Students who started the Game Development minor this semester held their first playtest. GameLab students joined them with their projects.
Most groups use the Godot game engine. This open-source engine is an alternative to the more widely used commercial engines Unreal Engine and Unity.
After many years of working with Unity, The Hague University of Applied Sciences has switched to Godot. Because this is fairly unusual, it is interesting to see what students achieve with this game engine.
The first thing that stands out is the large number of 2D games: no fewer than three platformers and a top-down game. There is also a mobile game. Two games feature a 3D world to walk around in.
The groups making 3D worlds seem considerably less far along; apparently, Godot lets you establish the basics of a 2D game very quickly. Naturally, it also helps that 2D is somewhat simpler. When Unity was still being used, 2D concepts were rare, so the engine clearly plays a part in students' choice of game type.
One group is working on a first-person game: a cooperative, wave-based zombie shooter. However, this is being made in Unreal.
It was very interesting to try all the games. This was the first playtest, so the groups still have time to add content and refine their work. Even so, most games already gave us a fair idea of where they were heading. Without giving too much away, it promises to be an interesting Expo!