Working on a game on pygame...should I move over to Godot?

Question

I am currently working on a game using python and the module pygame. I have come pretty far, and am at about 3000 lines of code, but pygame is really not working for me. I have just started working on this game about 3 weeks ago and it is my first game. I just feel it takes so long to program the game because animations, positioning things on the screen perfectly, and creating other various things takes so long because I cant see whats happening until I run the game. I feel like Godot would help me complete what I need to complete faster, much faster, but I'm kinda stuck at crossroads. I don't know if I should continue to work on and complete the game in pygame, or if I would be better off, in the long run, starting the game from scratch in Godot. I eventually don't want to use pygame, and want t only use Godot, but I don't know if recreating the project in Godot will take the same amount of time as it did to create the game I have so far in pygame. All help is much appriciated!

P.S.- The game is a fishing sim style game with lots of comedy. There will be both RPG style movement sections and "text-based" parts. The game is made using 8-bit and 16-bit pixel art.

Comments

I recently made the switch from Pygame to Godot and am very happy I did. If you know Python, you should find Godot's language, GDscript, very intuitive. If you decide not to switch over now, you should definitely give it a try in the future!

Answer 1

Pygame is a game framework. This means while it provides some basic functionality, you must code all the systems you need (animation, physics, etc). As a game engine, Godot provides lots of built-in tools for these things, so you can get up and running faster.

Whether you can do the same things and/or do them in the same amount of time is going to depend on you. There is a learning curve, so you'll have to devote some time to learning the "Godot way". It seems you have't been using Pygame for very long so it's likely that you're not doing things in the most efficient way. On top of that, Pygame is very archaic and does not do things like GPU rendering, 3D, physics, etc. I would say you probably should go for Godot, as it'll give you a lot more options moving forward.

If you have any plans to distribute your game, you probably want to switch over to Godot. Pygame games are not at all easy (or sometimes even possible) to export to mobile, etc.

Comments

Thank You. I've been trying to decide how I was gonna do a lot of stuff in my game, such as character creation, and some other ideas. I feel like Godot would suit my needs better. I just don't know how I'm gonna do the text-based part of my game in Godot.

I've also been really inspired by Stardew Valley, and that's the sort of style games I want to make. I feel like Godot would be much easier to make something like Godot then pygame.

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Very likely. Text manipulation in Pygame is non-existent. You'll have to roll your own text rendering and that is going to get difficult fast. Dive into Godot and don't look back!