Stop Waiting for Godot

So, basically: I thought next weekend might be a good time to finally sit down and try to learn Godot. Why don't you join me?

Wait, what?

Oh, ok. So, hi, I'm game designer Terry Cavanagh! I made Dicey Dungeons, and a few other things. Over the last decade or so, I've used all sorts of tools and game engines to make my games - from Flash, Pico8, Roblox, Haxe... I've even dabbled with Unity a bit! But... I haven't really tried Godot yet.

Godot looks super interesting, from the outside. It's basically a fully-featured, modern 3D game engine meant to rival things like Unreal and Unity. But it's different from those projects in one really crucial way: it's free, open source software.

So is Godot any good then?

I honestly have no idea. I'm excited to find out! It definitely looks promising!

Why do you care about open source?

I mean basically I just don't think it's good when the tools that we use are controlled by private companies. I think there are a lot of bad outcomes when that happens. Like maybe the company that makes your tools suddenly decides that they'd like you to pay a huge monthly subscription to continue to use the tools. Or maybe they get bought up by another company, and they stop updating your tools and then your tools stop working. Or maybe the company boasts publicly about how they're working for the US military.

Open Source is not perfect - it can be a double edged sword in a lot of messy ways. But for me it's the difference between joining a co-op and licensing from a private company. Godot is MIT licensed, which doesn't mean that it's not owned by anyone (it's got funding from various external companies, and a patreon) - but it does mean that, ultimately, it doesn't just belong to the people making it. It belongs to everyone who contributes to it, and everyone who uses it.

Ok! What's the plan?

Let's all learn Godot, next weekend!

Sometimes the word "game jam" means competition, but that's not really the vibe I'm going for here. There's no judging, and nobody is going to win. Or, if you prefer, as they say over at Ludum Dare, your game is your prize.

What should I make?

Something simple! You're learning something new, so you can probably expect a lot of things to go wrong and for things to take longer than you'd planned. I recommend picking a really, really simple idea, something you're sure you can finish in a couple of hours. The classic suggestion when learning a new engine is to try remaking an arcade game, which I think is good! The cool thing about doing that is you'll likely have time to spare to add your own twist to things, and maybe discover something interesting along the way. Or maybe, you could remake one of your own games? Got an old jam game that you never finished up? Maybe remake it from scratch! Or make a sequel! The only really important thing is to try to finish it, from title screen to game over.

Ahhh I can't make it this weekend...

Sorry, that sucks. But every date is going to be bad for someone, so I kinda just have to pick one! If you can't make this one, maybe look into Godot Wild Jam, which sounds like fun?

What if you already know Godot?

Great! If you want, you can join in anyway and try to learn some new part of the whole thing.

Where do I start?

Dunno! I'm not sure where the good resources for learning Godot are yet. Godot's official documentation seems pretty good at a glance though, and probably as good a place as any to start.

If anyone reading has any good recommendations for me, please tweet at me this week - I'll update this section before the jam starts with some links.

See you next weekend!

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/3Dr0Rlh