Dev predictions for 2020
Tags: javascript, svelte, rust, gamedev
Published: 2020-01-01 01:54:51

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title: Dev predictions for 2020
published: true
description: 
tags: javascript, svelte, rust, gamedev
---

As this year draws to a close, I wanted to share some predictions for 2020 and beyond. This represents trends I'm seeing and things I believe will come to pass. Here we go!

## Predictions
* [Svelte](https://svelte.dev) will begin to take off in a big way. As more people discover Svelte ( especially after 3.0 ) they will begin to experiment with it and sprinkle it in on existing sites. The performance and ease of use will win over more folks and we will see it making inroads to ReactJS and Vue.
* [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/) Rust will continue to grow in popularity, especially as companies like Microsoft begin to build solutions on top of it.
* [Godot Engine](https://godotengine.org/) The open source game engine Godot will continue to grow in popularity and begin to be noticed by Big Co's looking for a free alternative to Unity and Unreal. Godot 4.0 will make a big splash and gain more developers. This app will follow the similar path that Blender 3D did as it begins to gain momentum against big commercial apps.
* [WebAssembly](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly) WebAssembly has now joined HTML, CSS, and JS as the fourth major W3C backed web technology. It's a virtual machine that is super fast, safe, and represents a fundamental new chapter for the web. All the other technologies I've talked about before this will use WebAssembly in some way, even Godot Engine!
* [Kotlin](https://kotlinlang.org/) Kotlin will continue to eat Java's lunch, breakfast, dinner, and everything else. It's just better than Java in many ways, and can compile to Java when needed. Look for many more jobs opening for Kotlin devs. 
* [Flutter]( https://flutter.dev/ ) Flutter is taking the app dev world by storm. It's influence may outshine Flash someday as a runtime that can work across browsers, OS's, desktops and mobile devices. In a world where everything is a widget it may succeed where Web Components haven't yet. With Flutter branching into web and desktop, with Fuschia on the way, this is a technology to keep an eye on and try out. 
* [GDevelop](https://gdevelop-app.com/) Continuing the web / gaming trend, GDevelop has been an underdog for a long time - slowly making updates and gaining followers. It's a simple way to begin learning to build games, and as an open source project that builds for the web as well as desktop and mobile, it's a tool to watch grow slowly in 2020.
* [Koji](https://withkoji.com/) Koji is a website that allows you to remix existing games and apps with an easy to access interface. You can take a breakout game , add your own graphics and sounds, and have a custom game in minutes. What is more powerful however is it's approach to empowering creators. If you can create a web game, you might earn $500 or more if you work with the site to make games they need. But also, they might finally crack the monetization egg where they will allow microtransactions across their games. A web game developer ( or other apps - but games are the focus right now ) could potentially earn a lot of money selling games, or creating games that have in-app purchases and upgrades. This is another site to watch in 2020.
* [Gumroad](https://gumroad.com/) Gumroad is a very powerful site. You can put any kind of digital asset like sounds, art, games, movies, videos, books, classes, and more and get money directly. You don't have to let some publisher take a cut, or have someone else set the price. Gumroad (and other sites like Stripe) could be the fly in the ointment for big sites like Amazon and Alibaba. If you make things for the web and aren't using Gumroad, you are leaving money on the table. Look for Gumroad to gain even more popularity in 2020.
* [dweb](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/07/introducing-the-d-web/) Last but not least, we will see more apps and solutions for the massive centralization that has been going on in the web. If we want the web to survive, it must be decentralized. Look for more "dweb" technologies popping up on 2020.

So, there you have it. My predictions for 2020. Big sites like Google and Facebook will continue to dominate and suck all the air from the web as much as they can. They will try to get every bit of information from you and sell it to the highest bidder. That's how they survive. Let's hope that 2020 starts a new trend away from centralization and back to a more democratic, hopeful, open, and free web. 

Happy New Year! 🎆🎇🧨