Godot has more features out of the box but Defold seems more stable and has better support and performance on mobile, and I'm currently interested in making a mobile game so
Terrific comparison video, and excellent points all around! As someone who makes 2D browser games that also need to be able to be ported to other platforms, Defold has been great and has the edge to Godot with it's smaller file size and better workability for HTML 5. For 3D with more generalized options, I've also used Godot, where as you mentioned 3D support has more out of the box options ATM. Overall IMO Defold is a precision engine that is the best at 2D web and mobile and cross platform, while Godot is more a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none. :) EDIT: just adding my own experience to help boost the YT discussion so more people ideally see this excellent video and channel!
Oh my! I spent so many hours on this video, over 2 months of after hours 😅 I would love to know what you think could be better? Is it editing? Visuals? Content? Voice? Pronunciation? 😊 (worst case scenario is of course all of this 😅)
@@unfolding_gamedev - I don't think you have to worry too much about any of those things you mentioned. Your videos seem quite polished and professional to me.
@@unfolding_gamedev I would not change anything in the video, it perfectly encapsulates the comparisons and is super entertaining to watch! All of your hard work and research really shines through. I was mainly making a comment to help boost this excellent video for the YT algorithm :D
I really enjoy watching your videos, and this one in particular is of very high quality. You seem very well-prepared on the topic, and I always look forward to seeing new content from you. I appreciate the effort and attention to detail you put into your work, and I'm excited to see what you have in store for the future.
Defold had three disadvantages that couldn't convince me. 1- it cannot allow you to create plugins and tools to customize the entire editor. (Unity, Godot have an advantage here.) 2-Contrary to what was described in the video, Defold felt more foreign to me in terms of user experience compared to all the other game engines I've tried; it had more niche concepts. 3- Defold lacks a built-in GUI tool. You need to rely on the community-made ImGui plugin. You know, Godot has very advanced and useful GUI system. While I agree with the shortcomings you mentioned about Godot, you didn't talk about these significant deficiencies or radical design decisions of Defold in your video. If you had done so, it would have been a very objective comparison video. Nevertheless, thank you."
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, Godot creator said it will never adopt data-oriented design or ECS for its gameplay scripting, so we will never be able to create a complex and massive game like V Rising with Godot. Its Nintendo Switch porting cost is $3,000 and there is no tool to port a Godot game to Switch ourselves
@@containedhurricane Not for the "main" scripting but you can code it yourself or use something like Godex. It's perfectly fine to use data-oriented design or ECS in Godot and I really don't see a reason why games like V Rising couldn't be made with Godot. Also of course you can port yourself to Switch for example - just need to be a signed dev and need the appropriate SDK - like with every other engine too. 3rd party companies just make this process easier.
Your first point seems to be outdated now. Don't know how it was like 7 days ago, but right now - there are Native Extensions for the engine, with which you extend the editor. And your second point is really subjective, can't have that as a point in an objective comparison video.
@@kurushimee It's not outdated. I didn't talk about extensions. Can you develop a custom editor tools like Unity or Godot in Defold? Did you know what's limit of this side on these engines? Actually the second point isn't subjective, you can compare it with other popular game engine literatures or user experience in the industry. Of course, Defold also have good advantages against other game engines. I didn't say that it's a bad game engine. But you should talk about these things if you want to be an objective guy.
I tried learning godot for a while but something about it felt weird. I am learning defold now and I feel it is somehow better and easier for me to learn
Biggest issue for me w/ Godot is GDScript. If you're constructing something with very deep & complex scripting, then having to do it in a completely engine-dependent system really sucks. I can take Lua scripting elsewhere. It's very flexible and plays nice with C. But if you're just building basic scripts, then this isn't an issue.
gdscript is easier to learn. lua doesn't seem to be complicated either, but using it in defold is still very difficult for me, after the logic of godot. and the fact that lua can be used everywhere, it probably sounds like open source, which is relevant for three people out of a hundred.
all engines have their own specialities. for example, ue5 have realistic graphics but if you want real time procedurally generated mesh or real time Deforming - reforming meshes in your game then it is much easier to do it with blender based upbge engine.
This is a very good and fairly objective overall comparison video. I love Godot and have been sporadically messing around with it for a few years as a hobbyist. I've only completed one little game but have four other projects on the go, including my first foray into 3D, and ideas for four others! (I've also been checking out Unity, Unreal and Flax for 3D stuff.) However, I've recently been drawn to Defold because of what I've heard about its stability, focus and performance. Godot projects sometimes feel like a house-of-cards, and the sweeping changes between 3.5 and 4.0 have put me off it. Being able to build Defold games for Nintendo Switch at no extra cost is also a major attraction for me (though you do have to be registered as a Switch dev with Nintendo). I've also taken a bit of a shine to Lua, after using it for the first time during a Love2D game jam. I'm currently trying to decide whether to switch to Defold for one of my newer smaller projects, just to see how I get on.
Thank you! Like this subaru proving it can reach the hill, it's great to check out tools and find the most comfortable! Best wishes on your journey! 😊👍
Great video. I've been using Godot for nearly 3 years now, it's what got me into game development and I owe a lot to the project. With the numerous breaking changes and bugs introduced since the 4.0 update, however, I find that I am often more frustrated with things that I can no longer do with the engine than I am pleased to have the other enhancements. Your point about 2D vs. 3D is the big take away here and what I would bring up to anyone comparing the two engines. The core Godot team has made great strides in building out the engine's 3D capabilities and they should be commended. I, however exclusively make 2D "pixel perfect" games visually inspired by things like Celeste or Shovel Knight. In Godot 3.x, achieving that kind of look with smooth gameplay was difficult. In Godot 4.x, it is arguably impossible due to renderer changes introduced in the rewrite. If that's not a style you care about, then I can easily recommend Godot for just about anything else. I have decided though to start shopping around to see what other options are out there to meet my specific needs and I am eager to give Defold a try!
defold is more polished, godot 4 hmm lately the devs seems rushing all those shiny things and the funny thing rather solidify 4.0 they choose to span it through many version which is odd and if you want to use 4.0 you will surprised and forced to wait for 4.x
In my opinion this is all to suit and attract more and more people to it. Every time I tried Godot I was attracted by some new, shiny and loudly shouted features, but sooner or later disappointed by stability and reliability.
