# Should I use Flockbay or GDevelop?

Use GDevelop for a free, open-source, event-based editor that exports to the web; use Flockbay for a free Windows, macOS or Linux app on the official Godot release, where its AI, on free hosted AI or your own Claude or ChatGPT, writes the GDScript and builds the game. Flockbay is free, AI included: free hosted AI every day, or your own Claude, ChatGPT, agent or API key. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, on the official Godot engine.

Source: https://flockbay.com/flockbay-vs-gdevelop/ · Updated 2026-10-13

## GDevelop deserves the credit it gets

It is free, it is open source, and it is a serious no-code engine rather than a toy. The event system is readable, the editor runs in a browser or as a desktop app, and it exports to web, desktop, Android and iOS without a paid tier standing in the way.

For someone who brings their own Claude or ChatGPT plan, that combination is very hard to argue with. It costs nothing, it locks you into nothing, and the community around it is active.

Anyone comparing the two should start from that, because on price and openness GDevelop wins outright and no amount of feature talk changes it.

## Dimension is not the thing that decides it

Start a project in Flockbay and the app reads your first message and shows what it understood, with 2D or 3D preselected from it. Nothing gets made until you press Continue, and nothing is built until you approve the brief. Pick 2D and you get the flat world's own tools, not a 3D world with the depth switched off.

That is not a compatibility mode. Ground in [a flat project](/make-a-2d-game/) is a tile layer. Flockbay paints it, and Paint in the editor's 2D view lets you drag cells on and off yourself; either way the tiles, the edges and the collision are all worked out from which cells are covered — paint the same cells in a different order and the world comes out the same. Whether ground stops a walker is declared per material, so a platformer's solid block and a top-down floor are painted identically and only one of them blocks you. The library Flockbay places from is 90.8% sprites: 55,073 objects out of 60,648.

So the old triage — 2D over there, 3D over here — is the answer most comparisons still give, and it no longer sorts anything. What does sort them is how you want the logic made, where you want the tool to run, and what you are left holding if the tool goes away. Those are the next three sections, and they are the ones worth arguing about.

## Events versus a described behaviour

GDevelop's events are explicit. You assemble conditions and actions, and the resulting logic is visible as a list you can read. When it does something strange, the cause is a row you can point at.

Flockbay replaces that with its AI, which [writes GDScript into your project](/answers/who-writes-the-code-in-flockbay/) from what you describe. The advantage is that complicated behaviour does not become a long list you must hold in your head. The cost is that the logic is not laid out for inspection unless you go and read the code, which you can, because it is a normal Godot project.

One is assembling the logic. The other is describing it and [judging the result by playing](/blog/how-to-judge-a-game-you-did-not-code/). Neither is cheating and they suit different temperaments.

## Where each one runs

GDevelop runs in a browser or as a desktop app, and it works offline. Flockbay is desktop only, for Windows, macOS and Linux, and building requires an internet connection because the chat, asset generation and world data all come over the network.

Playing what you built [does not need the connection](/answers/does-flockbay-work-offline/) — the game runs locally on the copy of Godot bundled with the app. But building does, and that is a real point in GDevelop's column.

Both put a real engine underneath your game. GDevelop has its own runtime; [Flockbay sits on Godot](/what-is-godot/), which is open source and which your project remains portable to.

## What openness protects you from

GDevelop being open source means the tool cannot be taken away from you. If the project stopped tomorrow the code exists and your games keep building. That is a real form of safety and it is fair to weigh it heavily.

Flockbay is not open source, so the equivalent protection has to come from somewhere else. It comes from the project format: your game is an ordinary Godot project on your own disk, and Godot is open source and widely used. If this app disappeared, the folder still opens and the game still runs.

That is a weaker guarantee than GDevelop's and a much stronger one than a closed editor with its own file format. Knowing which of the three you are getting is the useful thing.

## Cost, and the recommendation

GDevelop is free with optional paid services. Flockbay is free, AI included: free hosted AI every day, or your Claude or ChatGPT plan, your own agent, or an API key.

Take GDevelop if you want your logic laid out as rows you can point at, if you need the editor in a browser tab or working with the wifi off, if the game has to end up as a link or on a phone, or if open source is the part you will not compromise on. Those are four good reasons and not one of them is about dimension.

Take Flockbay if you would rather describe the behaviour and [judge it by playing](/blog/how-to-judge-a-game-you-did-not-code/), if you want the game running natively on your own machine, and if you want to end up holding an ordinary Godot project. That answer comes out the same whether the game you keep sketching is a level or a landscape, and it assumes you have [no intention of writing code](/do-you-need-to-code-to-make-a-game/) either way.

## Questions

### Is GDevelop really free?

Yes, and open source. It sells optional services on top, but the engine itself is free to use and that is a genuine advantage over any paid tier.

### Can GDevelop make 3D games?

It has 3D features, but it is a 2D engine at heart. For a full 3D world it is not the tool the comparison flatters.

### Can Flockbay make 2D games?

Yes, and 2D or 3D is settled when you create the project. A flat game gets tile ground, a player controller whose speeds, gravity and jump are settings rather than code, and a library that is mostly sprites.

### Can I export to mobile from Flockbay?

Not from the app: its Export makes a native Windows build. The project is an ordinary Godot 4 project, so Godot's own export can take it to Android as a separate step. GDevelop has the more established mobile export path.

### Does Flockbay work offline?

Playing does. Building does not, because the AI, asset generation and world data all come over the network.

### Do I own my project in either?

In both. GDevelop is open source, and a Flockbay project is an ordinary Godot project on your own disk.

Download Flockbay free: Flockbay is free to download for Windows, macOS and Linux. https://flockbay.com/

Related: [GDevelop alternative](/gdevelop-alternative/), [GDevelop alternatives](/gdevelop-alternatives/), [Flockbay vs Construct](/flockbay-vs-construct/), [Free no-code game engine](/free-no-code-game-engine/), [2D game maker](/2d-game-maker/)