Switching to Godot - Why I'm quitting PhaserJS

Long time no see! I've been pretty busy over the past few weeks, here's an update :)
Chapters:
00:00 Why Phaser isn't working
02:33 What I've been working on in Godot
05:10 Comparing Phaser and Godot
Heartbeast godot series:
• Make an Action RPG in ...

[@Andycraft608]

I wish you luck on your journey! I'm also in the process of switching to a new engine and was thinking about switching to Phaser for my project. I'm glad I found this video before diving in haha. I might have to check out Godot too since I've been eyeing it a bit.

[@yxgen4]

Best of luck! Let me know if you have any questions about phaser

[@imkranely7230]

I remember when I spent months learning how to customize and mod RPG Maker to try and make a game I could be proud of, and eventually I just accepted that I needed a stronger, more flexible set of tools. Godot was my switch as well.

[@yxgen4]

Happy to hear it’s not just me!

[@collinvisser7108]

Neat that you are finding godot. Js interrupt is ok you need to make your export HTML custom in the export menu. You can call JS and JS can call godot. Bit of a pain as you have to export your react is project to flat HTML and then do your code in godot. But it works. Remember godot also support GraphQL so you can talk directly to your backend - you just need the addon from the ad on menu. So you may not need react Js at all as Godot is your front end. Rest api is also supported and JSON to godot var. Good luck

[@yxgen4]

Thank you!

[@fiveeyedfrog]

I would be very interested in what you find out with Godot and your project. I find it very interesting. I have used Godot and I found it very easy to use. I love the editor and GDScript. Wishing you good luck on this journey.

[@yxgen4]

I’ll be sure to update as I go, thanks for following along 🙏🏻

[@jeffmccloud905]

Stop using proprietary languages.

[@Frostbytedigital]

​@@jeffmccloud905 why? That's a kind of definitive statement to make with nothing backing it up? I use js, typescript, kotlin, python, java, C++, C#, and rust for my day job, but still chose gdscript for my godot game ... I actually find it pleasant to work with and it certainly isn't hurting my skills as a developer to use it.

[@bakbeolle]

I'm starting to work on a game and we've recently opted to start working with Phaser. Since the game is simple I've found Phaser a really good option instead of jumping to Unity, for example. But, since me and the other developers never worked with Phaser before we have the same doubts that you raise in this video. Or not just raised, but you've already been working on it. Related to connect the game with database. Pros and cons, etc. So I wonder if you can give me some info, perphaps in a next video or video series, that will be really nice.

[@yxgen4]

My previous videos are all about working with phaser. Moving forward, they will be about working with Godot Phaser is great for simple projects, but to build anything of complexity it just isn’t fun

[@alvi0.056]

I'm looking to getting started into game dev primarily as a react/nextjs developer so that i can incorporate mini games into my websites. Do you have any starter advice on how should i start or what should start looking into first? As in, which JS game libraries or engines ?

[@yxgen4]

Thanks for the comment! I think if you’re really experienced with next and react, phaser might be a good place to start. That’s what I did. But once you start building more than mini games, I think phaser is a little difficult to work in (at least for me)

[@totfosk]

hi Yugen, thanks a lot for the video!! I am even wondering how the hell someone learns Phaser 3. Either I am stupid or it's very difficult! As you say there are not this many resources (almost none) and the few I have seen is copy paste stuff but for me it's impossible even to grasp what the hell to do. Maybe because it's missing a GUI. And I spent hours and hours and hours on the website trying to understand that Namespaces list... I don't know, I feel 100% lost (and I am an experienced web dev). Maybe one needs to really understand video game dev before using that? Otherwise I don't know what I am missing. How did you started with it? Thanks master!!

[@yxgen4]

Hey! Thanks for the question. You’re definitely not stupid!! There are not good resources for it, and a lack of a gui definitely makes it harder. Understanding game development patterns definitely helps first, as the patterns you use with phaser are very different from the functional programming we use in web development. I would recommend following a tutorial series like the rpg series from Ourcade. They also sell an ebook specifically for building games with phaser. Don’t be hard on yourself, especially with phaser! Keep building :)

[@totfosk]

@@yxgen4 thanks a lot for the answer, Yugen :) i will keep all that in mind and see what happens. Have a nice weekend!

