Hi, I just had a doubt about the gdevelop naming scheme as I was sitting doing nothing. So, I thought I might ask it on the forum. I know there is a GDevelop 4 but, I have no clue about the older versions. I don’t know if older versions exist or if it doesn’t. It would be nice to get a history lesson. Did GDevelop start from GDevelop 4? If yes, why did it have 4 in its name and why did it start from there. If older versions exist why are they not supported or not talked about.
What would be the point of supporting old obsolete dysfunctional versions?
Here’s Game Develop v1: www.compilgames.net/dl/gdbeta5.exe
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There were older versions yes. You can find gd3 on GitHub I think.
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It was called Game Develop but it was not search engine friendly because if you searched for “Game Develop tutorial”, you did find lots of game dev tutorials for other engines but not GD. So 4ian made the decision to come up with a more unique name, the result is GDevelop. So no there was no GDevelop 1,2 it was called Game Develop.
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I it has been a while. But, still think i will get an answer. What is GDevApp? What is the difference between GDevelop and GDevApp
Before GDevelop 5 the editor was made in c++. For GDevelop 5, the editor got rewritten in JavaScript. JavaScript can run on the web, that’s what https://editor.gdevelop-app.com is, the editor running directly online. Before it wasn’t possible to run the c++ IDE in the browser so a separate IDE was created for making games online: GDevApp. Now that we have the complete IDE available online, it got deleted as there is no point in having a less good and extremely minimal online version of the IDE.
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Actually I believe it was terminated with no explanation, way before GD5 was announced.
GDevApp was the very first attempt of 4ian to make an IDE in JS and the idea was to make a complete game making tool that runs in the browser from a server, actually it was among the very first tools running in the browser, preceded even C3. 4ian did miss a huge opportunity there. I believe Scirra announced C3 only a year after the first release of GDevApp.
But obviously being the first attempt, the very core was poorly designed admittedly and 4ian realised he had to start from scratch and I believe it was also a financial sink hole as GDevApp did offer features like building for Android, upload assets, share projects with full source, host games, share events in an event store…etc for free which obviously did cost money to host that 4ian paid from his pocket. So one day 4ian just pulled the plug with no explanation really, way before GD5, GDevApp just went offline and never come back.
And then sometime later 4ian announced GD5 but at the time it was only meant to be an offline IDE, there was no mention of browser version beyond being only a preview/demo of the offline IDE, and still I don’t really see 4ian is trying to compete in the web browser as much as GDevApp did back then.
This is how I remember. But could remember wrong, it was long time ago.
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Here a slide about GDevApp.
This was the first try of the current GDevelop with the web technologies.
The idea behind was to not used C++ inside the IDE. And get a easier tech trhought the web possibilities.
API and lib like pixi, socket.io, etc…
And like all hardwares, tablet , smartphone and PC have a browser or an embeded web view it’s easier to use the web than create a native app for each type of OS or devices.
Also the web have the possibilite to be responsive. And now a big part of your app are called progressive web app, GD go headed in that direction.
Discord, Spotify, Uber, Pinterest… and much more.
The slide lists technologies such as angular and node, some of which are no longer in use today or have been replaced by others over time.
You can see conferences about GD on this wiki page, and see the evolution along the years.
http://wiki.compilgames.net/doku.php/gdevelop5/community/events
If you wish know a bit more the DNA of GDevelop and her history:
http://wiki.compilgames.net/doku.php/gdevelop5/community/faq
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