popularity. According to Emilio Coppola, Executive Director of the Godot Foundation, "We saw a huge increase in popularity, and after the initial peak of interest, the community and contributions doubled and continued growing at a faster rate than before." Tim FitzRandolph, developer at Walaber Entertainment, notes that "the number of developers using Godot has been increasing steadily over the past few years." This growth is evident in the rising number of game jam submissions using Godot, both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of all submissions. The Godot community has expanded to include a broader range of developers. Dan Gerstein, Game Director at Pistol Shrimp, observes that "the biggest change is the number of other Godot developers I can reach. Two years ago, I had trouble finding anyone except hobbyists. Now, the odds of other people knowing about it and even having dabbled with it are much higher." While Godot was proposed as a new home for indie developers in 2023, it lacked many features compared to Unity. However, as FitzRandolph explains, "the importance of this depends on the kind of games you're hoping to make. For what I make, Godot has everything I need – and what's there is simple and well-implemented – plus it's flexible and malleable enough that if something is missing, I can easily add it." Godot's growth can be attributed to both Unity's troubles and its own improvements. The release of Godot 4.0 in March 2023 introduced enhanced 3D support and compatibility with the Vulkan API. Additionally, console support has improved thanks to W4 Games, a company co-founded by several Godot veterans. Many comparisons between Godot and engines like Unity and Unreal highlight Godot's blank canvas approach. As Jay Baylis, Co-Director at Bytten Studio, explains, "When you jump into something like Unreal, it assumes that you are making a photorealistic HD-looking game. But Godot doesn't assume that; you need to fiddle around to make it look nice." The Godot Foundation's Coppola notes that some unfavorable comparisons between Unity and Godot stem from the natural pains of adapting to a new system. "It takes some time to adapt to new tools and find out which things you did before that were specific to bypass some design choices in the tools that just don't apply in the new one." Developers are generally happy with Godot, but there are features they would like to see introduced in the future, such as improved level streaming and a better pipeline for 3D development. However, the main thing that comes through when talking to studios is that they want Godot to remain open source. FitzRandolph says, "Mostly, I want Godot to stay true to its promise and mission, and continue to blossom into the game engine equivalent of Blender: a free and open-source alternative that can be used for real professional work." Godot's open-source nature is a significant factor in its appeal to developers. The community dictates the engine's direction, and it is not owned by anyone except its audience. As Gerstein notes, "After many years of development, often losing access to tools and technologies we either created ourselves or integrated with licensed software, it is very important to us to own what we make." The long-term outlook for Godot appears bright, with its structure and open-source nature giving creators optimism for the tech moving forward. Gerstein says, "It's open source, there are games using it in the wild, and there are more coming up, including ours. Even if the Godot Foundation implodes overnight, it's not going anywhere, and it has nowhere to go but up." Coppola concludes, "Godot is something that the gaming industry desperately needed. In all other areas of tech, open-source tools are usually the standard, and I feel like our industry was lagging behind in this aspect. I don't think that this will be the case for much longer."