This comment has aged like fine wine. Godot 4.x has been well... "Misplaced priorities" 4.3Stable has been full of bugs where even 2 months after release people have been discovering. Mainly broken web exports. 4.4 doesnt even seem to be fixing this, just adding more and more features. They (Godot Foundation) posted about Rendering Priorities but that whole post has nothing about the bugs regarding the Compatibility Renderer that were introduced with 4.3Stable.
That was surprising. I thought Godot had a very simple and easy to understand UI already. I found relatively low friction to making games with it. Though, tbf, i am comparing it to Unity and UE. I tried Defold for a very short time before. My impression was that the UI elems must've been so simple, i thought making a game in Defold was very spartan in it's approach. Hence, more complicated to making games than with Godot. Not to mention, an extreme lack of tutorials. I may try out Defold again sometime soon because of this vid.
Here's an idea: How about starting a "Make a simple game from zero" tutorial series Would be a great boost to make people join Defold, i think. Targeted, game engine feature specific tutorials are great and all, but those vids feel like are for advanced users of the engine only. Unless that's your intended target audience, Defold evangelists won't get people to join the fold who are on the fence with the engine, IMHO.
When I evaluate game engine I personnally prioritize : export for the web, wysiwyg editor, animation editor, vector or multi-resolution support. I tried defold, which seemed well suited to my needed, but I was disappointed. - defold is indeed best for web export, godot - like about any other unity-like - doesn't care much about web games. Still, I remember I tried an "hello world" in defold but I had to double-check the docs and ask question in discord to get smtg less than 2mb - both have a wysiwig editor, (but see below defold's take on representing data) - godot has an animation editor, defold hasn't (yes panthera exist as a comunity add-on, but in godot the whole system is designed so that every property is key-able) - godot has a simple and easy-to-grasp model to represent game hierarchy (nodes), defold reinvented a whole new system, which I found hard to grasp with too many concepts (URLs, Collections, Container, ..) - godot has some SVG support, defold has Rive support (but it was in beta when I benchmarked defold) I may try defold again in the future. Cocos creator would be another great choice although it has its own set of issues.
My five cents on the Godot size. The engine can be built excluding unnecessary modules. For example, a 3D module if the game is 2D, or physics if the game does not need it, etc. This allows you to significantly reduce the already tiny (by modern standards) size of the engine. The process of building the engine is incredibly simple, and well explained in the documentation.
Defold builds can have excluded modules as well, there is a single manifest file for this 😊 + you can modify and build custom engine versions, that's a power or both of them 😉
However, the engine is incredibly large on web browsers. I've been working with it for years and pretty much already have become accustomed to how to optimise its size in a pretty ridiculous way.
So, in conclusion they're both great game engines. Thus, if a person is still undecided on which engine to choose, then they should do a drawing. Put the names Godot and Defold into a bag, close their eyes, reach into the bag, and whichever name comes out is the game engine that they use lol 🤣😂.
If I ever get more into android, I think defold would be worth a try. For now, I'll be sticking with Godot. I also like the native switch support as well with defold. Very interesting. Great video.
@@unfolding_gamedevtak naprawdę to chciałem dowiedzieć się więcej na temat godot a o tym silniku pierwsze słyszę, ale pora zagłębić temat innych silników bo żyłem w przekonaniu, że jest tylko unity, unreal i godot :)
La diferencia radica entre tus habilidades y requerimientos, y si el motor no tiene que tiene lo mismo que el otro, fíjate en la comunidad, siempre hay extensiones creadas por la comunidad.
What are the chances you could do one comparing Defold with GMS? I can see why the comparisons with Unity and Godot, but realistically Defold seems much closer in capabilities to GMS a bit.
I just not spent too much time with other engines and not feel I would make a reliable comparison, but maybe someday I would have enough time to check the other engines 😁
I use Defold but Godot have a very useful feature, like the signals feature, the message in Defold for me It is not enough, the observer pattern is not implemented as such.
Observer pattern is easily implemented with Defold's messaging system (one of examples is here github.com/critique-gaming/crit) or can be implemented in Lua too. Godot signals are in general very similar to Defold messages, but maybe have better presentation in Godot Editor imho 😉 There are definitely other points that diverge the engines more 😉
Godot has a number of dedicated fans who are a bit elitist and over protective and which kinda ruined the community experience for me. I still use it but I try to keep interactions with them at minimum.
@@rytif There are many people some of which important people in Godot circles who have left the community and are higly vocal or critical of the engine now. For me I don't care too much and like I said I still use it but I keep interaction with Godot socials at a minimum for my sanity. Despite what people think, Godot's community is very toxic.
I indeed use Godot for my production work and I'm with you there. Those are just obnoxious to interact with, especially when you say that you expect something to work just like what all other game engines do lmao.
In my experience, the roadblock was Lua in Defold and low-fidelity shaders. Very often I'm thinking to give Defold another try. EDIT: In Lua indexing from 1 at minimum made a compact calculation having an extra - "WHY?". Locking everything to be referenced dictionary without a native way to copy objects with internals wasn't that pleasant. For shaders at least for me having an extra Uniform Sample2D/textures is a pretty essential feature to have. Dunno, what is the situation now. The main feature I'm interested to get back to Defold is Rive integration. That stuff solves jankines I see in 2d bone animations and create amazing and sharp morphing 2D visuals.
Hello Agnis! There were a lot of improvements in rendering+shaders area. Multiple textures are currently possible for models and mesh components, still not for sprite. There is though a Multiple Render Targets feature implemented opening many possibilities too ;) Rive extension is also going well - I am testing latest version right now and might make a video about it :) And I appreciate your input into Defold community back then! :D
Ill be super partial mainly because im a parentheses fanboy. Godot has a lisp dialect for gamescripting. That alone, makes an incredibly based engine in my eyes.
