To clear a misconception I often see from people who know about version control but don't want to use it:
Git ≠ GitHub ≠ open source
You can have a local Git repo and keep your change history only for yourself.
Git ≠ GitHub ≠ open source
You can have a local Git repo and keep your change history only for yourself.
Reposted from
Sextant Studios 🐑😈 Flocking Hell is now on Steam!
If you're writing code and you don't use version control (such as git), WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU READING THIS?! Go set one up! RIGHT F**KING NOW! There is absolutely no reason to code without version control.
/vent
#GameDev #Godot
/vent
#GameDev #Godot
Comments
You can also have private repos there, so you have a cloud backup additionally to your *local full copy of the Git history*.
You can start with a local only repo, and push it to a remote host at any time.
```
git init
git add *
git commit -m "First commit"
```
or the equivalent steps on a graphical client.
Then once in a while you commit your current state, and unless your disk dies, your project is safe from your engine messing it up or irreversible bad ideas.
Game dev doesn't have to be played with permadeath on.
You just need the Git client and everything it needs gets created within your project folder in the .git repo.
You can move the project around, back it up, and that backs up the full history.
These are some common recommendations: https://www.reddit.com/r/git/comments/1bjogze/7_popular_git_clients_for_windows/
I think GitHub Desktop is a generic Git client and can be used with other platforms / local repos but to learn it makes sense to try the "industry standard" workflow.
Here's a short, 9 years old video (not mine) that explains the details, and it's still applicable today: https://youtu.be/9qIK8ZC9BnU
It happened way too often that git has fucked up everything on my local side or didn't want to push because of random errors happening. I'm so endlessly fed up with git.
```
.gitignore
.gitattributes
```
I can't remember the last time I cam across someone who wasn't using version control. Probably 15+ years ago.
See this graph from the Godot community poll from 2024.
Previous years were similar (27% not using VCS in 2023, 27.3% in 2022).
I suppose this is potentially due the greater need for collaborative development in those spaces.
Seems like VCS is either too hard or too boring(?). Or just as often people don’t understand what VCS really is or what it does.
Seems like a small price to pay to me in order to safeguard hundreds or thousands of hours of work but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm too used to Git branching workflows / PRs nowadays to go back to the archaic "copy all the files in a `branches` subfolder" SVN workflow :D
open source ≠ open contribution
There is no need to listen to outside opinion, neither review every Issue/PR people open.
You can either add a disclaimer to the README file or just disable those features and just let the project as a read-only from the outside perspective.
But yeah for projects with big files (50 MB+?) git LFS is needed. But that often implies $$$ too.
Really no excuse not to use it!