[Mobile Games] Unity vs Defold vs Godot => which engine?

Questions
#1

Hi all!

I’m currently working in a French mobile gaming company as a game designer and will leave it in early 2022 to create my own mobile games (mostly 2D and simple 3D games).

After some investigation, 3 engines seem to meet my needs and expectations:

Unity
Well, everyone knows Unity. Many top games were/are developed with this engine.
But I find the whole thing a bit heavy and don’t like the pricing system.

Defold
Light and clean editor, top performances on mobile, LUA.
Active community. Free :slight_smile: But 2D only.

Godot
2D/3D. Great editor/scripting system.
Active community, constant updates. Free, as well.

I’ve never worked professionally as a game developer but used to develop a bunch of demos & prototypes in the past (using various languages and engines). Each of these 3 engines has its own strengths and constraints, but all in all, they seem great, so… I’m pretty sure I’ll have the weapons to create cool games (in terms of UX/gameplay at least) with any of them.

But since I want to be able to operate and monetize these games in the mid/long term (as they are products too), I’m asking myself a few questions about Defold:

1/ How is the support of non-gameplay (but still essential) features:

  • Native stuff: IAP, app rating, game centers, push notif, cloud save, etc.
  • SDK: Facebook, Ads, Attribution, etc.

Difficulty of implementation, updates, etc.?

2/ Are there successful (= profitable) mobile games developed with Defold? (except King’s game) If not, why?

All in all, do you think Defold offers all the tools/weapons to create professional-level mobile games (in every aspect) for gameplay developers who want to focus on the user experience while being able to easily implement and maintain non-gameplay features?

Thank you very much! :+1:

Rag

1 Like
Any new dev migrating to Defold after the Unity/Ironsource merge
#2

You can do 3D, even very attractive 3D (PBR is even possible) but it’s just not treated as first class in the editor / engine as much as 2D is. Hopefully that will continue to improve even if there is (justifiably) no intention to fully compete with the main 3D focused engines.

1/ How is the support of non-gameplay (but still essential) features:

Many of the popular ones are supported and actively updated. If you are familiar with coding it’s reasonably easy for you to implement an SDK on your own too.

2/ Are there successful (= profitable) mobile games developed with Defold? (except King’s game) If not, why?

Family Island is probably the most successful non-King mobile game made with Defold https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.MelsoftGames.FamilyIslandFarm&hl=en_US&gl=US 10M+ downloads on Google Play alone.

All in all, do you think Defold offers all the tools/weapons to create professional-level mobile games (in every aspect) for gameplay developers who want to focus on the user experience while being able to easily implement and maintain non-gameplay features?

Short answer: yes! With Defold, you will be able to focus on making your game great and not so much worrying about everything else.

You should try making the same small project with each engine and testing them on your mobile devices to get a real idea of which engine is right for you. People here will of course say Defold is best, but depending on your needs Godot or Unity or even Unreal may be better for you.

13 Likes
From Unity3d to Defold
#3

Hi!

Exciting!

Full support through our extension/plugin system:

Family Island has already been mentioned. More games here: https://defold.com/showcase/

If you look beyond feature lists there are other compelling arguments for using Defold for some games (not all!) here:

8 Likes
#4

If your focus is 2D mobile, Defold is a great choice. Godot is suited more for desktop games, Unity has too much baggage it’s uncomfortable.

7 Likes
#5

Support for external services is great in Defold and also extremely straightforward from a user point of view. Add the extension dependency, build and run. No custom build templates to create yourself, etc etc.

I would also say that multiplatform is fantastic too. Minimal or zero intervention is needed and the build sizes are the smallest I’ve ever seen. Try and get a web build out of Godot that works!

Lastly, you’re probably not interested, but console export is a reality, at a price that is a steal!

12 Likes
#6

Wow, thank you guys (Pkeod, britzl, sergey.lerg and gianmichele) for all your fast and detailed answers!

Really good to see such an active and committed community. This is always super important for newcomers to not feel “alone” when starting to use a new tool/language, in the short term of course, but also the mid/long term.

To be honest, I had a preference for Defold (light-weighted, fast, optimized, clean/“pure”) from the beginning for some reasons that have been mentioned in your answers (including the link provided by britzl). My only concern was the difficulty to create 3D games in the mid/long term (even though I’ll start with 2D games), but as Pkeod said, it should improve over time and better have a top-notch 2D than an average-good 2D/3D.

I didn’t knew Family Island… Interesting, I’ll give it a try!

Anyway, my choice is made. I don’t think I will create the same prototype on X engines (even though I 100% agree this would be the best way to compare them). I prefer to follow my intuition and your recommendations and… start building my skills on Defold :slight_smile: (can’t wait!)

Thank you again for sharing your experience!

Rag

8 Likes
#7

Good luck! And don’t hesitate to ask if you get stuck or have questions. Make sure to use the search function here to see if your question already has an answer. And don’t forget to read the manuals!

4 Likes