Does GODOT 3 and 4 have huge differences in making 2D games?

[u/theskellydud3]

Hello, I'm starting to learn GODOT and I wanted to know if you, a developer, know if GODOT 3 or GODOT 4 have big differences in making 2D games. In this case, I mean that if I learn GDScript for GODOT 3, I will still be able to do it for GODOT 4, with almost no difference in the script or anything like that?

I bought a book to learn (yes, a book to learn GDScript for godot 3) and I want to know if I learn GDScript for GODOT 3, will I still be able to make good games? Games that I don't know, there is no difference at all if I make them in GODOT 4?

[u/MattsPowers]

There is no reason to choose Godot 3 unless you have really old Hardware.

Go for Godot 4.

[u/kkreinn → u/MattsPowers]

Not even for old hardware.

[u/QuinceTreeGames]

If you learn GDScript for Godot 3, 95% of it will be transferrable to Godot 4.

In general what you want, if you're buying books about programming, are books that teach you how to think, rather than books that teach you exact implementation.

[u/theskellydud3 → u/QuinceTreeGames]

Okay good

Ill change to 4

[u/martinbean]

Why would you intentionally learn an old version? Version 4 is the latest version. Learn that.

[u/theskellydud3 → u/martinbean]

Oh.. good question.. I found the book -> I bought -> I went to see more about it on the internet because later I saw that the book was about GODOT 3 -> made the post

[u/BaldMasterMind]

Gdscript is almost the same (some function name changed, you can enforce variable type ...)

I switched to Godot 4 because you can do sprite masking without doing black magic with gdscript/shader

[u/theskellydud3 → u/BaldMasterMind]

Nice

[u/manuelandremusic]

There are a few relatively minor changes to godot v4, but in my opinion they only made it better. You should still be able to rock with v4

[u/jaklradek]

I would go for v4 and when something won't work in your book, just investigate if it's different for new version. Usually things like in-built movement porperties are the main problem for beginners using v3 tutorials.

[u/woroboros]

There aren't any BIG differences - in my opinion. I think any differences perceived as somehow "big" in terms of making 2D games will actually just be very developer/environment familiar specific. That said, there isn't a good reason to go for Godot 3 at this point.

I'll also add my usual aside here - if you are already familiar with coding and not scared or intimidated by C#, it is in many ways a superior language, even in the Godot environment, and for whatever complexity or lack of baked-in featurettes it comes with, it makes up for in areas where GDScript falls flat (like intense per frame computations, which can suddenly occur or seem necessary during the dev cycle.)

[u/theskellydud3 → u/woroboros]

Im just a beginner 💔

But even so, I bought the book and then I want to know, if I use GODOT 3, at least I will learn GDScript and then I can migrate to GODOT 4 and learn more?

[u/woroboros → u/theskellydud3]

Don't use Godot 3. Use 4 and learn GDScript if you are new to coding.

Learning 3 with the plan to switch to 4 later will just put you behind when you switch to 4. The differences are not that vast - if you have any very specific questions about Godot 4 when using a tutorial that was made with Godot 3, ask questions here or use an LLM like ChatGPT or Gemini (which can be misleading OR very useful...)

[u/Gustavo_Fenilli]

Other than using c# for web i think 4 is just all around better.

Also the biggest difference people get is the tilemap.