I teach computer science at a middle school, and i have a kid who's very interested in game-dev, but he's still trying to figure out what engine to use, should i recommend DEFOLD for him?
I am not a teacher and I don't know this kid abilities 😉 As an advice from my perspective, there are simple, easy to learn and no code frameworks like GDevelop. Then, if the kid will like to make a game, the need to learn programming will be crucial, so then I could recommend Defold and Lua 😉
@@unfolding_gamedev Thank you for the reply, we teach them Scratch, so he has basic understanding of IF statements, Loops, and Variables, he just needs to start programming proper, i think he would be just fine with DEFOLD .. thanks again. i'll recommend your channel too.
You should recommend the easiest Game Engine to start using for a beginner, which would be Unity. Unity uses Mono form of C# and can be extended on using this also, not only are the scripts able to be written in many different languages that Unity is capable of understanding, but you have a huge support community with free assets to get anyone started on understanding development concepts such as modular or object-oriented programming. Without knowing C#, C++, or Python you then become limited to learning another language to use another engine. 3D is where you'll want a more robust/sophisticated engine capable of rendering custom shaders and dynamic resolutions, which Godot and Defold are very limited on. Unreal uses C++ which is more system level of a language and is used to manipulate lower level functions and customize things on a level most people really don't need unless it's for specific hardware sets. Really it just depends on the requirements of the game, and how much rendering power is needed for the platform. Intense 3D graphics on high end machines would be a game created with UE5 for example, intense 3D graphics are more than possible (if not easier) in Unity than any other engine, but can also be optimized better for web or mobile on Unity as well, which is why I believe most people say it's best for those platforms, though Unity is more than capable of anything UE can do just with it's extra interpreter packages.
Here you go! Official: defold.com/tutorials/platformer/ Game Developers channel: th-cam.com/video/Q_R8Zt8giGg/w-d-xo.html Defold channel: th-cam.com/video/j1kh45_Rhq4/w-d-xo.html My channel: th-cam.com/video/R4oEB6e8G0A/w-d-xo.html
Nice video, I want to make a Ludo game, Chess game & Card building deck game but not sure which game engine to use especially as I can't code sigh can you recommend something along with tutorials please thanks.
@@nyn2k259 Learn to code. It's not difficult, it just takes time, and there's so many resources out there to learn it. Anything you use is going to just put a shiny coat over code anyways, you're still going to be doing the same logic so you aren't getting away from coding if you want to do game development.
Here you have a nice base to check out ;) forum.defold.com/t/noname-2-5-shooter-open-source/57417 Being new to game dev always means there is a lot of work, regardless of the chosen tools ;)
It is definitely not bad, it is a solid step forward in Godot development imho 😉 Sadly, I have crashes even up to this day, maybe a little bit less frequent with 4.0.1 - but still happening, especially when resizing window, loading some resources or putting some nodes in a 3D scene. 2D works totally fine though. I was definitely very upset about it, but I noted it is totally my experience. Some people had it to of course, but what can I say, a ton of contributors already invested their time into this and I and everyone appreciate it a lot, this is a very good project and is only getting better with time 😉
Godot is lack of security. No obfuscator. And 80% of Godot user be like "Who cares about your source code". Feel like a bunch of amateur. It just a matter of time until some people upload an article with the title "How to Clone a game made with Godot". Step 1. Notepad. 2. Copy-paste. 3. Build. Upload to play store. You are good to go. Can't they at least make it harder? The only thing that Godot win over Defold is 3D and some basic stuff like 2d light extra. In Defold you tweak render script or use extension/template. In Godot you can "drag & drop" those. But like I said those a basic. Move on to advance stuff like Admob or console or whatever , Defold is a clear winner.
😅 I got why you are so frustrated but if you are no beginner you should also know that it’s easy to keep your environment secret so that no one can clone it, you can encrypt the data and it will be secure. Yes maybe decoding is possible but that’s said it is possible to clone a unity game as well, which they did so many times. At the end of the day you have the official game and you can always prove it with your upload date, so it’s easier to sue someone… I too agree that in 2d side Defold is great, but no one can say greater in every way. Respectfully!
I would need to use it for a while to make my opinion, but I never used Game Maker, I don't want to compare only on paper :D When I will have some more time for this, I might play around with GM, so please, be patient, thank you! ;)
godot is very popular but it breaks very often and its performance is very bad especially on mobile and web, defold is very light and its performance is very good on mobile and web. good comparison.
@@GoblinArmyInYourWalls That is absurd, 90% are not able to have a decent level of programming using Python or Lua and you want them to use C++ or C#? XDD
it probably is for the time you said it, but it's open source. what this means is that if you got a problem with it... You can talk about it or fix it yourself!
Im having trouble deciding between godot and defold. Can you pin point me which engine is more suited towards x type of games so I can decide which is better for my needs. And before you ask, yes I have tried both. Thanks(Also not looking to do mobile or web games)
Though godot does both 2d and 3d it was and in some regards still is 2d engine with 3d added on to it. Tbough they are definately improving on that. Never tried defold though, may have to check it out
how many times have I searched for videos and 3d training in default. I didn't find anything. it seems to me that this is still a 2d engine and not 3d. in the same godot there is a bunch of everything both 3d and 2d.
Defold is in fact only a 3D engine, while Godot consists of both 2D and 3D engines. Can't deny though that there are much more materials, tutorials and videos for Godot than Defold, that's what I'm trying to change, at least a little :D
come on, its two minutes and you still cry over "no game engine is the best, pick one that suits the project" BUT WHO CARES IF IT WAS MEANT TO BE COMPARISON? JUST COMPARE THEM! LMAO
I did check in to see what the defold engine was about, but the amount of things missing to effect gameplay is huge, just look at the gameobject, compared to like a node in godot. The different properties is huge, with the change of one variable in the node system in godot you can affect gameplay fast, but when i looked at the gameobjects of defold, i saw 3 properties, and then what? how can i change gameplay fast and easy.
