Leaving Godot Behind: Building a Custom Engine

June 11, 2025

Tales of Landor is moving away from the Godot engine to a custom-built solution to improve workflow, stability, and long-term development speed. Learn why this change is essential for the game’s future.

Steering Landor’s Future: Why We’re Building Our Own Engine

Hey everyone,

After six Alpha releases built with the Godot engine and C#, we’ve decided to move Tales of Landor to a custom engine tailored to our needs. This post explains why, what carries over, and where we’re headed.

Why we’re moving on

Unreliable stability – Over the past few months we hit bugs that were impossible to reproduce, even on clean builds. The worst offenders came from Godot’s signal system combined with C#, causing subtle crashes and state errors. Fixing the navigation system alone took weeks of “working around Godot” rather than improving the game.
Addon system limits – Godot’s addons must stay generic. For Landor we need tools that talk directly to our codebase; grafting generic plugins into a large online RPG created more friction than value.
Resource-workflow bottlenecks – Godot’s resource system made simple tasks—adding an item, monster, or skill—far slower than they should be. Our own engine will streamline asset pipelines so designers can create content without wrestling the editor.

We still love Godot

Godot is a fantastic open-source project and we remain supporters. It’s simply not the right fit for Landor’s scope and the amount of custom tooling we now require.

Not starting from zero

Most of our C# gameplay code—and the entire netcode, which took months to mature—moves straight into the new engine. That saves a huge chunk of work and lets us focus on new features instead of rewriting old ones.

What this means for the timeline

Porting and rebuilding core systems will delay the next playable version. After that, we expect major updates every 2–3 months instead of once or twice a year, thanks to faster tools and cleaner workflows.

Fewer systems, deeper systems

Early alphas tried to cover everything at once. We’re cutting back to five pillars and polishing each until it belongs:

Combat – Full math overhaul and smoother progression: easier for newcomers, more demanding at high levels, with tight, responsive feel.
Item Richness – At least double the current item count, with meaningful variety and build impact.
Crafting – 20+ actually meaningful recipes that fit into the economy and progression more organically.
Profession Progression – Clear, rewarding growth paths outside combat.
Soft Class System & Quests – Flexible builds shaped by player choices, and branching quests with consequences.

Other features — e.g. karma and guilds — will return only when they’re polished and integrated. All Karma effects fully integrated and balanced, guild permissions etc.

What’s next?

We’re deep into engine work: porting gameplay, rebuilding tools, and testing new workflows. As soon as we have a stable slice, we’ll share devlogs and invite you to break the first test builds.

Thanks for your patience and support while we lay this new foundation. We believe it’s the right step to make Tales of Landor better, faster, and more fun for everyone.

— Dustin