Going From Unity to complete Defold newb - need help

[SirNoobALot]

Hi I’ve had a quick scout and I can’t find anything quite what I’m looking for but if there are forum posts already like what I’m about to ask then I do apologize and please point me in that direction…

Now with that said I’ve been hearing nothing but praise for Defold but I have really been struggling to find tutorial series, game showcases and overall an in-depth explanation on if I should use Defold other than simply hearing its good for 2d mobile and web games.

I am a hobbyist who would like to become an indie game dev someday, but with that said at the moment I have casually over the past few years followed many unity tutorials and got reasonably good with C#.

I would like to know where I should start as someone familiar with unity for which tutorials to follow, I came across this tutorial series but it’s over 4 years old:

My intention is to make F2P casual mobile games including Infinite Runners and I’m struggling to find what exactly are the types of games Defold can actually make, and how limited is the LUA programming language.

I know this post is a bit of a long winded mess but I’m hoping someone can help me from feeling completely in the dark and help me understand if defold is right for me and where to start.

Thanks

[iotaHum]

There are tutorials listed here: Defold manuals and other learning resources
github examples at the bottom of the page.
Start Defold and click on NewProject->fromTutorial->SideScrollerTutorial etc
Endless runner

[britzl]

Welcome to Defold!

@SirNoobALot

I came across this tutorial series but it’s over 4 years old

I see that you are approaching this as a Unity developer A four year old Unity tutorial would likely not work in the latest version of Unity since Unity has a habit of introducing big breaking changes each year.

That is not how Defold works. We do monthly releases and only very rarely break stuff, and usually not in a big way. I am very confident that the tutorial you found is relevant and worth following.

We do list a bunch of tutorials here: Defold tutorials (some are actually marked as old but should still contain valuable information)

And there’s good video tutorials here: Defold videos

[SirNoobALot]

Thank you I assume you’re one of the defold devs?

That is really useful info, and yeah that’s why I was asking tutorials for unity often become outdated within a few years due to constant changes.

I’m still trying to figure out what are the specific strengths of Defold and what types of games should I avoid making, I already know it specializes in 2D games.

I have zero experience with Lua, is it best to avoid games that require a lot of code and to aim for more simple/hyper-casual games?

I’ve seen Defold supports ads, is there a way of also providing in game purchases for mobile games as well?

[Haath]

@SirNoobALot

what types of games should I avoid making

One thing to keep in mind, is the Defold works with a bit of a “build your own rendering” mentality. So while other engines come out of the box with a wide variety of beautiful shaders, lights, filters etc, in Defold you are expected to write all that yourself.

Other than that I can’t imagine anything else that Defold can’t do.

@SirNoobALot

what are the specific strengths of Defold

I’d say objectively that one of the biggest strengths is the slim runtime, and the small build size that you can get out of it.

On a more opinionated note:

• I really like the message-oriented philosophy. It encourages you to stick to good software design throughout the project.
• The editor and engine are both minimal and to-the-point. I could not stand the amount of bloat when I tried to use Unity honestly.
• The Defold team is really small, helpful, and it really feels like they deal with things like total pros.

@SirNoobALot

is it best to avoid games that require a lot of code

Why? Lua is just for scripting, the heavy lifting is done by the engine.

@SirNoobALot

is there a way of also providing in game purchases

Defold In-app purchase extension API documentation

[SirNoobALot]

@Haath

One thing to keep in mind, is the Defold works with a bit of a “build your own rendering” mentality. So while other engines come out of the box with a wide variety of beautiful shaders, lights, filters etc, in Defold you are expected to write all that yourself.

Thanks for the information I appreciate it, I have zero experience with shaders even in unity, can you please elaborate a bit more on how much of an issue this is and how I can possibly solve it.

@Haath

I really like the message-oriented philosophy. It encourages you to stick to good software design throughout the project.

What do you mean by message-oriented philosophy

Also would you say there are additional strengths to Defold or is its main strength the small build sizes?

@Haath

Why? Lua is just for scripting, the heavy lifting is done by the engine.

The only programming language I know to some extent is C#, from my understanding some programming languages are much harder to stick to good software design and architecture so I was thinking is this an issue with Lua.

Also if there are any performance or other issues using Lua (not saying there are I’m just asking to find out)

[ross.grams]

@SirNoobALot

Also would you say there are additional strengths to Defold or is its main strength the small build sizes?

It has lots of strengths. When I had to use Unity for work, I wrote a short comparison of my experience with Defold vs. Unity here: Every concern I have about Defold as someone completely new to anything related to game dev - #3 by ross.grams

[britzl]

@SirNoobALot

Thank you I assume you’re one of the defold devs?

Correct!

