Ariel Manzur


Ariel Manzur is an Argentine software developer, best known as the co‑founder of the Godot Engine, a free and open‑source, cross‑platform game engine used by developers worldwide.

Early life and education

Manzur was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From a young age he developed an interest in computing and video game technology, eventually focusing on tools that could be shared and extended by other programmers and designers.

Career

In the early 2000s, Manzur began developing an engine for internal use in game development projects. Together with software developer Juan Linietsky, he worked on successive iterations of this technology, which formed the basis of what would later become the Godot Engine.

Godot Engine

Manzur co‑founded the Godot Engine project, which was publicly released under the permissive MIT License in 2014. The engine enables developers to create both 2D and 3D games across desktop, mobile, browser, and console platforms without licensing fees.
Under Manzur’s co‑leadership, Godot has incorporated multiple programming languages including GDScript, C++, and C#. The engine has received updates such as a path-tracing renderer for 3D graphics, improving its capabilities for realistic rendering.

Community and development model

Godot is developed under an open-source model with contributions from a global community of developers. The engine has been used in educational settings and by independent developers due to its free licensing and cross-platform support.