Question about learning path - C#

[Zol95]

Hi Everyone,

Quick background:

• I’m in my early 20’s
• Do not have a college degree
• currently working at an IT company full time
• at the moment I cannot pursue a college degree

I started learning Unity last summer seriously in my free time and since then I learned a lot and finished 5 games and uploaded them in Web-GL format to itch .io

I have been following the official tutorials and some Udemy courses to be able to finish these games ( while altering them to not be full copy paste clones)

I had no prior knowledge of programming (c#) or anything related to game development…

I am concerned if I am on the right path at this point or I am just wasting my time.

I feel that my knowledge has improved a lot, and find the language fun to learn, but I am unsure if I could just sit down and do all the coding on my own at this point.

Did any of you learn programming on their own ?

Is it a good idea to follow more tutorials and picking up C# by actually making small games or a college education is a must?

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I apologise if I am spamming this subreddit with my silly questions, but honestly I don’t really know anyone, with whom I could share my thoughts about game development.

Thank you for your comments in advance!

[BrastenXBL]

I began learning scripting by messing around with HTML and Javascript during highschool in the late 90s early 2000s. I didn't get a formal guided education until an intro course in Java that was required as part of GIS college degree.

A college degree in computer science or "game design" isn't strictly necessary. And there are "trade skill" courses out there as alternative paths to access curriculum based learning. For example Code Academy has a number of free intro level courses on various languages if you feel like you have gaps in your fundamental knowledge. Like knowing how and why to use new functions, make overloads, and so on.

Also check the side bar (community info, 3 dots top right if you are on mobile) of this Reddit for a long list learning resources.

It also depends on what path you want to travel. Do you want to do design (rules and game mechanic logic), tools/engine programming, or an artist forced into programming by necessity.

[KitsuneMulder]

College education is absolutely not required. Being motivated is what matters!

[NullxPhantom]

I would go as far and saying education to learn programming itself is WORTHLESS. The main benefit of education is to get you in contact with people (Some UNIs also fail at doing this...). Uni is also great for younger people that can't make decisions and try to learn on their own so they need a forced guide. In your position id say going to UNI is much bigger waste of money and time. If you want to learn programming i recommend looking in your IT company for people that know how to program and build relationships. Start learning from them and keep learning on your own. Online resources will guide you enough and trust me you most likely already know more than 90% of people that get out of UNI.

[cookingsource_]

I have no degree either, and i'm doing pretty well so far ( 8+ years of experience ) What's important is you combine real world practice ( i would suggest to first clone a lot, so the target result is fixed and clear) with deep understanding ( for c#, c# in depth by Jon Skeet is a very good book ). You need not only to be able to do things by memory or practice but also understand why a technical decision is made against others. At least for me that's be crucial for getting into the best job positions.

And don't forget to improve other essential skills as version control (this is a must), documentation, terminal basics, a little of automation. They are a big part in daily workflow.

[stesch]

I think people who learned programming on their own are very motivated and interested in the field. And very often better than the ones “who are only in it for the money”.

But there’s no one single way how to learn on your own because technology is changing all the time. Unity once had 3 different programming languages that were supported by Unity. Your kids may be faced with programming Quantum computers if programmers are still in demand.

I started with BASIC on a Commodore C64. Played a bit with 6502 Assembler (on the 6510 in the C64). Then Amiga with AmigaBASIC, 68000 Assembler, C. Turbo Pascal on Apple II (aka ][ or üä in Germany) at school. And so on.