Nine weeks ago, a new cohort of the THUAS Game Development Minor started in the Game Basement of the Dutch Innovation Factory. What makes this edition special: all five projects use the Godot game engine. This open-source engine is still used relatively little in professional development, where Unreal Engine and Unity have the largest market shares, but it is gaining ground.
Over six months, the student groups work towards an Expo, where they must present a fully functioning game. The playtest is their first opportunity to gather feedback, requiring them to demonstrate a playable prototype.
Not every group managed to impress. This was mainly due to group size: each minor group consists of 10 students. Coordinating such a large group takes extra time, which affected productivity.
Nevertheless, the prototypes are quite promising, especially considering the new game engine. Game Development coordinator Mathijs Koning says: “The students get started quickly with Godot, and it works reliably and well. Making something certainly takes no longer than in Unity, which we used previously.”
Of course, all the GameLab students were there to test the games and provide feedback. I also noticed more variety in game types than before. Instead of predominantly first-person 3D games, we now see fixed camera positions, isometric views and blends of 2D and 3D. In conversations with students, I find they are enthusiastic about Godot and enjoy working with it.
Ajoeb Gaasim, solo developer of USB-BOT, attended this playtest on behalf of GameLab. He is also developing his game in Godot and has made impressive progress. The first two levels of his 2D platformer are already playable.
I am very curious to see what happens over the coming weeks and how much the games improve before the Expo, scheduled for Saturday 1 February from 13:00.