This isn’t really a devlog, and is just a one-time message. Remember how I said that I was retiring from GDevelop? Well, most of y’all said that I was leaving for the wrong reason, saying that (correct me if I’m wrong), visual scripting is not terrible or downright awful and that popular games like Hollow Knight was made using visual scripting entirely in Unity.
Well, look at me, crawling back to GDevelop, after I made a message saying I was “leaving” the engine, as I just realized visual scripting (or event-based programming in this matter).
Now, I’m currently in the planning stages of a 2D platformer I’m working on using pre-made assets (or some created by me.)
I don’t care if you like or don’t like this message of you read “I’m officially retiring from GDevelop”, but I’ll share some more info later on about my 2D platformer down the line.
welcome back. I see it the same way as MrMen. Trying several tools and choosing the one that works for you in a specific situation is the right thing to do. I believe this is also what people like Goodgis and the others you have mentioned in your ‘retiring’ post would say - and even if they wouldn’t, who cares?
Some of the concerns you wrote in your ‘retiring’-post were actually unfounded and the subtext a bit negative. Anyway, it is good that you have changed your mind.
Using an engine is not joining a church or cult - although for Godot you could get that feeling from time to time - and there is no need to justify why you prefer to use one tool or the other.
But i am sure that Josh will master several game engines within the next few years.
It’s like programmers (maybe especially those from the past) who knew and used multiple programming languages depending on the type of applications they were developing. Personally, counting both pure languages and scripting languages, more than a dozen, but I have forgotten some and practiced only a few. That’s how we progress, and as Lucky said to his niece: “Practice makes perfect!” or in French: “C’est en forgeant que l’on devient forgeron !” (“It is by forging that one becomes a blacksmith!”)
The event sheet definitely has its cons. I think it would be cool to have something like a “GD-Script” which would be a text version of the event sheet. It would not be a simple task to create though, as you’d have to come up with a syntax that is easy enough to type out, but that is also readable and matches up with events as they are normally displayed. For example you wouldn’t want to be typing “change the position of [object]”, instead you would need something short like “object.Position(x, y)”. But there are many options in terms of how to structure this and it would get pretty complicated with certain events/event blocks.
Oh, I’m finding it pretty good and manageable. I figured out how to make a tiny platformer demo and a top-down shooter demo, but I only know the basic functions of GDScript, so I don’t really know much in terms of managing animated sprites, or anywhere outside using a CharacterBody2D node and script.
Also, I’m coming back to GDevelop because I realized that I can balance both GDevelop and Godot simultaneously when I have the time, and I’ve actually been using GDevelop for over a year at this point, so I’ve definently got a good sense on what I’m doing with this engine. Thx for asking, by the way.
One thing I like about GDevelop is you can quickly prototype a game. I made the same game in Unity, Godot and GDevelop. It took me over a year in Unity, 6 months with Godot and 6 weeks with GDevelop.
Yeah, I have watched a little bit of Brackey’s Godot tutorials, especially on “How to Make a Video Game - Godot Begineer Tutorial”, but I mostly looked on smaller tutorials that told me the basics right away, so I can learn and view my work as my learning environment.
That’s really interesting. I’ve always wondered about the motivations of highly skilled people such as yourself and their reasons for using GDevelop when they have the experience and knowledge to use anything. Would be interesting too to hear from user Keith f you happen to read this.
TLDR; I started with GDevelop to teach programming/game making to 11 & 12 year olds and then used it to make educational games.
I started with GDevelop because my son, 11 years old at the time and not a programmer, was asked to help his class learning program because their teacher didn’t know anything about it.
However, I didn’t think that was right for everyone involved (he struggled) and offered to teach them. The problem was, I only had knowledge of using normal programming languages (like C, C++, C#), which I considered beginner unfriendly.
So I went on the hunt for a game engine that was easy to use and pick up.
And GDevelop ended up being it. A big plus for me was it could be published on phones and mobile devices, opening the possibility of the kids creating and showing off their games in the playground - spoiler, they haven’t, yet. For now it’s just on their Chrome books and PCs.
Personally I’ve used GDevelop to create games on an educational platform, primarily because of the speed at which the game can be put together and the ease at which a game can be published online.
Very intéressant, all that.
2 dumb questions but just two to manage you well:
Do we have statistics on usage rate by great amators and professionals on the different games engines, including GDevelop?
Also, usage rates for games created with GDevelop on the games market?