Hey everyone. I got some sad news for y’all. A couple days ago, I decided to make tiny projects since I realized that making my dream game, “An Insect Named Buggie” was going to take longer to finish and bigger for GDevelop to handle. I decided to make a shooter similar to Pang and Space Invaders, where you play as a red cannon, and must shoot down colored squares in order to rack up a high score. I was making pretty good progress in the scenes, but then I realized that having to drag-and-drop objects and events around was SLOW than just writing code, and that’s what hit me. I never got to finish my projects because one of the things that kept slowing me down was the events.
I watched videos like Goodgis, Bracekys, etc., and they all said that writing code is far more faster, powerful, and time-efficient than drag-and-dropping events like in GDevelop or Construct 3. I definently heard from engines like Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine, and even GameMaker Studio 2 about how writing code is what greater games come faster.
Now, I’m definently not saying GDevelop is absolute trash. I’m just saying it doesn’t fit my cup of tea. So, I’m quitting GDevelop and switching over to Godot, and joining the Godot community.
As for everyone around here, thanks so much for all of your help, time, and friendliness for what made me warm up to GDevelop more. Y’all are absolutely awesome, made great games, and y’all are just the best.
Also, I want to mention a fun fact about my age. When I first joined the GDevelop community, I was only 14 at the time, and now, I’m 15 joining Godot and making games in it.
It was nice to meet you and I trust you will keep having fun and learning on your game dev journey no matter what engine you choose.
I want to tell you what I told my niece when she was very little. She seemed to enjoy drawing and I told her to draw every day. Even if she only had 15 minutes or even if she hated how it came out, to draw every day. And to never throw any of her work away. Now she is 17 and is already getting commissions. So I’m going to tell you too, work on coding every day. Even if it seems slow at first and even if you are not making the game of your dreams at the moment, work on it every day. And don’t delete projects you didn’t like. You don’t have to share them with the world but they’re very useful for reusing bits out of or inspiration years later.
Blimey - I thought you might be young but I hadn’t realized you were that young! Good luck with Godot!
I’d looked at it, and then last year I decided that there was more to Unity, which is probably a dirty word within this forum.
GDevelop is great for quickly sketching an idea or developing browser games and it’s still going to be great for quickly sketching an idea and developing browser games when you’ve learnt gdscript and published your first game with godot. - so come back and let us know how you got on with it.
Do note though that a lot of opinions on visual scripting are based around things like Scratch and the Microsoft MakeCode engines.
There are a ton of successful games out there that are using visual scripting only (Hollow Knight, Observation, Stories Untold. Dreamfall Chronicles, etc), so if you do end up using a visual scripting system (in any engine) don’t believe anyone who tells you it isn’t useful/good/etc.
(Also in Unreal Engine, the Blueprints visual scripting system is almost mandatory to be used in any large studio)
thanks @Silver-Streak - My giddy goose! I didn’t know that my fav game of all time ‘Hollow Knight’ was written using visual scripting. This from the website of a rival engine beginning with U and here replaced with XXXX Hollow Knight serves as an excellent reminder that beautiful games don’t necessarily need to focus on grand technical achievements…
Rather than using complex 3D lighting systems, they handled lighting with soft transparent shapes. The team built levels with 2D assets layered in a 3D environment using many of XXXXX’s out-of-the-box 2D features, including 2D Physics, Sprite Packer, and the Particle System with the help of the [2D T
‘While the team does have some coding experience and did write custom scripts for certain elements, they created all the enemies and interactive elements using [Playmaker]’
First off, I wanted to ask. Are you new here, because I haven’t seen you anywhere in the GDevelop Forum. But if you are, welcome to the GDevelop community! Just as you already know, I’m not using GDevelop anymore, and I understand that visual scripting a’int all throughout useless. It’s just that it’s taking me longer to actually make something.
Also, I never said visual scripting wasn’t bad, or if I did, I didn’t really mean it was terrible. I just said that it was a little slow, and I was ready to take on more powerful engines, as a 15-year-old.
Note: When I said visual scripting, I also meant event scripting like GDevelop or Construct 3, and it can be used in terms of Scratch, Stencyl, or Microsoft MakeCode.
Don’t worry, I’ll still chat in the GDevelop community because y’all kept encouraging me to keep on going with the engine, but alas, there’s a ton of opportunities and shots I can take, and I have to keep moving forward.