Game object is just a container with a transform for components - and these are "equivalents" to Godot nodes rather, if you'd like to compare it. Components have way more properties depending on the type + script components can have as many properties as you'd like to ;)
When team Defold writes a legally binding open contract with the community that states they cannot suddenly change the license and/or demand royalties at any future date, then, AND ONLY THEN, could I bring myself to trust them enough to migrate. However, in the wake of somewhat recent similar events.... yeah... Defold is going to be a "no" for me. It's not good for someone else to own something you devote major time and effort into. For this reason I am VERY proprietary shy. I feel like everyone else should be too.
Godot is marketed more and more as 3D focused and a meaningful competitor to the biggest players in the market - Unity and Unreal, but there is a lot to improve to compete with them and they are not standing still in the meanwhile. And if you call Godot 4 super stable considering a ton of reports on forums, reddits and so on, that's a vague definition of "stability" :D We can't swept it all below carpet just to call good things about engines :D Defold has its flaws too, can't deny it is lacking a lot of features, but at least it tries not to be marketed as more than it really is. Regardless of the Godot Editor crashes, the official demo 3D scene in Godot 4 runs at 4 FPS on a computer, on which I was playing Witcher 3. 60 FPS only when I reduce the resolution to 10% there. I can't call it stable, sorry! But maybe it is stable for you and that's very good ;) I can still recommend Godot 3.5 maybe not over Unity, but over Defold for simple 3D games for sure.
@@unfolding_gamedevhat weird, for me i can run something like super sponza without texture at 30-40 fps with post process(except sdfgi) on an igpu, where you got that demo scene?. Also if you mean the space ship one with the defaults i already had 15-10 fps so something seems to be wrong with your graphics card in godot 4
I agree with you - when it comes to most visually stunning game engine, Unreal is one of the best engines available (but there are also proprietary stunning looking game engines). Other engines either try to compete, or try to find their own niche, where Unreal isn't the best choice ;)
objectively the best engine would be Unity, though it uses C# it can be expanded to use C++ if needed, though rarely is needed. I would say UE is for fine tuning of graphic intense things and situations due to it using a lower level language and can use system related things more easily, however, it also requires much more code to accomplish the exact same thing in C#. So, in a way Unity would be easier to develop code and logic for, where UE would be for fine tuning very special things that are graphic intense, or making magic happen/faking things you normally wouldn't be able to do. Objectively Unity is easier to learn, just as powerful as UE, and is capable of interpreting more languages, also easier to develop online games for as well.
Godot has more features out of the box but Defold seems more stable and has better support and performance on mobile, and I'm currently interested in making a mobile game so
Terrific comparison video, and excellent points all around! As someone who makes 2D browser games that also need to be able to be ported to other platforms, Defold has been great and has the edge to Godot with it's smaller file size and better workability for HTML 5. For 3D with more generalized options, I've also used Godot, where as you mentioned 3D support has more out of the box options ATM. Overall IMO Defold is a precision engine that is the best at 2D web and mobile and cross platform, while Godot is more a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none. :)
EDIT: just adding my own experience to help boost the YT discussion so more people ideally see this excellent video and channel!
Oh my! I spent so many hours on this video, over 2 months of after hours 😅 I would love to know what you think could be better? Is it editing? Visuals? Content? Voice? Pronunciation? 😊 (worst case scenario is of course all of this 😅)
@@unfolding_gamedev - I don't think you have to worry too much about any of those things you mentioned. Your videos seem quite polished and professional to me.
@@owdoogames Thank you! 🥰 I'm always open for criticism anyways, it definitely helps improve faster 😉
@@unfolding_gamedev I would not change anything in the video, it perfectly encapsulates the comparisons and is super entertaining to watch! All of your hard work and research really shines through. I was mainly making a comment to help boost this excellent video for the YT algorithm :D
I like both too. Also I switched from Godot to Unity for getting job, without any problem.
Engine-agnostic gamedev is the way indeed
now's the time to switch back😆😆🤣🤣
@@aadit0707gamingyeeeeeee
With the current news with Unity, is your job looking at new game engines or sticking with Unity? Just curious
How’s that working out…. No regrets?
HOORAY! I've been waiting for this comparison! THANK YOU!
I really enjoy watching your videos, and this one in particular is of very high quality. You seem very well-prepared on the topic, and I always look forward to seeing new content from you.
I appreciate the effort and attention to detail you put into your work, and I'm excited to see what you have in store for the future.
Thank you Alexey! ❤️
In 4.0 release, GDNative got replaced by it's successor, GDExtension.
Oh, thank you for the information! ;)
Godot used to be the go to option for 2D over 3D, its crazy how you talk about Godot 3D as it was Unity. Technology moves so fast it really amazes me!
I think, Godot is still pretty good for indie devs!
Defold is just even smaller ;-)
Unity is better for 3D, Godot is still the better in 2D than 3D
Defold had three disadvantages that couldn't convince me.
1- it cannot allow you to create plugins and tools to customize the entire editor. (Unity, Godot have an advantage here.)
2-Contrary to what was described in the video, Defold felt more foreign to me in terms of user experience compared to all the other game engines I've tried; it had more niche concepts.
3- Defold lacks a built-in GUI tool. You need to rely on the community-made ImGui plugin. You know, Godot has very advanced and useful GUI system.
While I agree with the shortcomings you mentioned about Godot, you didn't talk about these significant deficiencies or radical design decisions of Defold in your video. If you had done so, it would have been a very objective comparison video. Nevertheless, thank you."
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, Godot creator said it will never adopt data-oriented design or ECS for its gameplay scripting, so we will never be able to create a complex and massive game like V Rising with Godot. Its Nintendo Switch porting cost is $3,000 and there is no tool to port a Godot game to Switch ourselves
@@containedhurricane Not for the "main" scripting but you can code it yourself or use something like Godex. It's perfectly fine to use data-oriented design or ECS in Godot and I really don't see a reason why games like V Rising couldn't be made with Godot.
