Godot engine Meta Quest port means we can now make games without a computer

The Godot game engine is a powerful free open-source tool for developing 2D and 3D games. Its gained widespread popularity in the ten years since it's public release, and has been used to create games such as 'Until Then', 'Of Life and Land', and 'Backpack Battle'. 

And now you no longer need to use a traditional computer to run it. Godot is now available as a mobile XR port for Meta Quest (see our pick of the best VR headsets), allowing the development of immersive XR apps and games directly on the headset with no need for an external device.

As announced on the Godot engine blog by Fredia Huya-Kouadio, Lead Android Developer and Senior Software Engineer at Meta, the Godot Editor is available in on the Horizon Store for Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest Pro devices that are running Horizon OS version 69 or higher.

This allows developers to create and distribute native apps without needing to go through a PC or laptop. The mobile port is a Hybrid App that can open and transition back and forth between multiple panel (2D) and immersive (XR) windows.

The app provides full access to Godot Engine capabilities, including its asset library, keyboard and mouse shortcuts, GDScript code editing, highlighting and completion support, access to the documentation, live scene editing, live script reloading support, live debugging, live profiling and more. It provides support for Horizon OS platform capabilities like seamless multitasking for real-time live editing, debugging and profiling on XR projects.

The launch comes around a year after the introduction of the Android port of the Godot Editor, which has had over 500K downloads on the Google Play store. Huya-Kouadio says the launch of the new early-access app is just the beginning, and that there are plans to build on foundation to make Godot Engine a "powerful, flexible and cross-platform tool for XR and game development".