[tunaoftheland]

I've had a soft spot for defold, partly because they're unique in the gamedev space. For example, the GUI editor that is built-in is done in Clojure! https://github.com/defold/defold/tree/dev/editor (cljfx for the GUI, I am rooting for seesaw though :))

From what I understand it emerged from a gamedev studio from Sweden (King or something?) so there's commercial release pedigree there. I believe their console platform build/release tooling does cost money for game devs because the platform SDKs themselves impose restrictions. But I get the impression that defold as org does seem to put in earnest effort to be fair to game devs with licensing, etc. like others mentioned here.

[mtnygard]

It’s cool to see this mentioned. I worked on the editor back in the day. It’s actually the second IDE for Defold. The original one that we replaced was built on Eclipse.

A team of about 6 people replaced the IDE core and built a dozen tools over a year.

It was a fun project. Not many people can say they built a desktop gui with Clojure!

[Cthulhu_]

If it is King, then it's got a huge (financial) backer; King is one of the most profitable game publishers thanks to e.g. Candy Crush that made their revenue jump from $62 million in 2011 to $1.88 billion in 2013. It was bought in 2016 by Activision Blizzard, which in turn was acquired by Microsoft in 2023.

Ah, the wiki page also mentions the Defold engine, which was first developed in 2007 and acquired by King in 2013, then opened to its current licensing model in 2016.

[croes]

Given the addictive nature of Candy Crush it’s a little bit like a drug lord building a hospital.

Candy Crush is less deadly than drugs, but a game engine is less useful than a hospital

[mtnygard]

AFAIK, King spun Defold back out as a foundation.

[britzl]

Yes, this happened early in 2020. Defold has been a public product longer with the Defold Foundation than with King. King has not been affiliated with Defold for a very long time.