- cross-posted to:
- gaming@beehaw.org
- opensource@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- gaming@beehaw.org
- opensource@lemmy.ml
That’s a lot of cash money. I’m still a bit confused at how much of this money will go to the actual engine and how much of it will go to supporting W4 in general, such as allowing devs to publish Godot games for consoles.
If the games could run on the console user’s paid for without permission from Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo, that would be what I’d most prefer. Consoles require proprietary software which is antithetical to the idea of an open source engine getting free contribution/feedback. Some people don’t want to do free work for overweight companies.
That is not really something that can be done on Godot’s part. The best bet right now is to support open platforms like the Steam Deck over walled gardens like Nintendo Switch and show that there is consumer interest.
Yeah but then how do you attract game developers to your engine?
It becomes a chicken and egg problem: consoles won’t support the engine unless there’s a demand for the games, developers won’t make the games unless there is support for consoles.
Baby steps. One dev here, one user there.
But what if we would rather have an engine that’s good?
Good for what? I’d argue software freedom aught to be your priority.
So why even bother with a game engine? Write your rending from scratch and it’s as free as you want.
Godot Engine creator explaining why everyone wins when the ecosystem is open - Godot as an Open Ecosystem – Juan Linietsky (GDC 2023).
I didn’t say I like it, but it’s the reality of console dev right now, and consoles are a huge part of market indie devs will miss out on without having that access, and they are already doing dev with limited funds and resources.