No worries, I was mostly responding to this part of your post:
Anyone telling you that Visual Scripting is somehow slower or not capable of great games is misleading you (or viewing it from the angle of “I’m used to code and tried Visual Scripting”).
Visual Scripting is slower if you’re trying to use it the exact same way you would use code (because Visual Scripting abstracts a lot of things, and trying to skip those abstractions will take more time) just as coding would be slower for someone trying to use it like they use visual scripting (as building out the abstractions first would be slower than coding directly).
Again, best of luck in your game dev journey with whatever engine you end up with.
No most definitely not new . I’m an ex-moderator for the discord and forums, and I generally only reply to topics I have some form of direct guidance available for.
When I said I was quitting visual scripting, it’s based on my personal preference, and you didn’t really need to say that many great games are actually made with visual scripting. It’s based on how it fits my personal needs and time.
I’m sure Silver-Streak did not mention that to disparage your personal preference. In fact the opposite, he gave that information to encourage you or other forum members personal preference over random people’s opinions
In other words, if you use Blueprints in Unreal, or Unity Visual Scripting, and find they work for you and you prefer them, don’t feel you have to stop using them because other people have the opinion that they’re worthless. When other people start making your game for you, maybe then their opinion matters.
I now remembered that when I watched people on YouTube that visual scripting is slower than code, that actually doesn’t mean they don’t like it. They still use visual scripting or event-based programming logic, and that game engines like GDevelop, Construct 3, or even GameMaker Studio 2 (with GML Visual), they all allow easier room for growth than regular code, and for me, I love visual scripting because it gets the job done, and plus, it’s great for rapid prototyping.
It’s just that I have the choice to move on or not, and I chose to move forward because I already got nearly a year’s worth of experience out of GDevelop, and I want to take my game development skills to the next level with Godot.
So, I never meant to say visual scripting is what people aren’t going for these days. I just wasn’t being specific enough, and that visual scripting, like of what y’all said, Unreal Engine’s Blueprint or Unity Visual Scripting, is built for literally everyone from striving indie game devs to top AAA game companies.
You know that Godot can also do 2D, right? I mean, basically all other game engines like Unity, GameMaker Studio 2, Construct 3, and even Unreal Engine (though you may have to install plugins) can do 2D these days, and my plan is to make bigger 2D games in Godot, and smaller 2D games in GDevelop, at least, that WAS my plan.
Funny…I’m coming here from RPG Maker as I wanted to make a larger variety of games (not just RPGs) and found RPG Maker too limiting and dependent on tons of 3rd party plugins (many of which cost money) to make a more clunky version to what GDevelop just has built in for free. It was a small learning curve since both engines use Javascript and similar event pages.
Are other engines more powerful? Yes, but I’m looking for something casual, easy to pick up and flexible and GDevelop delivers.
I’m replying to you as someone who has (painfully) tried to write code for years — from GameMaker to Unity to Godot and so on. I agree with everyone above who responded to you saying that whoever told you coding is faster than visual scripting is wrong.
First of all, learning how to code takes years. If you reach the point where you’re as fluent in “speaking code” as you are in natural language, then yes, you’ll definitely be faster. But I’m telling you — that’s not the only factor. Many times you’ll be dealing with complex mathematical and physical calculations, which means not just knowing how to write code, but also having an advanced understanding of math and scientific subjects compared to most people.
For example, in GDevelop, you can create a raycast with a single action that integrates scene variables, painted objects, the arctangent formula, and probably more. Now imagine trying to script that event from scratch. I’m not saying you wouldn’t be able to do it, but would you be faster? no…In my opinion.
Just to think How in efficent ways, requires hours
Thanks everyone, but please don’t try to stop me from doing actual coding. I know all of you are part of the GDevelop Forum, and have your own space, but please, I’m trying to learn more in game development, and I don’t want to be stuck in GDevelop until I spend years learning how to code, so please don’t make the decisions for me and let me take my own path.
I personally don’t care if you leave. I’ve seen dozens of people who used to be regulars in the RPG Maker community leave it for one reason or another. It happens. People move on to other engines or get busy with other things.
If GDevelop’s not powerful enough for you, godspeed on your journey in finding an engine that is. Personally, it fits what I’m looking for.
. I’m an ex-moderator for the discord and forums, and I generally only reply to topics I have some form of direct guidance available for.
