I remember a really long time ago when I stumbled across a digit magazine CD that would change my life forever. And how was that? The CD contained the installer for the trial version of Game Maker 5.

What’s so special about that you might ask.

Since the first time I played games on a computer, I had always wanted to make one for myself. I even remember I had a very big cartoon filled book about BASIC when I was younger. Sure, it was fun typing down some of the small example programs. It even had example programs whose code ran several pages. Obviously, the ROI wasn’t good enough to type them all, even for my curiosity level back then.

Coming back to the digit CD. Well, it had the unregistered version of Game Maker. I installed it, and got hooked immediately.

Looking at this screenshot is giving me goosebumps from all the nostalgia.

I remember going to the local internet cafe (yeah, nobody had internet at home back in those days) with a bunch of floppy disks. I would download the latest version of Game Maker from gamemaker.nl. They used to come in separate files each about 0.7MB or so if I remember correctly. Then, put all those 5-6 separate parts in to separate floppy disks, head back home (hoping that all the files have been saved correctly and don’t give a surprise later on), copy each file one by one and pray to the mighty gods before double clicking on the installer. If all went well, I would have a new version of Game Maker.

See, I found a screenshot of the old downloads page.

I remember doing this up to Game Maker 5.3A (yeah, it had a 5.3A). I was so engrossed with this that I even got my dad to wire $20 then and got a registered version of Game Maker. Then a few days later, I received the registration code. Oh, wasn’t I thrilled!

The greatest part of Game Maker was it’s drag-and-drop functionality. That’s how I started to make games. And that slowly ingrained the concepts of programming in to me because with time, I realised using GML code (Game Make Language) was more intuitive and faster to read.

Game Maker had a huge online community called GMC. Many users posted their tutorials and I learned from that.

Another online community that I really enjoyed being a part of was run by a guy called tgg (thatgamesguy). Those were fun times indeed.

Thanks to Game Maker, I really learned to code.

From there, I drifted along to php and web development. I had combined these two aspects and made an online highscore system for Game Maker called Vitarsi Vex. It was featured in the Game Maker Blog.

What is Godot?

Recently though, I discovered another Game Engine called Godot. And having used Game Maker, I’ll suggest that you should at least give it a try.

My first game experiment on Godot

What makes it stand out?

1. It is multi-platform

Godot can easily compile to various output platforms like:

  • Windows, macOS, Linux
  • iOS and Android
  • Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
  • HTML5

That’s crazy compared to what I could do with the old Game Maker.

2. It is super-light

The entire engine comes in a 33.8 MB zip file. It has one file. Just the executable.

Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. Compared to Android Studio hogging my RAM, I’ll take Godot any day.

3. It is Open-source and Free

Supported by an awesome community, this free game engine is killer.

4. It supports both 2D and 3D games

With native support for both 2D and 3D games along with an in-built physics engine, Godot really helps you in designing games quickly.

5. It REALLY is an Android Studio replacement

You can design apps for Android much more quickly than with Android Studio. Since the engine was made for making games, it may not be the “most optimal” approach to design apps, but it can be done.

6. Tons of tutorials are available on Youtube

Getting started with Godot is easy thanks to amazing content on Youtube. That’s how I was able to learn the basics of Godot myself. Reddit also has a sub-reddit that’s active.

7. You can make general purpose software with it

The Godot software UI was entirely made with Godot itself. You’ll have to do a bit of theming to make it look native to Windows or Mac, but it is possible and recommended. Pixelorama is an excellent example.

8. It has a sweet editor

Godot supports GDScript and C# natively. GDScript is Godot Script language very similar to Python. Believe me, I had never written a line of Python before and I was a little hesitant of the no-bracket tabbed world of Python.

GDScript grew on me quickly. You’ll love it too. Because it’s simple and it works. I really recommend.

The editor is closely coupled with it documentation and you can find yourself Ctrl-clicking all over the code and documentation.

Closing words

To summarise, Godot is a very versatile, powerful and feature-rich software development kit. If you are looking to design a game or general purpose software for various platforms, either way, I would recommend you to use Godot.

Explore Godot today. Cheers.