Check out our Monthly Survey Page to see what our users are running.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

GDevelop [Official Site] is an open source cross-platform event-driven game engine that's quite promising. It's currently closing in on a new major release and it's also now on itch.io. GDevelop 5 is currently in Beta and has been for a while with the 55th iteration released around 10 days ago.

What do I mean by event driven? Well, instead of writing out vast lines of code you drag things around in a visual editor and attach events to various actions and behaviours. Here's an example, a screenshot I took from the events section of their space shooter example game (many more examples here):

It can be compared to Clickteam's Fusion or Scirra's Construct, unlike those tools GDevelop is free and open source.

There's plenty of built-in behaviours to help you make various types of 2D games, along with an extensions system that's used for the built-in features.

The developer of GDevelop sent word that the game engine can now be grabbed on itch.io, so you can install it and keep it up to date using the open source itch app. There's something satisfying about download an open source game engine using an open source downloads app…

After trying it out some more today, after not following GDevelop for a while I'm genuinely surprised at how far it has come. It looks a lot better, it's a lot more stable and it seems to be quite a bit more powerful too. Looking forward to watching this continue to progress.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
10 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
13 comments
Page: «2/2
  Go to:

Purple Library Guy Nov 4, 2018
Quoting: elmapul
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: elmapul" There's something satisfying about download an open source game engine using an open source downloads app…"

isnt that what package managers suppose to do...
sigh.

yeah, looks like the fragmentation leads yet again to people reinventing the whell, because its too hard to support all distros otherwise.

steam became the norm, since we were busy competing instead of cooperating
Maybe I just haven't experimented much, but these days isn't there basically
1) A large family of distros using apt with a graphical front end, whether Synaptic or something called "Software manager" or something
2) Red Hat
3) A smaller family of distros using whatever Arch does

That isn't a whole lot really.

But I'm not sure it's relevant. Games are different from other stuff, package management wise. Culturally, and because most Linux games are closed source and cross-platform, whereas most other Linux software is open source and often Linux-only, or even if cross-platform dominated by its Linux use. This game engine is open source, and no doubt the developers have a fondness for Linux because Linux is the centre of gravity of open source stuff, but it probably isn't primarily for Linux users. So its main method for being acquired isn't going to be through Linux distros, it's going to be through portals that Windows and maybe Mac people use, and because it's a game-related thing, that will be a game portal.
Long story short: Normal Linux software comes from your distro's software manager thingie, game stuff comes from Steam or GoG or Itch. There is nothing to be upset about here.

1) A large family of distros using apt with a graphical front end, whether Synaptic or something called "Software manager" or something

out dated softwares, with an outdated list of what is avaliable for linux.


"This game engine is open source, and no doubt the developers have a fondness for Linux because Linux is the centre of gravity of open source stuff"
that explains why construct didnt had an version for linux? sigh

"There is nothing to be upset about here."
except that canonical made 0 dollars on their store, and now they dont care about the desktop anymore, the ones who do is valve.
I'm not clear what point you're making.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 4 November 2018 at 7:13 am UTC
Liam Dawe Nov 5, 2018
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI'm not clear what point you're making.
I'm not either, they lost me completely.
mangue Nov 8, 2018
As an avid Construct 2 user. I check Gdevelop from time to time to see if I can switch. Most of the time I revert back to Construct 2 due to it being more friendly and stable and feature rich. Guess it's time to check Gdevelop again.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.