Developer Diary 6 (Patreon)

Today I’ve made a decision that was kind of tough but helped me push passed a massive hurdle. I have been trying my hardest to work in Godot for the last few weeks, trying to get things done. Two things were holding me down:

The code syntax: Godot engine uses a syntax which is very different from what I’ve been used to (learning bits of Javascript and GM’s language, which is based on JS) and I simply could not get the hang of how Godot's language worked. It just didn’t feel right to me.

Everything requires code: Godot requires code for everything. Where Gamemaker has simple and intuitive “events”, Godot requires you to do everything in code. This isn’t so bad if you’re a programmer and used to it, but I am not. Combined with the syntax I simply felt like I could not move forward with the engine. Even doing the simplest of things seemed out of reach. I felt stuck and it was starting to give me a ton of anxiety.

So today I made the call and decided to switch back to Gamemaker. In one day I’ve got so much done. I’m excited because even though right now what I have is incredibly basic, I know I can build on this and move forward. In Gamemaker I can actually create the ideas that are in my head. At the end of the day that is the most important part. My goal was to have a build of the engine at the end of the month and now that actually will be a thing.

Right now everything has placeholder art as I’m trying to build the core architecture, so not much to show yet. Hopefully in a few weeks it will start to come together better!

Thanks for reading and the support!

Alba