@SirNoobALot

can you please elaborate a bit more on how much of an issue this is and how I can possibly solve it.

Well, the default render pipeline will draw your stuff exactly as-is, without applying any effects, lights, bloom, shadows or anything like that. This is typically not an issue as you get really far using the default render pipeline and standard components such as sprites, particle effects etc.

You can use some ready made assets to enhance or replace the default render pipeline: Rendering

There are also a lot of learning materials in www.defold.com/learn/tutorials. One such example is Shaders for Beginners

@SirNoobALot

message-oriented philosophy

Learn more here: Message passing in Defold

@SirNoobALot

Also would you say there are additional strengths to Defold or is its main strength the small build sizes?

We list a couple of really important things about Defold here: Why Defold?

[SirNoobALot]

@britzl

Well, the default render pipeline will draw your stuff exactly as-is, without applying any effects, lights, bloom, shadows or anything like that. This is typically not an issue as you get really far using the default render pipeline and standard components such as sprites, particle effects etc.

Thanks again, correct me if I’m wrong so I’ve done a bit of research and from my understanding for someone who has zero experience with shaders in Defold I have to program and create shaders myself from the ground up in comparison to unity?

But with 2D games using the right kind of sprites etc it isn’t really needed so much anyway.

@britzl

We list a couple of really important things about Defold here: Why Defold?

I really liked this page do you have anymore like this I found this one of the most useful resources I’ve come across so far to understand why people would choose Defold over other engines, which is the main thing I am currently looking for.

[britzl]

@SirNoobALot

in Defold I have to program and create shaders myself from the ground up in comparison to unity?

Yes, there is no shader graph editor or anything like that.

@SirNoobALot

I really liked this page do you have anymore like this I found this one of the most useful resources I’ve come across so far

If you’re a publisher or need to persuade your publisher that it is safe to publish games made with Defold then you have www.defold.com/publishers.

There are also some developer interviews in the blog:

• Defold blog
• Defold blog

[Alex_8BitSkull]

Defold for Publishers

Missing an s at the end!

[britzl]

@Alex_8BitSkull

Missing an s at the end!

Thanks! Fixed.

[masterneme]

Check out this video:

Defold For Unity Developers

And practice with these series, they’re very old but a good introduction.

I came to Defold from UE4 but I’ve learnt Unity since then too, it’s a very different philosophy and you’ll have to get used to it, but once it clicks it’s great.

The messaging system is unusual but when you learn how it works it you’ll miss it while using other engines

[SirNoobALot]

@britzl

If you’re a publisher or need to persuade your publisher that it is safe to publish games made with Defold then you have www.defold.com/publishers .

Thank you I am a solo indie dev I’m not working with any publishers I’m looking into the strengths of Defold to help me make an informed decision whether Defold is the right choice for me.

I guess one last question I have which I’ve tried to look into…

Is there a chance with Defolds licensing that the main owners could turn around and try and pull something like unity and add unexpected fees out of nowhere?

@masterneme

And practice with these series , they’re very old but a good introduction.

I came to Defold from UE4 but I’ve learnt Unity since then too, it’s a very different philosophy and you’ll have to get used to it, but once it clicks it’s great.

The messaging system is unusual but when you learn how it works it you’ll miss it while using other engines

Thanks for this, one thing that is great about Defold that I’m not used to with unity is that much older tutorials are still useful, anything in unity usually becomes out dated within a few years.

I still don’t fully understand the messaging system I need to look into it more.

Can you please share more of your experiences of using Defold vs Unity.

[britzl]

@SirNoobALot

Is there a chance with Defolds licensing that the main owners could turn around and try and pull something like unity and add unexpected fees out of nowhere?

No. The owner is the Defold Foundation. It is not a corporation, but an actual foundation, registered in Sweden. A foundation is a different kind of legal entity than a corporation, and there are strict laws surrounding how Swedish foundations operate.

One of the objectives set by the founder is that Defold must remain free and that the source code must be available. This is the reason why the license prohibits anyone from selling Defold as a game engine.

In Sweden, a foundation is bound by law to follow the objectives set by the founder. If the foundation does something which goes against the objectives it will have legal implications. This is why we can say with absolute certainty that we won’t and we can’t do a Unity rug pull and introduce a runtime fee or any other cost.

[ScaerieTale]

I literally just signed up tos ay thank you to everyone (including OP!) for this post. It’s been extremely helpful in getting nto the mindset of Defold development. It’s an increasingly aggravating trend in tech to throw out the baby with the bathwater every major update (Looking at you, too, NextJS 13) rather than build on a strong, stable foundation.

It’s great to hear for once I don’t have to search Google filtereed by “Past year” <3