Also of course you can port yourself to Switch for example - just need to be a signed dev and need the appropriate SDK - like with every other engine too. 3rd party companies just make this process easier.
@@artxiom I just read several articles about Godot's strengths and weaknesses. For example, we could google about Godot unlimited technical risk
Your first point seems to be outdated now. Don't know how it was like 7 days ago, but right now - there are Native Extensions for the engine, with which you extend the editor.
And your second point is really subjective, can't have that as a point in an objective comparison video.
@@kurushimee It's not outdated. I didn't talk about extensions. Can you develop a custom editor tools like Unity or Godot in Defold? Did you know what's limit of this side on these engines? Actually the second point isn't subjective, you can compare it with other popular game engine literatures or user experience in the industry. Of course, Defold also have good advantages against other game engines. I didn't say that it's a bad game engine. But you should talk about these things if you want to be an objective guy.
Amazing! You are very good at making videos. As always, great content, and I also like the movie/meme moments.
I tried learning godot for a while but something about it felt weird. I am learning defold now and I feel it is somehow better and easier for me to learn
Biggest issue for me w/ Godot is GDScript. If you're constructing something with very deep & complex scripting, then having to do it in a completely engine-dependent system really sucks.
I can take Lua scripting elsewhere. It's very flexible and plays nice with C.
But if you're just building basic scripts, then this isn't an issue.
gdscript is easier to learn. lua doesn't seem to be complicated either, but using it in defold is still very difficult for me, after the logic of godot. and the fact that lua can be used everywhere, it probably sounds like open source, which is relevant for three people out of a hundred.
all engines have their own specialities. for example, ue5 have realistic graphics but if you want real time procedurally generated mesh or real time Deforming - reforming meshes in your game then it is much easier to do it with blender based upbge engine.
Could you tell me what thoes blender based upbge engines are? I'm new to this
@@adampark7181 that is beginner friendly open source game engine based on blender. there are plenty of them out there. bge , upbge , range , armory.
@@adampark7181 if you really wanna learn bge based engines , I recommend armory.
@@adampark7181 google it
This is a very good and fairly objective overall comparison video. I love Godot and have been sporadically messing around with it for a few years as a hobbyist. I've only completed one little game but have four other projects on the go, including my first foray into 3D, and ideas for four others! (I've also been checking out Unity, Unreal and Flax for 3D stuff.)
However, I've recently been drawn to Defold because of what I've heard about its stability, focus and performance. Godot projects sometimes feel like a house-of-cards, and the sweeping changes between 3.5 and 4.0 have put me off it. Being able to build Defold games for Nintendo Switch at no extra cost is also a major attraction for me (though you do have to be registered as a Switch dev with Nintendo). I've also taken a bit of a shine to Lua, after using it for the first time during a Love2D game jam.
I'm currently trying to decide whether to switch to Defold for one of my newer smaller projects, just to see how I get on.
Thank you! Like this subaru proving it can reach the hill, it's great to check out tools and find the most comfortable! Best wishes on your journey! 😊👍
Great comparison, thanks for making it!
Great video. I've been using Godot for nearly 3 years now, it's what got me into game development and I owe a lot to the project. With the numerous breaking changes and bugs introduced since the 4.0 update, however, I find that I am often more frustrated with things that I can no longer do with the engine than I am pleased to have the other enhancements.
Your point about 2D vs. 3D is the big take away here and what I would bring up to anyone comparing the two engines. The core Godot team has made great strides in building out the engine's 3D capabilities and they should be commended. I, however exclusively make 2D "pixel perfect" games visually inspired by things like Celeste or Shovel Knight. In Godot 3.x, achieving that kind of look with smooth gameplay was difficult. In Godot 4.x, it is arguably impossible due to renderer changes introduced in the rewrite.
If that's not a style you care about, then I can easily recommend Godot for just about anything else. I have decided though to start shopping around to see what other options are out there to meet my specific needs and I am eager to give Defold a try!
thank you for this wonderful review and comparison of engines. The engines are actually very different and tailored to specific tasks.
Exactly! Thank you 😊
defold is more polished, godot 4 hmm lately the devs seems rushing all those shiny things and the funny thing rather solidify 4.0 they choose to span it through many version which is odd and if you want to use 4.0 you will surprised and forced to wait for 4.x
Yep.. kinda cult of "wait for godot" =D
In my opinion this is all to suit and attract more and more people to it. Every time I tried Godot I was attracted by some new, shiny and loudly shouted features, but sooner or later disappointed by stability and reliability.
This comment has aged like fine wine. Godot 4.x has been well... "Misplaced priorities"
4.3Stable has been full of bugs where even 2 months after release people have been discovering. Mainly broken web exports.
4.4 doesnt even seem to be fixing this, just adding more and more features.
They (Godot Foundation) posted about Rendering Priorities but that whole post has nothing about the bugs regarding the Compatibility Renderer that were introduced with 4.3Stable.
That was surprising. I thought Godot had a very simple and easy to understand UI already. I found relatively low friction to making games with it. Though, tbf, i am comparing it to Unity and UE.
I tried Defold for a very short time before.
My impression was that the UI elems must've been so simple, i thought making a game in Defold was very spartan in it's approach. Hence, more complicated to making games than with Godot. Not to mention, an extreme lack of tutorials.
I may try out Defold again sometime soon because of this vid.
Here's an idea:
How about starting a "Make a simple game from zero" tutorial series
Would be a great boost to make people join Defold, i think.
Targeted, game engine feature specific tutorials are great and all, but those vids feel like are for advanced users of the engine only. Unless that's your intended target audience, Defold evangelists won't get people to join the fold who are on the fence with the engine, IMHO.
Godot is also lagging behind with webgl and opengl support. Its 4.2.2 and still no compatibility mode working with all features from version 3.x.
When I evaluate game engine I personnally prioritize : export for the web, wysiwyg editor, animation editor, vector or multi-resolution support.
I tried defold, which seemed well suited to my needed, but I was disappointed.
