this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Professional game developers do not want their game engines to automatically update because when you upgrade engine versions things usually break. This happens in Unity, Godot, Unreal, and every other engine or framework I've seen in games. For big changes, this is inevitable. So professional game developers download the engine directly from the provider and not a service that will automatically update the engine version from under your project.
I don't even know why Godot is on steam. Probably to gain more discoverability and popularity.
Because if you want professional game developers to exist then you have to be welcoming to them when they are just aspiring game developers. Kids who play lots of games and want to have a fiddle around with tools for making games are much more likely to do so if there is a way to access them that they are familiar with and already associate with gaming.
While this is true, I feel a loss for the familiarity of going to a website, downloading an executable, and running it without worry. I still do that with most of my software. In fact, that's how I got steam.
I don't think anyone is arguing that because there is an option to install via Steam that people should stop downloading directly from Godot's website though. Both of those things can exist beside one another.
Sure. Like I said originally, it's there for discoverability and popularity.
godot doesn't break stuff in minor releases, and steam version of Godot has separate release tracks for each version (you can switch between godot 3 and 4)
I've had godot break or change stuff in minor releases.
Iirc godot uses beta branches and semver, so the only updates you get are the ones that dont break anything.