When I first started using Godot it was the new open source engine and was seen as able to make games but lacking many features especially in regards to graphics.
So I’m curious now. Which expectations has Godot surpassed and which even while not true are often still cited as for example reasons not to use Godot?
I don’t think there’s any generalized reason to not use Godot anymore. The engine’s mature enough to have found it’s own niche.
Back when I was using Unreal 4/5 (around 2-4 years ago), Godot 4 hadn’t released yet. People were saying to not use it for 3D, which I kinda agreed with at the time.
But now, Godot 4 is genuinely so powerful, that it matches and even surpasses Unity.
Is Godot 5 gonna be Unreal Engine level next?
Seriously. If there’s an Unreal level engine that’s completely free, it’s only a matter of time before Godot becomes industry standard. But that’s going to take a few more DECADES to occur.
Blender still isn’t industry standard despite its power and the fact it’s been around for 30+ years. And Godot has been around for about 10+ years. So yeah.
I feel the same, I grew up with BASIC and worked professionally with janky in-house engines that took unspeakably many hours to really perform. Unity is a favorite of mine, especially because it lets you change assets etc in the editor at runtime, but Godot is fantastic for all levels. I do find that some of its conventions are unusual, but also quickly learned. Love it 
Reasons not to use Godot …
Not great with C# currently if that’s your language of choice.
Currently need third parties to build console versions of games.
No ‘official’ Steamworks SDK support.
Otherwise Godot is great.
They’re actively working on that though - and all language bindings will follow suit.
This won’t change unless console companies allow Godot to open source this - which seems unlikely. However you don’t have to use a third party to make a console port. You can pay the exorbitant fees that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft charge for their DevKits and do it yourself.
Honestly, I just don’t see this as a negative for Godot, so much as highlighting how console makers gatekeep their hardware with expensive gates that typically keep indie devs out.
That would be cool. But there is a plugin.
Its a negative if you want to maximise a game on an many platforms as possible.
Slay the Spire 2 has shown that Godot is starting to enter ‘mainstream’ indie dev levels now. It can make a difference when building a successful indie dev business (one with say 30+ staff, marketing costs etc. i.e. someone like Supergiant Games or Hello Games for example)
There is , but official support would be nice.
Yes, but since Godot tried to do this and the console manufacturers have said “No”, I don’t see this as Godot’s fault, which is what I’m getting at.
Thats true, but at the same time it is because Godot is under the MIT licence, so I guess it depends on how you look at it.
Regardless there are ways of getting games developed with Godot onto console which is the main thing.
That’s true of every engine out there : you won’t get legit binaries for Unreal or Unity or (insert engine name here) without showing you have legit access to the relevant devkits.
So it’s not a reason not to use Godot : it will cost money to get onto consoles with any engine, it’s the way of closed console ecosystems.
MS opened the original and 360 with XDNA and live arcade, which allowed Indies to make games without devkits.
I wish they would go back to that approach or similar : Project Helix looks good for that, as it’ll be a PC running Windows
Cheers !
Edit : apparently for the original Xbox One series (maybe latter ones, not up to date), which was publically hacked for the first time recently there is a Dev subscription that allows installation of custom software locally without a devkit.
Thats not entirely true. You can develop with Unity without a DevKit for the Xbox for example, Unreal requires a physical Xbox DevKit. Playstation & Switch require Devkits even on Unity.
DevMode on Xbox consoles has been around for quite some time, but it comes with pretty severe limitations. Enough to test a game in development though.
I stand corrected. Can you load the non certified binaries on an actual console, without breaking multiple EULAs, NDAs and DMCA ? 
My point still stands : every gaming middleware will make you jump through hoops to access console ecosystems because the console makers wish it so, not because the middle ware developers want to limit us.
Godot choose some third party partners, rightly so, seeing as how Godot as so far mostly been marketed as an easy to use engine, as a first engine for your first game type of thing, so that those third parties help you navigate all the hurdles in getting a game on console, if you don’t have second or first party backing (if xbox wants you on gamepass, you’ll be on gamepass ;))
Imagine if let’s say there was code for xbox and ps5 in the sourcetree, under their own licenses, all the beginner game makers asking why they can’t run on it on their consoles, why Godot doesn’t provide devkits for free (virtualized devkits for cheap would be nice, but alas, not the reality atm)
I like the forums as they are, thank you
I’m all for open hardware, open everything. Just not the world we live in, and not something to hold against Godot, imho
On an Xbox in DevMode yes. For release of course you would still need to go through the normal process, but you dont need an official Xbox Devkit to release a game or app.
Of course, but Godot is in a worse position because its open source on the MIT licence, and as such goes on the negative pile IMO when it comes to this point.
The question was asked, I’m just answering it, I still Godot is great regardless.
Apologies, I read the thread’s title as in positive surprises, not allowing that expectations can be negated or even negative. My bad for taking you to task, even though you’ve taken it in stride from where I stand.
Cheers, keep on devin’ hard!
Since the introduction of version 4, I’d say all of the downsides are mild annoyances at worse, and you can work around them anyway.
I think personally my only real issue is with the inability to build a web game with the c# version, because I love c# and I’m not a fan of the gdscript syntax. But they’ve been working on a solution and it’s not a deal breaker anyway.
I certainly don’t see myself switching to any other engine in the foreseeable future.
The lack of deferred rendering, maybe.