- defold is indeed best for web export, godot - like about any other unity-like - doesn't care much about web games. Still, I remember I tried an "hello world" in defold but I had to double-check the docs and ask question in discord to get smtg less than 2mb
- both have a wysiwig editor, (but see below defold's take on representing data)
- godot has an animation editor, defold hasn't (yes panthera exist as a comunity add-on, but in godot the whole system is designed so that every property is key-able)
- godot has a simple and easy-to-grasp model to represent game hierarchy (nodes), defold reinvented a whole new system, which I found hard to grasp with too many concepts (URLs, Collections, Container, ..)
- godot has some SVG support, defold has Rive support (but it was in beta when I benchmarked defold)
I may try defold again in the future. Cocos creator would be another great choice although it has its own set of issues.
Nice job comparing the two.
My five cents on the Godot size. The engine can be built excluding unnecessary modules. For example, a 3D module if the game is 2D, or physics if the game does not need it, etc. This allows you to significantly reduce the already tiny (by modern standards) size of the engine. The process of building the engine is incredibly simple, and well explained in the documentation.
Defold builds can have excluded modules as well, there is a single manifest file for this 😊
+ you can modify and build custom engine versions, that's a power or both of them 😉
Godot's documentation is gibberish, not well explained, for someone new using a Game Engine for the first time is to fall into a bottomless pit.
@@madmonkey360shadowgun6disagree
However, the engine is incredibly large on web browsers. I've been working with it for years and pretty much already have become accustomed to how to optimise its size in a pretty ridiculous way.
I'm definitely trying defold
been in the process of transitioning from unity/unreal to godot
just found out about defold, after this vid i reckon i ought to give it a shot :)
hows your experience?
This video has made me strongly consider defold I've found it very useful
Glad to hear it! :)
Another amazing video ❤.
Congratulations 👏👍🤟.
So, in conclusion they're both great game engines. Thus, if a person is still undecided on which engine to choose, then they should do a drawing. Put the names Godot and Defold into a bag, close their eyes, reach into the bag, and whichever name comes out is the game engine that they use lol 🤣😂.
If I ever get more into android, I think defold would be worth a try. For now, I'll be sticking with Godot. I also like the native switch support as well with defold.
Very interesting. Great video.
There are many lowkey game engine like Defold we dont even know exist
po akcencie od razu poznałem, że Polak! Powodzonka! :)
Dzięki wielkie! 😁 Zainteresowany Defoldem?
@@unfolding_gamedevtak naprawdę to chciałem dowiedzieć się więcej na temat godot a o tym silniku pierwsze słyszę, ale pora zagłębić temat innych silników bo żyłem w przekonaniu, że jest tylko unity, unreal i godot :)
La diferencia radica entre tus habilidades y requerimientos, y si el motor no tiene que tiene lo mismo que el otro, fíjate en la comunidad, siempre hay extensiones creadas por la comunidad.
What are the chances you could do one comparing Defold with GMS? I can see why the comparisons with Unity and Godot, but realistically Defold seems much closer in capabilities to GMS a bit.
+1! Also Solar2D and Cocos Creator
I just not spent too much time with other engines and not feel I would make a reliable comparison, but maybe someday I would have enough time to check the other engines 😁
*Honestly I like Stride Engine.* I does work on this engine developing RTS games but too know use Unity and Godot :)
9:20 care to elaborate please. couldn't catch what was being said.
How about defold vs gamemaker studio?
Game maker is ahead of these two cause is only 2d focused since 1999.
I use Defold but Godot have a very useful feature, like the signals feature, the message in Defold for me It is not enough, the observer pattern is not implemented as such.
Observer pattern is easily implemented with Defold's messaging system (one of examples is here github.com/critique-gaming/crit) or can be implemented in Lua too. Godot signals are in general very similar to Defold messages, but maybe have better presentation in Godot Editor imho 😉 There are definitely other points that diverge the engines more 😉
Godot has a number of dedicated fans who are a bit elitist and over protective and which kinda ruined the community experience for me. I still use it but I try to keep interactions with them at minimum.
@@rytif There are many people some of which important people in Godot circles who have left the community and are higly vocal or critical of the engine now. For me I don't care too much and like I said I still use it but I keep interaction with Godot socials at a minimum for my sanity. Despite what people think, Godot's community is very toxic.
I indeed use Godot for my production work and I'm with you there. Those are just obnoxious to interact with, especially when you say that you expect something to work just like what all other game engines do lmao.
In my experience, the roadblock was Lua in Defold and low-fidelity shaders. Very often I'm thinking to give Defold another try.
EDIT: In Lua indexing from 1 at minimum made a compact calculation having an extra - "WHY?". Locking everything to be referenced dictionary without a native way to copy objects with internals wasn't that pleasant.
For shaders at least for me having an extra Uniform Sample2D/textures is a pretty essential feature to have. Dunno, what is the situation now.
The main feature I'm interested to get back to Defold is Rive integration. That stuff solves jankines I see in 2d bone animations and create amazing and sharp morphing 2D visuals.
Hello Agnis! There were a lot of improvements in rendering+shaders area. Multiple textures are currently possible for models and mesh components, still not for sprite. There is though a Multiple Render Targets feature implemented opening many possibilities too ;) Rive extension is also going well - I am testing latest version right now and might make a video about it :) And I appreciate your input into Defold community back then! :D
Ill be super partial mainly because im a parentheses fanboy. Godot has a lisp dialect for gamescripting. That alone, makes an incredibly based engine in my eyes.
I teach computer science at a middle school, and i have a kid who's very interested in game-dev, but he's still trying to figure out what engine to use, should i recommend DEFOLD for him?
I am not a teacher and I don't know this kid abilities 😉 As an advice from my perspective, there are simple, easy to learn and no code frameworks like GDevelop. Then, if the kid will like to make a game, the need to learn programming will be crucial, so then I could recommend Defold and Lua 😉
@@unfolding_gamedev Thank you for the reply, we teach them Scratch, so he has basic understanding of IF statements, Loops, and Variables, he just needs to start programming proper, i think he would be just fine with DEFOLD .. thanks again. i'll recommend your channel too.
