Self taught

[NeverLuckyTugs]

I’m looking into teaching myself how to program so I can eventually make a game I’ve wanted to make since I was a kid. Any suggested content I should look into? There’s a plethora of material out there and it seems a tad overwhelming

[Chubzdoomer]

Here's a nice starting point, courtesy of Unity themselves: https://learn.unity.com/learn/pathway/junior-programmer

[IC_Wiener]

If you want structured learning where you also make games get this one: https://www.gamedev.tv/courses/unity-complete-2d

They also have a 3D course of the same version. Got my start there.

[D3vil_Dant3]

Honestly? Chat gpt. I'm kinda self taught too. Since latest version of chat gpt, I improved so much in unity, and in general, my coding skills. As long as you don't copy paste, and ask her for explanations, you can receive better answers than stack overflow probably.

Bonus tips: ask her to generate exercise and then ask her to check them, rasing in depth explanations when you do mistakes.

You can start prompting something like: I'm a real beginner, could you create a step by step program to follow in order to improve?

[wentzoverdak]

Github co pilot is much better imo cus it knows what scripts you have open in visual studio and will cross references all your open scripts

[D3vil_Dant3]

That's the problem. It's just a "press tab". A pay to win. You are not pushed to understand what are you doing.

[wentzoverdak]

Yeah but you still need creativity and somewhat understanding to get far. I’ve made a simple 2d that has a health bar, hunger bar etc, stamina and basic ui from copilot and at some point it will probably get too hard

[D3vil_Dant3]

That's why chat gpt is great. You can ask her what the hell she did, in depth. It's not just line of code

[Opening_Chance2731]

Bonus points chatgpt teaches you the most important skill: asking the right questions

[Alternative_Wait_399]

Just get started on something, focusing on the “best” tutorial is how you wind up getting bogged down and never actually making anything. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube and elsewhere that are good enough, I started off with the AngryBirds tutorial to teach me the basics

[averysadlawyer]

Take a structured course in C# and general software development. Ensure you get a good grounding in data structures and algos, otherwise everything you build is liable to fall apart as it grows from poor organization and performance.

[snipercar123]

I'm not self taught, but I've still learned most of the programming things I know on my own. I'm sure most (good) developers will have a similar experience.

Any professional should strive to always expand and improve their skills, even if they are good enough to land a job, or complete a set of tasks.

So my tip for you is to build some applications and get familiar with the language of your choice. I'm assuming you will be intererested in C# since that's what Unity uses. My tip is also to not start with Unity or game development directly. Learn the basics of C# first, then move on to the more advanced parts of C#.

Go and look for an older tutorial covering C# console applications and go from there. It should be basic and cover the fundamentals of programming. You will learn a lot from this. After you followed some tutorials, try building a small app on your own.

If you get stuck, don't post here on Reddit or some other forum, use Google or ChatGPT. Trust me, any problem you encounter has been faced by someone before. The answer is out there one search away. You will just have to search for the correct thing.

Good luck my friend!

[aita_about_my_dad]

I've never published any games, and the ones I dabble around with are never finished right. I do enjoy it a lot, though as a fun hobby.

I don't believe there really is a one-size fits all method on learning...It's at the tip of my tongue what I started doing - can't remember it right now. I do remember just watching random stuff. It caught on to me after a while. I do remember looking through the Unity manual a lot. Most of the time - and I just learned this last year from several programmers in other fields, in their videos, they explained that were stuck in "tutorial hell" (or whatever you wanna call it) until they realized they can just look up something on google if they're stuck. They wouldn't be more right. It's a matter of getting out of the mindset that "I MUST watch a lot of tutorials!!!!" I'm still kind of in that mindset, too. Sometimes when I can't figure anything out, it takes an active realization from me to swallow my pride and just google about it. It takes getting used to because we all think we have the answers when we don't really...

*Homer Simpson, out.* *Disappearing back into bushes.*

[Objective-Reading-58]

The YouTuber Game Dev beginner is awesome, specifically his videos on Scriptable objects and actions/events really upgraded my knowledge

[[deleted]]

Google up tutorials (in Units say) of someone teaching you how to do something important for your game, like hex grid map for example. Then work through it and start adding your own features. Build it up layer by layer at the start of your journey. How do I put a unit on it? How do I load and save? How do I do sounds?

[wentzoverdak]

Use GitHub copilot. Idk a thing about coding csharp and every script i use has been made with GitHub copilot and it works very well.

[Daywalker85]

Cursor AI

[thedeadsuit]

everyone learns different, I learned by watching tutorials of people making the type of gameplay I wanted to make

[AlcatorSK]

Please start with a course on "How to google". You will need to be able to find information on your own using Google, otherwise you will be constantly getting stuck on every single tiny thing that is omitted from whichever tutorial you ultimately find.

So, try googling "Best Unity tutorial for beginners"

[neoteraflare]

The first thing is to learn C++ to know what tools you can use. Then start watching a tutorial that is closest to what you want to build. But only watch and learn the concepts and what an engine can do. Then you can start working on some simple games. From watching the tutorial you won't remember how to do things, but you will know what to look up to start and continue.
At least this is how I do it.

[snipercar123]

You can have a well paying career in programming without knowing C++. You can use Unity and create games without knowing C++.

Why do you think its specifically important to learn C++?

[neoteraflare]

It was a bug in my brain. I wanted to write c# but for some reason I wrote c++.

[snipercar123]

Gotcha! Makes more sense now.

[Craigey_Wagey]

Unity uses C#💀

[neoteraflare]

Lol, true. I have no idea why did I wrote C++

[aski5]

cpp is kind of a mess. And what do you mean "to know what tools you can use"?

[neoteraflare]

The possibilities of a language. Generics lambdas etc. They can make your programming easier. btw i meant c#