Check out our Monthly Survey Page to see what our users are running.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Godot Game Engine Is Now Open Source

By - | Views: 31,140
Good news developers, Godot Engine is now open source for you to tinker with. Could this be a real alternative to Unity for developers who want to develop games directly on Linux?

You can find all of the source right on Github for easy access.

About
Godot is a fully featured, open source, MIT licensed, game engine. It focuses on having great tools, and a visual oriented workflow that can export to PC, Mobile and Web platforms with no hassle. The editor, language and APIs are feature rich, yet simple to learn, allowing you to become productive in a matter of hours.

Considering that it is open-source it could easily overtake Unity as a fully features game creation kit. It enables you to create 2D and 3D games with scripting, animation, user interface creation and physics all in one package.
It also allows you to do a one-click deploy to a lot of different platforms.

I do wonder how Leadwerks feels about this, considering they are porting to Linux right now and Godot is free & open source. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Open Source
0 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
8 comments

adolson Feb 14, 2014
The LeadWerks guys seem to accept that everyone are individuals and that there is no one product that is best for everyone. At least, that's the impression I got in their Steam forum threads when people questioned other engines (and yes, I threw the Godot Engine into the mix). I think the more options, the merrier, and I doubt Godot going open-source will really steal away customers from LeadWerks or Unity or whatever else. If you've already invested money and time into one development kit, I'd assume you're not in a real hurry to switch.

I'm planning to stick with Godot for now. I'll look at LeadWerks if - for some reason - Godot doesn't meet my needs. I suspect it'll be a long time before I hit any walls... It's hard to find time to work on games along with other hobbies (including playing games), especially with a demanding toddler running around.
Liam Dawe Feb 14, 2014
Quoting: adolsonIt's hard to find time to work on games along with other hobbies (including playing games), especially with a demanding toddler running around.

I feel for you there!
migizi Feb 14, 2014
Correct me if I'm wrong but I have a theory as to why this was made open source. I swear that the engine is based on OpenGL 2.1. While nearly 100% of systems out there have support for that, it's an older inefficient version. At this point companies are moving on to at least 3.0 and I'm guessing most won't support anything less than 3.2 core profile. If developers want a modern language than using the Godot Engine won't appeal to them. Now I'm sure this will get updated over time. I haven't looked at it but if it's as good as they say it will give Ogre3D a run for its community. Ogre3D is working on 3.0 support but I guess time will tell which engine will advance faster.

I'm one of the developers that wants 3.2 core profile support and higher. I've been watching the Leadwerks engine but we'll see how far I get with my own stuff before the Linux port is done.
Hamish Feb 14, 2014
Godot was primarily targeted at mobile previously, meaning that the latest and greatest graphics were never its chief concern. That being said, now that it has its source code available we as a community could step in to fix that. Also, it is using OpenGL ES 2, not OpenGL 2, which is actually based on OpenGL 3 and fully API compatibile with OpenGL 4.1.

My main interest here is that Godot may finally help resolve the greatest issue with these game creation environments, which is that you never do actually have complete control or in effect complete ownership of your games. Since the main editor is free software, this is no longer an issue here.
migizi Feb 14, 2014
Quoting: HamishGodot was primarily targeted at mobile previously, meaning that the latest and greatest graphics were never its chief concern. That being said, now that it has its source code available we as a community could step in to fix that. Also, it is using OpenGL ES 2, not OpenGL 2, which is actually based on OpenGL 3 and fully API compatibile with OpenGL 4.1.

My main interest here is that Godot may finally help resolve the greatest issue with these game creation environments, which is that you never do actually have complete control or in effect complete ownership of your games. Sine the main editor is free software, this is no longer an issue here.

Ah ok OpenGL ES 2.0 is good. Looks like OpenGL 2.0 but gets rid of all the fixed pipeline stuff.

Anyways I think developers that are really concerned about the ownership of their content fork out more money for source code on the engine they use. It is possible to get source code versions of all the major engines. But there are a lot of people that want to make a game with as little effort as possible and don't care how they do it. This is where cheap engines that you basically just write scripts for come into play. They allow rapid game development but at a cost. You either get control and better performance with longer development times, or faster development, less control, and lower performance.
Purple Library Guy Feb 17, 2014
Godot? Sounds slow. You'd be waiting for it all the time. ;)
Switch Feb 18, 2014
Interesting, I may download this when I get home from work. I've been thinking of developing with Irrlicht again, but Godot might allow me to just jump straight in and start hashing ideas out.
Skully Apr 30, 2014
Godot won't let you fullscreen your game on Linux. Well aparently it could, but they disabled the ability due to alt-tab not working. I read on their bug tracker that they aren't satisfied with any of the solutions that exist for opening a fullscreen window on Linux, like sdl2.

I was really interested in the engine until I found this. I wonder how many other things I would find
that are just silently missing from the Linux side. My only hope I guess would be to modify the source to get what I wan't. Although the whole point for me was to "make a game", not code the engine.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.