Ghostboard pixel Skip to content

Xogot Brings Full Godot Game Development to iPhone

Game development with open source game engine Godot is now possible on iPhone with Xogot.

there is a horizontal illustration of an iphone device showing a landscape screenshot of xogot in it

Game development has traditionally been a desktop-dominated field, with developers relying on powerful workstations to build their projects. In this space, Godot, an open source game engine, has managed to carve out a sizable market share among indie developers and studios for its flexibility and lack of commercial redistribution restrictions.

On the other hand, Xogot is a mobile port of Godot, developed by Xibbon, a company founded by Miguel De Icaza and Joseph Hill. Miguel is known for founding Xamarin, Mono, and the GNOME desktop, while Joseph previously co-founded Xamarin alongside him.

The company launched Xogot for iPad in May 2025, bringing a touch-optimized version of Godot to Apple's tablet. The interface was completely rewritten in SwiftUI, following Apple's Human Interface Guidelines to create a native experience for mobile development.

Now, Xibbon has expanded Xogot to support iPhone devices, allowing game developers to work on their Godot projects from their pockets.

🙋
Xogot is NOT open source software. Then why did we cover it? For a few reasons. It relates to Godot, our beloved open source game engine. And it has been created by people like Miguel De Icaza who gave us the GNOME desktop and Mono (a free and open-source alternative to Microsoft's .NET Framework).

Xogot for Apple iPhone

on the left of the image is a 2d game development demo on the iphone app for xogot, on the right is the 3d game dev demo

According to Miguel, the iPhone port addresses Godot's desktop-only limitation, enabling developers to work on game projects during commutes, at coffee shops, or in spare moments throughout the day.

Xogot for iPhone supports full 2D and 3D game development. The 2D toolset includes tile maps and a dedicated 2D engine, while 3D development gets Godot's scene system, advanced lighting, and scripting capabilities.

The code editor is native to iOS and built for GDScript. It includes an integrated debugger where developers can set breakpoints, check program states, and profile sections of their games directly on the device.

A slew of recent updates brought Jolt Physics for 3D physics support, an embedded game view for instant playtesting, Camera3D previews, and a Metal rendering backend optimized for Apple GPUs. External accessories like Bluetooth controllers, keyboards, and mice are also supported for testing.

Additionally, projects can synchronize between Xogot and desktop Godot without compatibility issues. Game devs can import from iCloud, USB drives, or GitHub; work on mobile and continue on desktop seamlessly.

Game development on mobile devices? Xibbon is super confident

We asked Xibbon co-founder Miguel De Icaza some questions to better understand their motivation behind Xogot and how the future of mobile game development is shaping up.

There is something about manipulating things with your fingers that you could not get with a trackpad or a keyboard.

On bringing game development to mobile, Miguel explained that his experience with creative iPad apps showed the unique appeal of touch-based creation. Other creative fields have professional mobile tools like Logic Pro and Procreate, but game development lacked similar options.

Adapting Godot from a desktop application into a pleasant, touch-first, iPad application was a lot of work, and people at Xibbon were convinced there was no more shrinking or adjusting in the future.

The idea of bringing Godot to iOS came from a presentation from Chad Stewart on using Godot on Android where he shared his real life experiences doing some work on the go.

...the Godot foundation shared information about usage of Godot on Android, on phones and tablets - and it was then that we grasped that for some folks their phone is their sole computing device. So not only was this possible, for some folks it was a necessity.

How feasible it is to develop games on iPhones? The team was initially skeptical but found it surprisingly practical. While complete games can be built on iPhone, the more common use cases involve task-specific work like level tweaks, shader experiments, and gameplay adjustments on the go.

No plans for Android version

On Android plans, Xibbon told It's FOSS that it has no current plans for Android. Their focus remains on delivering a quality Apple experience, and Godot is already available and popular on Android. Their goal is maintaining compatibility with Godot across platforms so different environments complement each other.

Get Xogot

Xogot offers two versions. The free Lite tier includes core editor features and works for smaller projects but has limits on project size, active project count, and advanced settings.

The Pro version removes these restrictions and adds external storage support. It costs $2.99 per month, $29.99 annually, or $149.99 for lifetime access. Students get a free year of Pro for personal use, and Game Jam participants can apply for a free month.

You can download Xogot for iPhone from the App Store, and more information is available on the documentation portal.

🎗️
Here's why you should opt for It's FOSS Plus Membership:

- Even the biggest players in the Linux world don't care about desktop Linux users. We do.
- We don't put informational content behind paywall. Your support keeps it open for everyone. Think of it like 'pay it forward'.
- Don't like ads? With the Plus membership, you get an ad-free reading experience.
- When millions of AI-generated content is being published daily, you read and learn from real human Linux users.
- It costs just $2 a month, less than the cost of your favorite burger.

Become a Plus Member today and join over 300 people in supporting our work.
Sourav Rudra

Sourav Rudra

A nerd with a passion for open source software, building custom gaming rigs/workstations, motorsports, and more.

All articles

More in Application Releases

See all

More from Sourav Rudra

See all