[@GoodFeel21]

Thanks for this! I'm starting my game dev journey, and this is really helpful. From what I'm understanding starting with Phaser would give me a better view of game dev, but in the long term, moving to a more robust engine like Godot may be necessary. Do you think I'd really miss a lot if I start with Godot? I'm talking about simple 2D mini games

[@yxgen4]

Actually I think the opposite, godot will give you a much better mental model of how games are built. You should start with godot unless you NEED phaser imo

[@GoodFeel21]

@yxgen4 thanks for the clarification! I understood wrong then. I'll follow your advise and start with Godot.

[@Kolchetes]

Hey! I'm learning JS to get a job, but what I really want to be is a gamedev. Learning Phaser will help me with the two things (js and gamedev) or there's another library/engine that will help me more? Do you have any advice, please? Thx for the video!

[@MagnusFr33]

As a web developper being much more familiar with javascript i thought it would be easier for me to make games with phaser but as it turns out it's more like of a framework or library of functions contained pretty much in a single file or so that helps out with managing things like collisions or gravity but in order to make anything significant you'd have to reinvent the wheel constantly with little online ressources to help you out

[@yxgen4]

Yeah that’s how I feel too lol

[@MalteNielson]

This is exactly how I feel right now. I've stuck to Phaser since I know JS and PHP for the backend, but am also just trying to make the switch to Godot. Like @yxgen4, i'll also have to find away to communicate with a backend for database usage. Godot seems really straight forward. Don't get me wrong, I like Phaser. but it is very tedious to work with.

[@takashimurakami3560]

Hi, love your content! Can you please name some game developers that you mentioned you are following?

[@yxgen4]

Some game devs I’m following: @devduck @byteofmichael @randy_delta_t @challcade @heartbeast @sundercoredev @goodgis

[@VANTABL4CK]

I haven't yet started learning phaser js, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, I wanted to ask Your Godot version of the game looks more HD and has better fps, whereas the phaser videos seemed to be blurry and kinda laggy is that a limitation of phaser or something else?

[@yxgen4]

I don’t think that’s a limitation of phaser, I think that’s just a difference in project settings

[@winner_joiner]

I know I'm late to the party, but I wanted to ask, what exactly were the main issues with Phaser? Except the missing Video tutorials? Everything in the hearbeast tutorial can be done easily with phaser, or am I missing something? If it is mentioned in an different Devlog, sorry, since I didn't see all yet.

[@yxgen4]

There’s nothing wrong with it. If you’re an experienced programmer who knows what needs to be done to build a game, phaser is a great way to build something performant for the web. If you’re trying to learn game development, use godot. It simply lets you prototype and build faster - which compounds over time as you learn

[@winner_joiner]

@@yxgen4 Thanks for your response, that makes sense.

[@RobertFilatowDev]

There is a cool Video from ThePrimeTime called "Why You Should Learn To Program the HARD WAY" that you might want to check out in general. Pretty interesting point. May I ask about your background? Do you have a computer science degree and a strong background in algorithms and datastructures or Game Design Patterns? Building stuff the hard way is definitly tedious but it gives a perspective that cannot be achieved by any other way.

[@yxgen4]

I’m a big fan of prime! I don’t have a computer science degree. I was pretty good with data structures and algos when I was interviewing heavily a few years ago, I think I have a decent understanding of them. I definitely feel like I’ve learned a ton from this process! Is there anything from that video that you think I should be doing differently?

[@RobertFilatowDev]

@@yxgen4 I am much less experienced than you are so I am not really in a position to give an advice. I was curious of wheter or not fundamental understanding of Programming Patterns, Algorithms and Datastructures, or Game Engines might have bottlenecked your process of building the game. I also experienced that there is very little information about phaser compared to other popular Game Engines. But I am hoping that there might be other ways to overcome the limitation. Then again time is always an important factor.

