[Mikeb85]

> but to write a serious game you really want C#.

This is ridiculous. You absolutely can write a full game with GDScript or GDScript and C++. Keep in mind Godot has first class support for C++.

In fact, I'd argue C++ is far better than a bolted on C#...

[TheAceOfHearts]

I don't have experience with GDScript, so please forgive the ignorant question.

Does GDScript have good debugging, linting, and profiling tools?

I'm not a game developer, but I'd love to hear your perspective on some of the criticisms I've encountered on the topic of scripting languages for game development.

One of the main criticisms I've heard of using scripting languages for game development is that they tend to be lacking when it comes to tooling.

The second form of criticism I've heard is that type issues become a serious problem as the size of game code growns past a certain point.

[cardanome]

> Does GDScript have good debugging, linting, and profiling tools?

Yes, everything is provided for. No need for separate tools, Godot comes with everything out of the box. (Of course "good" needs to be defined but I personally had no problems.)

> The second form of criticism I've heard is that type issues become a serious problem as the size of game code growns past a certain point.

GDScript has gradual typing support. You get at least TS-level of type safety if you want (but without the headache of TS.)

Also C# is not traditionally a game development language. It has automatic garbage management for which game development happens to be on of the few areas where that is not exactly ideal.

C# is mostly interesting for people already knowing C# or when there are specific performance needs where C# still outperforms GDScript (though personally I would rather write the performance sensitive parts in C++ or Rust).

Most people are highly advised to at least try GDScript. (Also it is very easy to mix and match languages. You can have parts in C#, parts in GDScript, parts in C++, no need to commit early to a specific language.)

[meibo]

> Also C# is not traditionally a game development language. It has automatic garbage management for which game development happens to be on of the few areas where that is not exactly ideal.

Are you forgetting about the now decades worth of games made with Unity? C# works perfectly fine for games, GC behavior can be optimized, it can be transpiled to native code, it has a huge ecosystem and is very easy to pick up. .NET 6 or 7 are faster than ever, while Unity is stuck on an old version of Mono, too.

It's certainly easier for devs coming from C++ or Java than "weird python-like scripting language that we had to invent and are now stuck with".

[cardanome]

Did I say, you can't make games in C#? Why do you feel the need to defend C#? You are arguing against a straw man.

It is simply a fact that a large part of the professional gaming industry uses C++. That one might be better off using a language without automatic garbage collection for performance critical parts in many cases is pretty standard wisdom. Not sure what there is to argue about.

> It's certainly easier for devs coming from C++ or Java than "weird python-like scripting language that we had to invent and are now stuck with".

So you have never used GDScript but feel qualified to have a strong opinion on that matter, why is that?

[meibo]

> So you have never used GDScript but feel qualified to have a strong opinion on that matter, why is that?

I have, which makes me feel confident in stating that it's a language that didn't have to exist, doesn't have a healthy ecosystem backing it, which pulls focus from the actual good (or to be good) bits of Godot, which there are a lot of, and in the end makes people doubt that the language they would actually be productive in is a first class citizen for the engine vendors.

[cardanome]

> I have, which makes me feel confident in stating that it's a language that didn't have to exist

If you have, you should be aware of the history of the project and then I am perplexed why you would make this claim.

They tried using multiple different languages until finally settled for developing GDScript. It is not a decision they just made willy-nilly but something they decided after using different languages did not work out as they hoped it would.

> doesn't have a healthy ecosystem backing

What ecosystem? The ecosystem is Godot and GDScript is an integral part of it.

> in the end makes people doubt that the language they would actually be productive in is a first class citizen for the engine vendors

If you had proper experience with Godot you would know that GDScript is very well liked in the community and people are actually very critical about C# integration, seeing it as more of a distraction and waste of resources. (Of course people that don't like GDScript might simply not stay in the Godot community, so I admit some self selecting bias might be going it.)

The C# integration was only done because Microsoft paid them to do it.

[Mikeb85]

> It's certainly easier for devs coming from C++ or Java than "weird python-like scripting language that we had to invent and are now stuck with".

??? You can do everything in Godot in C++...

And GDScript isn't exactly a 'weird' language, it's downright ordinary in terms of semantics and features. The feature is that it's part of the engine and maps directly to C++ methods in the game engine...

[handsaway]

GDScript is fine and I use it but it's a stretch to compare its type system to TypeScript. GDScript doesn't have generics let alone conditional types, string template types, variadic tuple types, etc. TS is significantly more sound as well if you turn on a lot of the strictness options.

[throwaway675309]

Between XNA, monogame, Unity, etc. there a metric f###-ton of games written using the C# language.

[Mikeb85]

I mean, GDScript doesn't exist outside of the Godot engine. Debugging for it is the same as debugging a Godot game. All GDScript functions are C++ methods. Also, there are type hints if you want.

If you're going to be doing a very large, ambitious game, odds are you'll also be creating your own C++ methods and thus debugging using C++ tools and the game engine tools...