Godot 4.5 is now available, which ushers in accessibility features for developers to integrate into their projects.
Released yesterday, version 4.5 of the engine introduces two notable features geared towards accessibility: screen reader support and internationalization live preview.
The first is a result of the integration of AccessKit, which provides accessibility infrastructure for UI toolkits. Now, Godot 4.5 adds screen reader support to Control nodes, as well as screen reader bindings to customize the behavior of any type of Node. In short, it makes it so existing screen readers, which can recognize a button on screen and read its label out loud, can now be used in projects developed using Godot when implemented.
According to an announcement, the screen reader support feature is “quite new,” and its integration remains in an experimental phase for now. As such, screen reader support for the Godot Editor itself is not complete yet. Rather, it’s only implemented for the Project Manager, standard UI nodes, and the inspector.
The internationalization live preview feature allows developers to preview translations directly from the editor viewport, which is aimed at helping test GUI elements in multiple languages in a faster manner. Relatedly, developers can now switch the editor language on demand, making it so that changing the editor language no longer requires an editor restart. This is helpful for editor plugin developers to test their translations.
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The announcement notes that over 400 contributors were involved in the new feature release. Other notable additions involve stencil buffer support, script backtracking and custom loggers, and more.
Godot is being used by games like Battlefield 6
Speaking to Game Developer during a preview event in July, Motive Studios director of production Alma Talbot and Ripple Effect senior producer Ryan McArthur spoke about the goals for the live-service model at the core of Battlefield 6. Notably, this includes focusing on the growing interest in user-generated content, creating a platform called “Battlefield Portal” which is powered by Godot.
The news comes after two years of noteworthy developments around Godot. Irish startup W4 Games raised $15 million in December 2023 to “drive video game development inflection” with the engine. W4 Games was established in 2021 by former Godot veterans Juan Linietsky, Rémi Verscheldea, and Fabio Alessandrelli, which shared the intent of going “all-in on the creation of an ecosystem with the Godot Engine at its center” at the time.
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Alongside Battlefield 6, Second Dinner, the developer of Marvel Snap, announced a partnership agreement with W4 Games back in August 2024. Alongside a multi-year strategic partnership, the studio also committed to building what it claims will be the “most ambitious Godot game yet.” At the time, according to W4, more than 2,000 commercial Godot titles were published in 2023.
Speaking to Game Developer in September of last year, Godot founders and Godot Foundation Board members Rémi Verschelde and Juan Linietsky spoke about supporting the exodus of Unity users after the Runtime Fee debacle and ongoing mass layoffs at the company.
“We were just hoping Unity would keep doing a good job and keep users happy so people can willingly embrace Godot for what it is, and not try to change it to what it isn’t,” Verschelde said at the time.