Defold has been released in version 1.14.0.

Defold is a free, open-source 2D/3D game engine with its own editor, used to build games for desktop, mobile, web, and consoles.

This release includes several breaking changes: game object handles are now generational, the shared Lua state is mandatory, 32-bit Windows is no longer supported, and the accelerometer is disabled by default. New additions include cubemap render targets, storage buffers in the dmSDK, and text shaping for complex scripts, emojis, and bidirectional text.

The official release notes for the final version are not available yet, so the following is taken from the beta notes.

Major Breaking Changes

Generational Game Object Handles: Game object and collection handles are now generational. Native extensions can retain these opaque handles; Defold rejects handles to deleted objects or collections instead of allowing them to resolve to reused storage. Prebuilt dmSDK libraries must be rebuilt.

Always Use Shared Lua State: The option to disable shared Lua state between .script, .gui_script, and .render_script files has been removed.

Windows 32-bit Support Removed: Defold no longer builds or distributes 32-bit Windows runtime, editor, Bob, native-extension, or dependency artifacts. Build scripts using x86-win32 need to switch to x86_64-win32.

Cubemap Render Target API Changes: The old SetRenderTarget() function has been deprecated in favor of a cubemap-aware version supporting individual face binding.

Accelerometer Disabled by Default: Projects relying on acceleration must explicitly enable it in game.project.

iOS UIScene Lifecycle Support: Custom-scheme URLs and universal links now work with the UIScene lifecycle, including cold-start scenarios.

Key New Features

• Storage Buffers in dmSDK: Native extensions can now create and bind shader storage buffers (SSBOs) for graphics and compute shaders
• b2d.get_gameobject_id() / bullet3d.get_gameobject_id(): New functions to retrieve game object IDs from physics bodies
• Metal Default on macOS: Metal is now the default graphics backend for macOS
• Cubemap Render Targets: Support for rendering into cubemap textures for reflections and environment capture
• Wildcard Support in .defignore/.defunload: Patterns now support *, ?, and ** wildcards
• Configurable Tab Shortcuts: New keyboard shortcuts for switching and reordering editor tabs
• Text Shaping Support: Complex scripts, emojis, and bidirectional text now render correctly

Notable Fixes

• Fixed models with more than 8,000 images/animations in GUI components
• Fixed matrix attribute handling with go.get()/go.set()
• Fixed normalized depth texture uploads on OpenGL ES
• Fixed PVRTC texture uploads on Apple graphics backends
• Fixed ASTC texture support on older Apple devices
• Fixed GUI safe-area anchoring and rotation updates
• Fixed editor regression causing slower startup times
• Support for 0 samplers in sprite components

Dependency Updates

JDK updated to 25.0.4, JavaFX to version 27, LZ4 archive compressor to 1.10.0 (21% compression improvement), Basis Universal to 2.50.

Source: GitHub, Forum (beta notes)