[@yxgen4]

@@RobertFilatowDev oh I see. I definitely think fundamental patterns like algorithms and data structures helps. Even though there are slightly different patterns in game design vs web programming. I don't think a lack of knowledge around fundamentals bottlenecked my process, but a lack of knowledge around phaser definitely did. I'll say that I wish I had done more general tutorials before diving in and trying to code my own thing from scratch. I do think some people get stuck in tutorial hell, but as long as you're also trying to build on your own, you wont get stuck

[@DevlogBill]

Great video hope to see more about your gamming progress in the near future. I myself am focused on React but with Django as my tech stack. But I am looking into making a game as a hobby. So, I am looking into Godot or maybe Pygame for creating that first game. Figured Pygame since it is built with Python and I am using Django which is also built with Python. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any good 2D game libraries for JavaScript. I found your channel by accident when looking for info on Phaser but thank goodness I found this video. Because hearing your story turned me away from Phaser. Just one question did you find a way to use Supabase with your Godot project? I hope you are making good progress.

[@yxgen4]

Yes using supabase with godot isn’t too hard. If you’re just starting game dev, I recommend starting with godot first!

[@DevlogBill]

@@Hellock_222 Thanks Hellock for the reply. Since this is a hobby and I never made a game before. I guess my end goal is about the enjoyment of the developer experience versus the complexity. I tried Pygame it seemed interesting but wasn't my thing. I am at the moment playing around with Kaboom.js and so far to my amazement the process for making basic games, the experience is enjoyable. I am at the moment trying to build my first game to see what I end up with. The downside with Kaboom.js is there isn't enough resources for learning this. I found 1 youtube who teaches how to use this and I am mainly dependent on the documentation.

[@Hellock_222]

@@DevlogBill yeah I get you :) try to make very basic game first. that would be my advice. don't try to add too many functionalities. first game should always be very basic. good luck

[@DevlogBill]

@@Hellock_222 Thanks Hellock22 appreciate the advice.

[@IamAsphalt]

I'm curious how you connected React with Godot; especially the communication layer

[@yxgen4]

New video on that dropping very soon!

[@IamAsphalt]

​@@yxgen4 Fantastic, I can't wait. I find it funny that I have almost the same situation as you - I'm coding in Angular + Phaser, getting frustrated, and looking for something new. I'm ultra curious about how you manage to connect them

[@yxgen4]

@@IamAsphalt for sure, I'll try to record that follow up video tomorrow

[@ivocamargo3223]

Hey, I'm developing a MMORPG based in Pokémon on PhaserJS with Nuxt+NestJS and the things are going well. I did a "JSON script language" that works both on client and server, an UI layout editor that exports photoshop file directly to the game in real time, an UI layout editor built directly on Phaser, and a lot of several advanced features and tools. I'm planning to do a full stack game engine with a lot o game templates like (MMO)RPG turn-based and action, side scroller, point and click, arcades and any other template that you can imagine built on top of Phaser framework and my MMORPG, that is like Construct, GDevelop or RPG Maker but better. Considering that actually Phaser is a framework and Godot an engine, you're totally correct and I agree about the time save of Godot or any other game engine compared to a framework.

[@yxgen4]

Good luck on your project!

[@spf234]

Ive switched from Phaser to Godot and now back to Phaser. First of all I loved certain things about Godot. The editor is great. However, there were some functions that phaser had that made 2D game dev alot easier. I think Godot can make games look better faster but when it came to advanced logic i found I couldn't figure out GDscript/Node system. With Phaser I can wrap my head around what is happening so i ultimately went back

[@yxgen4]

Stick with what works for you! Both are tools, they’re only as good as they work they help you make

[@BdR76]

I'm similarly torn between Phaser and Godot. The Godot IDE, tutorials (especially GDQuest), nodes composition, scalability etc. are certainly much better than what's available for Phaser. However, for now I'll stick to Phaser because 1) my snake/tetris/bejeweled-type games are small in scope, and 2) the distributed game is much smaller, in Godot just a one scene testdemo build for web is >40MB with some changes to configuration I can get it down to ~28MB but in Phaser it's just ~1MB. Even though internet connections are so fast now, for webgames a small footprint is still important because of server bandwidth resources. Still though, for larger scope games or games aimed at laptop/desktop I would probably prefer Godot.

[@yxgen4]

sounds like the right approach to me! @@BdR76

[@shubhamsahai8301]

Hey Yugen, I would love to connect with you. I am building something similar, not a productivity app - but quite similar architecture and requirements solving a different problem. Would love to talk more about it and share experiences in the journey. For the record, I am still trying things out with phaser - but won’t mind switching to Godot. Please let me know how we can get in touch? I don’t know how to DM you to reach out.