You should recommend the easiest Game Engine to start using for a beginner, which would be Unity. Unity uses Mono form of C# and can be extended on using this also, not only are the scripts able to be written in many different languages that Unity is capable of understanding, but you have a huge support community with free assets to get anyone started on understanding development concepts such as modular or object-oriented programming. Without knowing C#, C++, or Python you then become limited to learning another language to use another engine. 3D is where you'll want a more robust/sophisticated engine capable of rendering custom shaders and dynamic resolutions, which Godot and Defold are very limited on. Unreal uses C++ which is more system level of a language and is used to manipulate lower level functions and customize things on a level most people really don't need unless it's for specific hardware sets. Really it just depends on the requirements of the game, and how much rendering power is needed for the platform. Intense 3D graphics on high end machines would be a game created with UE5 for example, intense 3D graphics are more than possible (if not easier) in Unity than any other engine, but can also be optimized better for web or mobile on Unity as well, which is why I believe most people say it's best for those platforms, though Unity is more than capable of anything UE can do just with it's extra interpreter packages.
7:45 that game is called Land of BLIGHT, not Bliss! Pretty much the opposite of Bliss.
is there a course about learning the defold engine with making a compleet game like a platformer?
Here you go!
Official: defold.com/tutorials/platformer/
Game Developers channel: th-cam.com/video/Q_R8Zt8giGg/w-d-xo.html
Defold channel: th-cam.com/video/j1kh45_Rhq4/w-d-xo.html
My channel: th-cam.com/video/R4oEB6e8G0A/w-d-xo.html
Nice video, I want to make a Ludo game, Chess game & Card building deck game but not sure which game engine to use especially as I can't code sigh can you recommend something along with tutorials please thanks.
Open source no code, there's Gdevelop, paid option there's Game Maker and Construct and Stencyl. Edit: for grammar
@@G5349 Thanks are there any tutorials? Thanks
@@nyn2k259 Learn to code. It's not difficult, it just takes time, and there's so many resources out there to learn it. Anything you use is going to just put a shiny coat over code anyways, you're still going to be doing the same logic so you aren't getting away from coding if you want to do game development.
You sold me on Defold. And I love Lua anyway.
For someone that is new to game dev, how hard would it be for me to make a retro fps like Quake or third person like Heretic 2 in defold?
Here you have a nice base to check out ;)
forum.defold.com/t/noname-2-5-shooter-open-source/57417
Being new to game dev always means there is a lot of work, regardless of the chosen tools ;)
@@unfolding_gamedev Alright and thank you. I been having problems finding an engine I like and defold seems cool to try.
4.0 ain't that bad? i was using it day 0 of release and had no crashes
It is definitely not bad, it is a solid step forward in Godot development imho 😉
Sadly, I have crashes even up to this day, maybe a little bit less frequent with 4.0.1 - but still happening, especially when resizing window, loading some resources or putting some nodes in a 3D scene. 2D works totally fine though. I was definitely very upset about it, but I noted it is totally my experience. Some people had it to of course, but what can I say, a ton of contributors already invested their time into this and I and everyone appreciate it a lot, this is a very good project and is only getting better with time 😉
Godot is lack of security. No obfuscator. And 80% of Godot user be like "Who cares about your source code". Feel like a bunch of amateur. It just a matter of time until some people upload an article with the title "How to Clone a game made with Godot". Step 1. Notepad. 2. Copy-paste. 3. Build. Upload to play store. You are good to go. Can't they at least make it harder? The only thing that Godot win over Defold is 3D and some basic stuff like 2d light extra. In Defold you tweak render script or use extension/template. In Godot you can "drag & drop" those. But like I said those a basic. Move on to advance stuff like Admob or console or whatever , Defold is a clear winner.
You can always build your own template with a private key to encrypt the source code
😅 I got why you are so frustrated but if you are no beginner you should also know that it’s easy to keep your environment secret so that no one can clone it, you can encrypt the data and it will be secure. Yes maybe decoding is possible but that’s said it is possible to clone a unity game as well, which they did so many times. At the end of the day you have the official game and you can always prove it with your upload date, so it’s easier to sue someone…
I too agree that in 2d side Defold is great, but no one can say greater in every way.
Respectfully!
Issue with Defold, the community is small and there is a limited amount of tutorials
Just say you're trash & move on
I'm wondering if there's anything for PCVR(OpenXR) in Defold?
you should do gamemaker next
I would need to use it for a while to make my opinion, but I never used Game Maker, I don't want to compare only on paper :D When I will have some more time for this, I might play around with GM, so please, be patient, thank you! ;)
@@unfolding_gamedev sick I will be patient
which one is better to make android game (2d polygon or pilexart), easier to learn and use ?
Im going to give Defold a try since i like Lua it’s similar to Python and Gdscript I really dont like
godot is very popular but it breaks very often and its performance is very bad especially on mobile and web, defold is very light and its performance is very good on mobile and web. good comparison.
If you're getting bad performance, your code is causing it.
Using C# or C++ results in performance no different than any other engine.
@@GoblinArmyInYourWalls That is absurd, 90% are not able to have a decent level of programming using Python or Lua and you want them to use C++ or C#? XDD
Finally I found someone on internet so says something negative about Godot
@@PR1NC3 You've just found a shiny.
it probably is for the time you said it, but it's open source. what this means is that if you got a problem with it... You can talk about it or fix it yourself!
Godot is definitely more 2D than 3D. :/ Makes me doubt a lot of this video.
can i make platformer game with defold like hallow knight and Cuphead etc. an story hand drawn game
Yes, anyone can make such similar game in any game engine, in Defold, in Godot, or with own game engine, doesn't matter 😉
so far, no one has had such an idea in default. but it would be interesting to take a look at it and it would motivate many to study this engine.
The biggest advantage Defold has over Godot is the Lua language.
