I just started learning Defold. While searching around it seemed like a top choice for 2D game development. So far my experience has been awesome. Defold is really amazing. The documentation and examples are thorough. One thing is bothering me. Defold has been around for several years now and is quite a mature, solid application. So then… why aren’t more games made with it? Who is the competition? Is there a huge list of games made with defold out there somewhere that I haven’t found? (Ideally, games made in the last 2-3 years)
I think a lot of people would like JS on web & Unity on mobile & Unreal engine on consoles.
There is a ton of competition in the gamedev tool making space. IMO Defold is the best option for 2D games for PC & Mobile. But there are still other great options out there which are more popular for one reason or another.
Many devs want to use what’s most popular no matter what. That’s part of why many games use Unity even when it’s really bloated overkill for the kind of game they want to make. Making games is difficult and risky and they want an engine which has been used by many hits as a safe bet even when their safe choice may actually make it harder for them.
Consider your use of Defold as a competitive advantage. It can help you make better games that have a smaller memory footprint, run more stably, are faster to iterate on, among other benefits. There are several other threads listing why Defold is good with most of the people who posted having released games.
The showcase here Defold Games Showcase does not list every game released. There are probably 100x more at least. A full simple text based timeline list would be beneficial. There are Defold based games released that I’ve seen by people who have never posted here and never shared their work. There are also many more big games in development being made with Defold.
Thanks for that well-crafted reply @Pkeod . I guess follow the herd mentality is pretty strong, thus - Unity, even if it’s not practical. I’m already sold on Defold and could see all the benefits you mentioned just from a few days with it. A simple updated list, including under development, would be a great resource.
Just a theory, but I think a lot of game developers aren’t previously experienced coders, so they don’t know to look out for things like memory footprint.
Another factory might be that many people first experience game development through a gamejam, and if you want to work with a team in a game jam you pretty much have to use Unity since everyone else is.