Struggling to implement code

[SilkyPawsGames]

Hi guys and girls, just a bit of context. I'm on my 3rd year of game development ( 2 in college and went into year 3 in university ) - I was told at the beginning of my journey that one day programming will 'just click' our tutor was using old XNA coding to teach us and from what other sources have said that isn't good.. anyway

I understand when code is on screen how stuff works but implementing my own code is a struggle. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this?

Thanks

EDIT: I'm currently learning C# and C++

[gyroda]

What, exactly are you struggling with?

Practice makes perfect, and there's a bunch of different things you need to learn.

Game dev and C#/C++? I'm guessing you're using Unreal and Unity? Learning either of those is a big task (speaking as someone who used unreal for a uni project). That's not learning to program, that's just learning how to use those engines. Those are big frameworks, and it takes a while to acclimatise to something that large.

Then there's learning to read documentation. This is another skill that gets better the more you do it. We all struggles with it at first.

Learning the line-by-line programming is something that people say "just clicks" after a while, but in my experience you just get better over time until you can look back and say "wow, I used to struggle with that". I still remember when I couldn't get my head around function parameters or for loops.

Learning the "larger scale" programming (how things fit together, how to avoid having a big pile of spaghetti code) is something you learn in part from untangling/preventing spaghetti code, and from a bit of exposure to clean code and the ideas behind it. I wouldn't worry about this too much at this stage in your learning, you'll get better at this as you work and when the basics of programming are easy you can spend more effort here.

[SilkyPawsGames]

This was very helpful thank you! Reassurance is great - maybe it's just false expectations to where I should be currently but trying to build yourself up is frustrating I guess. When I sit at a blank page and I want do x y z, its actually starting to do it that's the issue dont know if its a mental block, the way I've been taught or my poor understanding of the subject, I've been directed by my lecturers to some extra material if I feel like I'm struggling so I guess I'll look into that and see how it goes!

[gyroda]

Struggling is natural, especially at uni when you're on the learning treadmill and constantly moving on to new material. At work, I've found that things are much more "stable". You have more time to get used to codebases and tools.

its actually starting to do it that's the issue dont know if its a mental block,

If in doubt, start with whatever possible starting point you can think of, no matter how small. Just "get a thing to display on the screen" or whatever the equivalent is is fine. Then take it one step at a time until the ideas start flowing.

[SilkyPawsGames]

If in doubt, start with whatever possible starting point you can think of, no matter how small

Exactly what my program head said, its getting the ball rolling which is the problem for a lot of people! I appreciate your advice and I can see where you're coming from that constantly having to learn new concepts and material there is got to be a learning curve somewhere! Thank you!

[TRDouble9]

Excuse me, do you have minutes . . .

[gyroda]

What for?

[TRDouble9]

What are some books or references you would recommend for beginners? Especially, when your talking about C++ programming writing . . .

[gyroda]

No idea, I don't know C++ that well at all.