@@rafae5902 True
Im having trouble deciding between godot and defold. Can you pin point me which engine is more suited towards x type of games so I can decide which is better for my needs. And before you ask, yes I have tried both. Thanks(Also not looking to do mobile or web games)
Unity is your best bet if you are beginning.
I was in the same situation and chose defold. Also, if you're making a strictly indie game, you should at least go for Android.
Though godot does both 2d and 3d it was and in some regards still is 2d engine with 3d added on to it. Tbough they are definately improving on that. Never tried defold though, may have to check it out
after the exposed godot grifter cult and the drama i think i will check this engine out .
how many times have I searched for videos and 3d training in default. I didn't find anything. it seems to me that this is still a 2d engine and not 3d. in the same godot there is a bunch of everything both 3d and 2d.
Defold is in fact only a 3D engine, while Godot consists of both 2D and 3D engines. Can't deny though that there are much more materials, tutorials and videos for Godot than Defold, that's what I'm trying to change, at least a little :D
My problem with Defold is te lack of tutorials
Is my channel fixing this problem a bit? :D
@@unfolding_gamedev Yes indeed my good Sir :D
yes, there are very few tutorial videos, and even fewer devlogs of games on defold.
1:38 Godot is a French word, so you should pronounce it like French people do. However, since you don’t say “go-dot”, you’re safe. 😂
According to Google Translate, it should be something like [gʊ'do:]. 😅
I’ve heard people saying [gᵊdəʊ] though, and that’s okay.
@@Montegasppa D'accord! I'm learning French, so I might soon pronounce it properly! 😅
BTW, I hate French. 😅
In my childhood, my mother pushed me too much to learn French, so I developed a mental block. 🤷
come on, its two minutes and you still cry over "no game engine is the best, pick one that suits the project" BUT WHO CARES IF IT WAS MEANT TO BE COMPARISON? JUST COMPARE THEM! LMAO
0:25 no!
There no way you think lua is easier to comprehend than gdscript which is basically python the easiest language by far. Other than that great video.
Lua(jit) is way ahead in terms of being simple but very fast. It is quite difficult to find a programming language as fast and simple as Luajit.
I did check in to see what the defold engine was about, but the amount of things missing to effect gameplay is huge, just look at the gameobject, compared to like a node in godot. The different properties is huge, with the change of one variable in the node system in godot you can affect gameplay fast, but when i looked at the gameobjects of defold, i saw 3 properties, and then what? how can i change gameplay fast and easy.
Game object is just a container with a transform for components - and these are "equivalents" to Godot nodes rather, if you'd like to compare it.
Components have way more properties depending on the type + script components can have as many properties as you'd like to ;)
The info is a bit outdated. Godot 4.0.1 and 3.5.2 have been released.
Yeah, true. I might make a refreshed video some day in the future 😉
my favorite part was windows linuc and mac
😅
I could make few hours footage where I ended up misspelling or mispronouncing or totally messing up :D Few things I notice only *after* uploading 🤦
How do you get ads on mobile for godot?
Here is one option: github.com/Shin-NiL/Godot-Android-Admob-Plugin ;)
When team Defold writes a legally binding open contract with the community that states they cannot suddenly change the license and/or demand royalties at any future date, then, AND ONLY THEN, could I bring myself to trust them enough to migrate. However, in the wake of somewhat recent similar events.... yeah... Defold is going to be a "no" for me.
It's not good for someone else to own something you devote major time and effort into. For this reason I am VERY proprietary shy. I feel like everyone else should be too.
the best computer game in human history is Dwarf Fortress, and it was made as a command prompt ASCII game. graphics are overrated.
well i dont like the fact that godot started as a scam
plz fix your sibilance in the audio. too irritating on higher volumes
I can't stand Godots editor. I have used Unreal and Unity and for me its just ugly and sluggish for some reason.
godot is not good for webgames as the base exported game in 40mb
godot isn't 3d focused and godot 4 is super stable already.
Godot is marketed more and more as 3D focused and a meaningful competitor to the biggest players in the market - Unity and Unreal, but there is a lot to improve to compete with them and they are not standing still in the meanwhile. And if you call Godot 4 super stable considering a ton of reports on forums, reddits and so on, that's a vague definition of "stability" :D We can't swept it all below carpet just to call good things about engines :D Defold has its flaws too, can't deny it is lacking a lot of features, but at least it tries not to be marketed as more than it really is. Regardless of the Godot Editor crashes, the official demo 3D scene in Godot 4 runs at 4 FPS on a computer, on which I was playing Witcher 3. 60 FPS only when I reduce the resolution to 10% there. I can't call it stable, sorry! But maybe it is stable for you and that's very good ;) I can still recommend Godot 3.5 maybe not over Unity, but over Defold for simple 3D games for sure.
@@unfolding_gamedevhat weird, for me i can run something like super sponza without texture at 30-40 fps with post process(except sdfgi) on an igpu, where you got that demo scene?. Also if you mean the space ship one with the defaults i already had 15-10 fps so something seems to be wrong with your graphics card in godot 4
Godot 4 3d super stable? LMFAO
@@unfolding_gamedev when I say stable I mean it works and it doesn't crash. Unreal engine crashes all the time still
@@nathanlamaire what's your definition of stable? Mine is it doesn't crash while I'm in the middle of using it
objectively the best engine is Unreal's, stop this wishy washy lack of definition.
I agree with you - when it comes to most visually stunning game engine, Unreal is one of the best engines available (but there are also proprietary stunning looking game engines). Other engines either try to compete, or try to find their own niche, where Unreal isn't the best choice ;)
objectively the best engine would be Unity, though it uses C# it can be expanded to use C++ if needed, though rarely is needed. I would say UE is for fine tuning of graphic intense things and situations due to it using a lower level language and can use system related things more easily, however, it also requires much more code to accomplish the exact same thing in C#. So, in a way Unity would be easier to develop code and logic for, where UE would be for fine tuning very special things that are graphic intense, or making magic happen/faking things you normally wouldn't be able to do. Objectively Unity is easier to learn, just as powerful as UE, and is capable of interpreting more languages, also easier to develop online games for as well.