The controversy with Unity hasn’t ended well for the company. While it’s true that they eventually backtracked, with their CEO even announcing departure from the company, the damage is done. Many developers, especially small and medium-sized ones, have lost confidence in the company’s future prospects. It’s not surprising to see movements towards other graphic engines, especially those with open-source licenses, such as Godot.
The first major name to embrace Godot has been none other than Mega Crit, the creators of Slay the Spire, the popular card game that sparked the popularity of deck-building roguelikes. The studio has been working on their next project for two years, initially developing it under the umbrella of Unity. However, after the events, they’ve decided to switch game engines to Godot.
Learning a game engine isn’t something that happens overnight. It requires study, effort, and a lot of dedication. Instead of trying to learn on the fly, they have opted to work on a small project in just three weeks for the Jump Ship Jam called Dancing Duelists.
Close to the sensibility of Slay the Spire, Dancing Duelists is a small deck-building game mixed with autobattle mechanics. Players choose a character and a set of cards that will make up their deck. That’s the extent of their interaction: whether they win or lose this unique dance competition depends on the cards they draw and the ones drawn by their opponent. It’s a curious but refreshing twist to the Slay the Spire formula.
Not only has this project helped them learn how to use Godot, but it’s also available for free download on their itch.io page. It’s a much-appreciated gift that, while unlikely to occupy us for the hundreds (or thousands) of hours that Slay the Spire did, surely compensates for the delay their next game might experience due to the need to be ported to a new game engine.
