Welcome to the forums @BlokyMose!
@BlokyMose said:
Recently I found some tools that are made with Godot, such as Arrow and Pixelorama. As far as I can see, they are pretty performant, but is developing apps in Godot a proper way to develop apps?
Depends on who you ask, I think. Ultimately Godot is a tool at its heart, albeit a game engine. It’s certainly doable to make apps in Godot and it has been done before, as you mentioned, so I’d say it is doable.
Something else to add, is the Godot editor itself is made in Godot, as another example of an application.
Some people say you shouldn't make simple applications with Unity because Unity takes too much power, is that also the case with Godot? Or does Godot have a more appropriate architecture to support software development?
Godot is going to be more power hungry than say native UI widgets, because its using OpenGL and due to its design, but if you have low processor mode enabled it should be fairly power friendly.
Though keep in mind that Godot is designed to make games primarily and therefore has design choices that are for that purpose, so it may be heavier than, for example, a library designed simply just for UI.
I haven't touched Godot just yet, but I'm planning to build a simple tool, like Arrow, for my branching narrative game.
Simply put, here are my questions:
1. Does Godot cost more power to run simple applications compared to conventional software development frameworks? If so, is the margin tolerable enough?
Depends on what you plan to do, but I’d say it’s probably fine. I would highly suggest you try Godot though and see what you think though, as that will likely give you the best idea.
- What are the benefits and disadvantages of using Godot to build simple apps?
There’s several advantages and disadvantages, and I’d argue it depends on what you are looking for, what the end goal(s) of the apps are, and how you work with Godot.
The biggest advantages in my opinion are:
Godot is open-source, so you can edit the engine if needed and do not need to worry about it going away
Godot is free
Godot has a really nice set of UI stuff that makes UI work pleasant
Godot is cross platform! Write your app once and (ideally) it will work everywhere Godot can export (assuming you do not use OS specific stuff nor have platform specific issues/bugs)
Some downsides:
Godot is a game engine, therefore a bit heavier than simple app frameworks
Godot isn’t as widely used for app development
Godot UI isn’t native to the OS, so it won’t look like the OS (not really a big deal in my opinion, but I know this is to some)
GDScript is Godot specific and therefore doesn’t have support for all libraries or functionality. That said, GDNative, C#, and access to the Godot source code can work around these issues.
Again though, I’d highly recommend you try Godot and see what you think! That way you can better decide what works best for you and your projects.
- Would you use Godot to make applications? Why?
Maybe, but right now I don’t have any application ideas in mind nor the time. Additionally I haven’t made an application in Godot myself. I would consider it heavily if I was looking to make an application though.
Hopefully this helps a bit to answer your questions :)