[@yxgen4]

You can dm me on Twitter @_yxgen4

[@shubhamsahai8301]

​@@yxgen4 KZbin deleting my comments 😞 I have to somehow write it to follow the guidelines. That means, that if I want to request for connecting over LinkedIn, I can't ask directly. Seems it gets flagged as spam. KZbin rocks. Thanks for great videos.

[@yxgen4]

@@shubhamsahai8301 thanks for watching! I'm not sure I would connect on linkedin, but if you have questions feel free to dm me on twitter or post here and I'll do my best to answer :)

[@nicksloane9437]

Was it worth Waiting for?

[@yxgen4]

Not sure what you mean

[@benixmaximus]

What's it like programming in gdscript when coming from javascript?

[@yxgen4]

Incredibly easy, the syntax is pretty minor difference. The big thing to get used to is that tabs and spacing of lines matter to which function your code is in. But it is pretty simple and the documentation is great

[@jeffmccloud905]

Stop using proprietary programming languages.

[@yxgen4]

@@jeffmccloud905 it is open source (?)

[@jeffmccloud905]

@@yxgen4 it will get you nowhere professionally. Even Lua is a better choice

[@hideinbush0]

I also dropped Phaser because there was just too much boilerplate. I chose kaboomjs instead.

[@yxgen4]

I haven’t used kaboom, but I have heard that it works well

[@hideinbush0]

I migrated my phaser project (which is a 2D zelda-like RPG) to kaboom and realized that kaboom performance is very lacking in comparison to phaser, especially in mobile. The game lags like crazy when moving the player on mobile. I was considering going back to phaser, rewatched this video and am considering godot because man, I am reading the "Making your first Phaser 3 game" tutorial from their official website to refresh myself on basics and that thing hasn't been updated since 2018. Ahhhh!!!!@@yxgen4

[@user-rs9pm5um6u]

Hi is Godot better than phaser 3 in building html5 game?

[@yxgen4]

In my personal opinion, yes edit: make sure to user godot 3.5 NOT 4

[@adotinthecosmos]

Does it work on mobile?

[@yxgen4]

@@adotinthecosmos it does!

[@adotinthecosmos]

​@@yxgen4i've done some research since posting that last comment. It does work up to a point. There is a limit on the wasm file size... which from others are saying is easy to reach in Godot.

[@yxgen4]

@@adotinthecosmos where's that limit coming from? many people who develop for godot don't do web development, so they aren't used to loading external resources to keep initial packages smaller.

[@Nassifeh]

Longtime JS/TS dev, and I was just looking for some info on Phaser and came across this in the process. I feel like it's really telling that Phaser's tutorial has you installing *WAMP* in the year of our lord 2023. I was expecting something a lot more like React or the like will give you: an npm create command, a set of sensible defaults, a dev server with hot reloading? Some leaning into the benefits of the ecosystem. A TypeScript tutorial that's been updated at any point since 2013... Disappointing but glad to get some sign from someone else that I'm not missing something here.

[@yxgen4]

Great take 👍🏻 I think most of the support for phaser / kaboom / html gamedev is hyper optimization for the js bundle while ignoring the dev experience

[@MisterFaucker]

As for building, I’ve been really happy with vite with typescript code base. The rough thing is deciding how you want to handle placement of objects when you’ve got a lot. Tiled has been helpful for that.

[@yxgen4]

@@MisterFaucker Tiled makes things a LOT easier, but I still didn't love the workflow between Tiled and phaser -- especially when you're trying to place game objects in Tiled. I just can't imagine working on a game with much complexity. You can absolutely build a game with Phaser / Tiled, but it feels like there is much more friction than Godot

[@Hellock_222]

Phaser official twitter sharing AI generated games was weird to see. Just sayin

[@naturegreene9579]

😔 uncool bro, you know whats cool? Quitting unity. It's totally a thing. Try that out 😂. Seriously talking I dont jnow but i would end it with phaser, if i switch engine middle of the dev. Most likely i won't finish project, cause i will lost motivation. Its really tiring, do it all again.

[@yxgen4]

It’s so tiring! But it is a positive switch, Godot is much easier 👍🏻

[@naturegreene9579]

@@yxgen4 I hope it works good for you, which version of godot did u choose?

[@yxgen4]

@@naturegreene9579 Thanks! I'm working with Godot 3.5 for now, since I need to export for the web