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Comment by csande17 | Hacker News Reader

I've been looking for a lightweight 2D engine to use on Android. Something I can use to build simple 2D games with small binaries that load quickly and run on lots of hardware. (Like I might use SpriteKit for on iOS.)

Should I look further into Godot Engine, or is it more of a "heavyweight"/loads-of-features engine like Unity and Unreal?

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Godot is worth trying. I found it easier than Unity/Unreal to pick up, especially for 2D.

Also check out https://defold.com/ — it’s an excellent game engine that perfectly suits your 2D/mobile/lightweight requirements. The team behind it (at King) are very active both in listening to the community and with their release cycle. It has a bunch of features bigger engines still lack (hot reloading, fast testing cycle and export process).

Last I checked, Defold/King require that you let them collect analytics from players' devices in order to ship games with their engine (i.e., your game becomes a trojan horse for their data harvesting regime). It was buried in the terms and a nasty surprise when I found that out (luckily, still in the early stages of experimentation). Permanently destroyed any trust I might put in their offerings.

(I'm the Defold product owner)

There's not a shred of truth in the above statement. We offered an OPT-IN analytics services that provided you, the developer, with install and retention numbers for your game. No one at King or in the Defold team ever looked at any data. King has hundred of millions of monthly active players of their own games. That's enough data. No need to try and steal data from anyone else...

The optional analytics service along with the optional project hosting was shut down four months ago.

We do use Google Analytics for www.defold.com and the editor. This is clearly stated in the terms and conditions. And it's pretty standard stuff in the industry to keep track of product usage like that.

Um, okay. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say to that. I remember this clearly from when I trialed Defold immediately after the public launch. I'm glad if things have changed, but the analytics were not opt-in back then.

I've been with the Defold team since before the public launch, but I'm not going to debate you over this :-)

As you say, things have changed and we have worked hard since the launch three years ago to show our community of developers that we are serious about Defold as a professional choice for game developers and that we do not have any hidden agenda with giving Defold away for free.

That doesn't seem to be the case any more.

They shut down the dashboard/analytics service and offer opt-in analytics add-ons and third-party analytics services now: https://forum.defold.com/t/announcing-dashboard-and-analytic...

Am intrigued, as I was an early Defold user and the analytics requirements were quite explicit at the time (as was the requirement to put code through their VCS) throughout the dashboard and general information pages. When were you using it?

I believe both of those are now no longer required though.

I've never worked with Unreal, but Godot is significantly more light-weight than Unity. Can definitely recommend!

Unreal is definitely not lightweight. The last time I built it, I think 4.21(?) the engine itself came to about 16GB.

I’m not familiar with Godot, but word on the street is that its 2D pipeline is nicer than Unity3D’s. Unity3D does 2D, but focuses on 3D. I’m using Unreal right now and I expect it is 100x heavier than you are looking for. It’s one of the top 5 largest public C++ codebases in the world.

I don't have a ton of experience in this space, but I've been looking for a good, simple 2D engine as well. My two top picks are Godot and GameMaker [1]. I've been building prototypes in both, and both have their strengths. I'm currently leaning a little more towards Godot since I've had a bit of trouble getting GameMaker to work well on my Mac (it's been fine on my Windows PC).

I tried Unity, but it really feels like an overkill for what I want. Both Unity and Unreal are really geared more towards 3D, and to me they complicated 2D development because of it.

[1] https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker

If you know C++, have a look at mine: https://bixense.com/jngl

Godot's strongest areas currently are probably its 2D engine and that it's lightweight. I'd suggest trying it first to see if it's a good fit. From the needs you describe, it might be.

I think Defold may be a good option for you, it is quite polished and easy to learn and use.

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