Transitioning from Godot: Thank You & Technical Reflections

We've made the extremely difficult decision to transition The Mirror from Godot.

First, I'd like to give a massive thank you to everyone in the community for putting in so much time to create amazing software for free. The next generation of software wouldn't be possible without the often-unsung heroic work of open-source contributors donating their time to give everyone software free. It's truly incredible and I can't thank them enough.

There isn't a single why, rather a combination of factors. For the technically-inclined, I've created a video reflecting on the past nearly 3 years (!) of development. I hope this can be helpful to anyone looking to build a multiplayer 3D game with evaluating key topics from a conceptual perspective, such as key architectural decisions and paradigms we made judgment calls on.

Key topics:

• Choosing the best tool for the job
• Tooling in various ecosystems
• Team size: How many cooks in the kitchen?
• Ecosystem crossover: Tooling of shared protocols, such as HTTP in ecosystem A vs. ecosystem B
• Certainties vs uncertainties, Godot 3 vs. Godot 4
• Should you choose Godot?

What's next for The Mirror?

• Our V2 alpha is on its way. Join us on Discord where we'll announce things first.
• We've updated our social handles to @TheMirrorEngine. Mirror "GDP" (game development platform) was a bit wordy and confusing.‍
• Real-time development is what we're most excited about, and so we've updated our tagline to "Real-Time Engine" - a fundamentally better developer experience than today's engine workflows. Reflections are in real-time.‍
• Hint: After our previous "Infinity" release, the next release will start with "J".

FAQ:

• Q: What will happen to my account and creations?
  • No need to worry, your account and data will be transitioned. We want to make this as frictionless as possible. Noting that we're changing the game engine, there will be some changes, but we'll work with you to make things as smooth as can be, to the best of our ability.
  • We anticipate that static assets like 3D models, textures, etc. will be fairly straightforward.
  • Game logic will need to be refactored, which we'll work with you on.
  • Please expect some speedbumps and rough edges as we make this transition to a new alpha product. However, we're giving this everything we have to help you easily make fun games.
• Q: Will whatever's next be open-source?
  • Absolutely, the core code will be open-source, MIT-licensed. We strongly believe in owning your code and are continuing this mission.
• Q: What will the old code be referred to?
  • "Mirror Classic" is our new name for the Godot codebase.
• Q: What will happen to the GitHub repo? Will I still have full access to the old code, Mirror Classic?
  • After our upcoming announcement about what's next, the existing code will be moved to a /mirror-classic folder.
• Q: Will Mirror Classic stay MIT-licensed?
  • Yep! It'll stay permissively MIT-licensed. We're not changing anything there.
• Q: Will there be a Godot plugin?
  • We would absolutely love to build a Godot plugin.

For in-depth technical reflections, check out our Youtube video. We always welcome your feedback. Thank you for your support and we look forward to the future.