Having trouble downloading GODOT

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Hello GODOT community.

My name is Joseph. I’m 24 yrs old and I’m new to this community and communities in general. I have very little experience with interacting with people on online forums/discussion groups/social media etc, but I hope to improve and become part of not just this community, but many other communities. I want to develop games so I hope I can help not only myself but others as well once I know more enough.

Anyway the topic at hand, so I’m trying to self teach-myself how to code. I’m researching everything from what game engines to use, which languages to learn, taking advantage of some free courses from places like codeacademy, udemy, freeCodeCamp (although I am aware that not all of it is free).

As of right now I don’t know how to code yet. So I know that it’s probably more important to learn coding first than trying to start getting into messing around with game engines at the moment, but I just want to see what I could do. So I tried downloading GODOT (I’m using an Apple laptop which is the only computer I have) and it downloaded. I downloaded the “.NET” version that supports C#.

I’ve been following along with videos and other information online and I’m being told that I have to extract the GODOT file and when I right click on GODOT in my downloads there is no extract option. I was reading some stuff that says it automatically gets extracted when you click two times on it, but that doesn’t seem to work (unless it does and I just don’t know it).

GODOT did open for me, but upon first opening it, it said something about possibly crashing if trying to create a project and that there was something that wasn’t downloaded. I don’t know exactly what it was, something about the .NET for GODOT 8 or newer, I think it was a “package file” if that’s what it’s even called because I don’t know what that is either.

So then when trying to create a project, it kicks me out and says it didn’t open properly. So if anyone knows what I’m doing wrong or can help solve this I’d appreciate it.

But basically yes, I have very limited knowledge on all of this stuff. I’m doing my best to research and solve it all on my own, but I’m really struggling with even the simplest of things. If this is not the right place to say this long post or if it’s under the wrong topic category I do apologize but I really need help because I want to be a developer and make games.

I have so much creativity and ideas for games and I just don’t want my creative mind to go to waste while I’m still young and have time so if anyone can point me in the right direction, be it how to solve this issue that I’m talking about with installing Godot or maybe having to ask this question in a different online community, please let me know what I can or should do. Thank you.

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Hey Joseph,

You can get the .NET version running on a Mac, but it’s going to require a few more steps. C# is a language written by Microsoft, and is a part of .NET. As such, it requires .NET binaries to work. You must download those separately. Unfortunately, I haven’t done that, so I cannot help you there. Hopefully someone will come along and help you with that route.

However, I would like to make another suggestion. As someone who has been a professional programmer for over 20 years, and has trained many developers over the years, I feel like you are biting off more than you can chew at the beginning. You are clearly trying to learn how to use your OS (Operating System) as well as learn how to program. That’s a lot to learn.

While you certainly can start with C#, the learning curve is going to be steeper and more difficult than using GDScript. The perceived benefits of “learning a real language” may be outweighed by the difficulty you have learning it. It took me about 5 minutes to setup the .NET version on my computer. But I already had VSCode installed, know how to download additional packages, install .NET, and most importantly have years of professional experience coding in C#. I still use GDScript.

This problem you are encountering will not be your last just to get up and running. Once you do, you are going to have to deal with the fact that there is a lot less content about using Godot with C# online than there is about GDScript. AI like ChatGPT will also not be able to help you because it doesn’t know enough about Godot and will make up plausible-sounding answers that do not work and will frustrate you.

If you download the regular version of Godot, you don’t need to install anything else to use it. You don’t need an external editor. You can open it, and start this tutorial: Your first 2D game — Godot Engine (stable) documentation in English

Learning how to program isn’t about learning one specific language. It’s about learning how to think like a programmer. To understand Object Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts and how that compares to Functional Programming (FP). To know how to architect a system and plan it out. To understand client-server architecture, and the different ways you can store data, like SQL and NoSQL databases. Ultimately, if you want a job in development, you want to know multiple languages. So do yourself a favor and start with one that’s easier and therefore you can learn how to use faster. Then, take what you know and apply it to C# if that’s what you want to learn.

If all that didn’t convince you, then I wish you luck on your C# journey. It is a pretty great language and I love it, it’s just not my preference for Godot, and my opinion isn’t the only one out there. Others will come along to help you, and you will get there eventually if you persevere.

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Thank you very much! I don’t know if I was planning on learning C# in particular, I heard C++ is a good one to go to and by learning that it would be easier to learn the other languages like C#. Godot was also just the first engine I chose to download, I don’t have to use it, but yea I think I am overwhelming myself trying to learn so many things at once. Especially when it’s all on my own with minimal help and I don’t even know what I’m doing. Hopefully I am not foolish for that.

But I am determined because I love video games and I can’t see myself doing anything else in life so I will use the information that you’ve given me and put it to use as best I can. I really appreciate you for responding. Thank you!

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Start with GDScript. Keep asking questions here. It’s a friendly community.