Comparison Table

Godot Ursina GameMaker
Cost Free Free Free to start, but 100$ purchase to sell your game.
Programming Language GDScript / C# / C / C++ Python GML Code / GML Visual
Primary Focus Ease of use, and many options for game development. Starting developers off with a simple engine and language. Providing developers with a way to make a game with zero coding experience.
Ease of Use Easier to learn than most other game engines Very easy to get started using, as it has many built in tools. Very easy to start using and get the hang of, due to its visual programming aspect.
Platform Support The editor can run on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and can export games for these systems plus, Android, iPhone, and Web. Only officially supports Windows and Linux, but can unofficially run on Mac. Almost every desktop, console, and mobile device, including the web.
Target Audience Indie developers and some small to medium size game studios. People who are familiar with Python and want to make games. People who want to make 2D, mostly story based games, and might not have a lot of coding experience.
Interface Type Complete UI with scene viewer and code editor. No UI, with only text editor for code. Mostly UI with options and an entire system for visual coding.
Community Size Large, but not as big as other engines such as Unity or Unreal. Relatively small due to how new it is. Pretty big, with a lot of successful indie games.
Notable Games Buckshot Roulette, The Case of the Golden Idol, Dome Keeper, Brotato. Nothing notable out except for some demos such as Value of Life. Undertale, Forager, Deltarune, Hyper Light Drifter, Risk of Rain, Spelunky, ect.
Asset Store Yes, Godot Asset Library. Yes, with a section for development tools and game assets. Yes, Gamemaker Marketplace.
Documentation Quality Very thorough and clear. High quality and covers the important aspects. Complete documentation of most if not all features.
Learning Time Some learning curve due to the node system. Small learning curve, and is relatively simple to learn. Low learning curve initially, but could become harder with more complex features.
Main Strengths Cross platform support, free, 2D and 3D support, easy language to learn, and quick to prototype projects in. Ease of use, simplicity of Python, no complicated UI to have to learn, allows external Python libraries, and is very fast. Very beginner friendly and able to scale later on, can support almost every platform, and has already been used to make successful games.
Main Limitations Limited console support, some small limitations in 3D support. Networking only uses TCP currently, no scene preview, the Python language could make some coding difficult, and its recency limits the amount of resources it has. (In my experience it is also difficult to install) Almost no 3D functionality, some performance issues, and many features locked behind paywalls.
Best For Most 2D games and some 3D games without high poly assets. Small / introductory 2D or 3D games. 2D games with, or without, prior programming knowledge.

Conclusion

For my next project, I would choose Godot because it allows for flexible creation of 2D and 3D games, even simultaneously. Godot has many online tutorials and resources and its coding language is easy to understand for anyone with some Python or Lua experience. Godot has a previewer for 2D and 3D scenes allowing for easy creation of level designs. Godot offers a sufficiently wide range of platforms to export games to, such as: Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, web, and some VR devices. It would also be possible, though difficult, to export games for consoles. There is an option to hire a third party to export Godot games to console, if necessary.

I prefer Godot to GameMaker because it is more flexible and allows for more in depth coding. GameMaker is also limited to 2D, while Godot has 2D and 3D functionality. In addition, distributing a game via GameMaker would cost at least $100 and has the potential to become very expensive with an enterprise tier subscription which costs $800 per year or $80 per month. Conversely, it would be free to distribute a game made via Godot. Godot is also free and completely open source, whereas you would need the expensive enterprise tier subscription in order to alter the source code with GameMaker.

As for why I prefer Godot to Ursina, Godot's user interface allows developers to implement features much faster than they could in Ursina, such as built in physics simulators or lighting. One notable bottleneck in Ursina is that there is no way to preview a 3D scene without running it, while Godot offers a previewer. Godot also supports both UDP Networking and TCP Networking while Ursina only supports UDP Networking. UDP Networking is faster, but less reliable, while TCP Networking is more reliable, but with some latency. I would prefer to have the choice, as it may be optimal to prioritize either speed or precision when designing multiplayer games.

In conclusion, Godot offers a wide range of free features to assist with game development and eventual distribution.

Hands-On Demo

I first created a new project, and clicked 2D Scene under Create Root Node to create a new 2D scene to edit. After that I right clicked on the Node2D object in the scene, clicked Add Child Node, searched for the Label node, and pressed Create. Finally I edited the properties on the right to make the font bigger, and for it it say "Hello World!".
I then right clicked on the Label node, clicked on the Attach Script option, and pressed Create. Then after it opened up the script, I removed most of the code except for the first line and the function called _ready(), which I put the code print("Hello World!") in.
After all of this I pressed the Run Project arrow at the top right of the window to run my project, and saw the Hello World! label in the debug window, and Hello World! printed in the console.

Works Cited

Klubnika, Mike. “Mike Klubnika.” Mikeklubnika.com, 2023, mikeklubnika.com/games/buckshot_roulette. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.

“Godot (Game Engine).” Wikipedia, 10 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godot_(game_engine).

“LinkedIn.” Linkedin.com, 2025, www.linkedin.com/company/godot-engine. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.

Engine, Godot. “Godot Engine - Features.” Godotengine.org, godotengine.org/features.

pokepetter. “GitHub - Pokepetter/Ld44_life_is_currency: My Game for Ludum Dare #44.” GitHub, 2025, github.com/pokepetter/ld44_life_is_currency. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.

“Ursina Engine Faq.” Ursinaengine.org, 2025, www.ursinaengine.org/faq. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.

“Ursina Engine Documentation.” Ursinaengine.org, 2025, www.ursinaengine.org/documentation. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.

Mike. “Ursina Engine - GameFromScratch.com.” GameFromScratch.com, 27 Jan. 2020, gamefromscratch.com/ursina-engine. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.

Fox, Toby. “UNDERTALE.” Undertale.com, 2019, undertale.com/about.

“GameMaker.” Wikipedia, 6 June 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameMaker.

“GameMaker Manual.” Gamemaker.io, 2025, manual.gamemaker.io/monthly. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.

Bramble, Ross. “What Platforms Can I Export My Game to with GameMaker?” Gamemaker.io, 2023, gamemaker.io/en/blog/export-with-gamemaker.