Go Woke, Get Forked? Godot Engine Fiasco Leads To Many New Forks!

Godot Engine, a popular open-source game engine that powers many video games on the market, recently had a tricky situation where many people found themselves in a heated conversation over a post on its official X handle.

As a result of this, many people were blocked, banned, and restricted across Godot's various community platforms. Unfortunately, many people who were asking reasonable questions were also caught in the crossfire, leading to many (including donors) being cut off without any further explanation.

godot engine's tweet on X — A screenshot of Godot's tweet that sparked a controversy

The matter escalated further when a moderator of an unofficial Godot discord server shared their thoughts on the situation.

The Godot Foundation has since released a statement acknowledging the allegations (mentioning that they had no connections to the unofficial Discord server) and providing a form for those who were shut out wrongfully.

From the Godot Foundation board: pic.twitter.com/sE1YN0d1hh
— Godot Foundation (@godotfoundation) September 30, 2024

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The Godot Foundation is responsible for the Godot Engine, representing it in all legal affairs.

Community Divided With New Forks!

A significant part of the community has been jaded by this fiasco, and many forks have come up as a result of this, with some being made with the sole purpose of conveying satire.

Unsurprisingly, when Godot's official statement published with locked replies on X, the situation did not improve. Some community members believe this shows a lack of accountability in handling the matter.

So, now, there are plenty of forks that are serious about pitching themselves as a viable alternative to the Godot Engine. One of the more popular forks currently is Redot Engine (website under construction), that appears to be rising in popularity due to the recent events.

A screenshot of the Redot Engine GitHub project page (features the old logo).

Being moved forward by some community members, Redot Engine is a new open-source offering that aims to be a robust multiplatform 2D/3D game engine. Offered under the MIT License, Redot Engine features a cool-looking community-designed/approved logo and has a mascot in the works.

There is plenty of activity on the repo, with many open/closed issues. Similarly, the official Discord server is quite active too, with many wondering about the next phase of the project.

Initially, I couldn't figure out exactly which people were behind the project. After looking into their Discord server, and thanks to the assistance of two helpful mods, I found out there were four key people behind it.

The person leading the Redot Engine project is Andrew Martin, host of the Citizen Coder Podcast. He is joined by three other co-founders: William, Nicholai, and Red Otter.

Thoughts?

As you can tell, the forks (or the popular fork we mention here) are just getting started. So, we need to wait for them to see the direction they take with the fork.

You can check out the source code for Redot Engine on GitHub, which doesn't really have anything extra to offer compared to Godot Engine presently. Head to its X page if you want to follow the fork.

Redot Engine (GitHub)

💬 Do you think differing political ideologies are causing a rift in the open-source community of Godot? Share your thoughts in the comments below!