How to ACTUALLY get into Gamedev
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Many people ask me how to get into gamedev or how they can get better at it. This video is somewhat of a broad guide to get you through the hard parts of learning gamedev.
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Videos Mentioned:
Why I'm Glad I Didn't Use a Game Engine:
• Why I'm Glad I Didn't ...
Pygame's Performance - What You Need to Know:
• Pygame's Performance -...
How to Code (almost) Any Feature:
• How to Code (almost) A...
I learned Godot in 48 hours [Timelapse]:
• I learned Godot in 48 ...
A Programmer's Guide to Pixel Art:
• A Programmer's Guide t...
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
3:02 - Choosing Your Software
6:03 - Start Learning with Tutorials
6:54 - Tutorial Hell
8:45 - Early Projects & More Learning
10:20 - Grow Skills with Game Jams
12:36 - Continue Improving / Selling Games
13:23 - Final Notes / Outro
#gamedev #gamedevelopment
One thing that I’d recommend for people who are stuck in tutorial hell is to choose a tutorial series and after every episode, try coding something on your own that’s related to, but slightly more complex than what they did in the video. For example if they implemented a one-frame jump animation in the video, try implementing one with multiple frames by yourself. This is still a pretty approachable method, but it’ll help you build up a wider toolkit for when you’re ready to work more on your own!
What I did was see what the tutorial is about (because usually when someone makes a tutorial, they tell you what you'll be doing) and i tried to do it on my own first, then see how they did it and possibly improve my code (once i even made better code by accident lol). Really good learning exercise, that I just randomly did.
I follow all the steps in a series video, then i go back and try to make it more advanced it helps
never expected this from a Meowth
I stuck on optimization hell. Most of optimization tutorial focuses on 3d game T_T
Some years ago when using game maker studio I was searching for an inventory tutorial, I watched like 4 o 5 from different youtubers I followed, but I didn't like the way they approached some features, so with what I learned from the different ones, I ended up making my own, adding more and more features, in a week I had an inventory system, with item stacking, both mouse drag and drop and keyboard controls, and even a right click context menu. I barely watched any tutorials after that.
copying is an excellent way to learn things, so be unafraid to copy
what's going to happen is you will want to make small changes so you start experimenting with what you copied and boom you start learning that way. dissecting, swapping, experimenting, putting things back together is learning and it all starts because you're a copycat :)
Yep
Great learning advice, Sal ;)
yep! I know I'm late but just a note though, don't *just* copy. It's alright if you completely follow your first couple of tutorials with small tweaks. You obviously can't just jump into it. Take your time! As you progress, start to make even tiny games on your own and start making bigger changes to those you've made/copied.
I think the hardest part is staying motivated, it's very easy to just forget about a project.
I always called this 'Scavenging'(code/etc). That is to say: "Don't Reinvent the wheel: *Study* the wheel!" ; Heck, b4 ya kno it: You'll start with a Truck-Tyre & End up with a 225/50/R16 street-racing tire! and at no point did you have to learn how to solder an OpAmp-chip! ;)*
It is often recommended to look at source code if you want to get into a specific section of coding
I think the first project should always be something simple and classic like pong / snake / tile breaker, so you have a fixed scope and know what needs to be done. Finishing something small and clearly defined will teach you so much and give you both a concrete image of the development process and motivation for doing your own ideas as you know you can finish a game. Do not get stuck in a loop of side projects that never get finished.
+1
I feel like creating something simple but with potential for expansion like platforms pretty useful. Next time you code something less simple you can do so in that same project and see it grow, or import that base scripts for movement, etc
Stop watching videos like this and get busy coding. You are procrastinating, and so am I.
maybe for you, for me this video helped
But I don't know any code
@@thedistantwolf690 yea same
From the introduction I can tell you get it. I’m not asking someone to teach me game dev in 15 minutes, I want to learn what are effective strategies to learn as well as good lessons learned so that I can avoid those mistakes or at the very least, recognize them when they happen to quickly adjust. Love it
I escaped Tutorial hell and ended up in No idea wasteland. Here lies dosens of projects with single game mechanics, some design docs with broad descriptions of big games, some ruins reminding me of finished game jams and big empty nothing ahead. I just have no idea how to finish my first commertial project.
Make all the single game mechanic games. You’ll think of cool things as you finish them.
@RoyalRose Wow, that is really good advice, im going to try using some of these tactics. Thanks!
My advice is to take that single game mechanic and tweak the gameplay loop till the mechanic is fun to use, only after that design the game. I mean some classic games really are just run and jump, half the mario 1 levels you barely have to jump at all
I relate to that, as a musician there is something I call "musician limbo" which is the same thing.
A good way to avoid the tutorial hell problem (or any problem at all) is to think about what you can do with your current knowledge instead of trying to make something that you have absolutely zero idea how to make.
When I first made the prototype of Project Froggo I didn't search for a million tutorials on how to code grappling hook because I want to make this specific feature so much. I made it because I was bored at my math class and suddenly realized I can use trigonometry to make characters move in any direction. Based on that, I realized that I can probably utilze this to make some form of grappling hook mechanic.
project froggo?
Sounds poggers
@@poggestfrog sounds froggers
@@mullar LMAO
Nice
Ayo, remember me? I'm supersoda, I beta tested your game like a year ago and played on the element animation Minecraft server
The thing about a lot of tutorials that I've noticed (depending on the engine) is that it can be pretty difficult to find a good tutorial that actually explains what they're doing instead of just telling you what to type and moving too fast for you to understand. Also a lot of them are either really outdated, or the uploader just decides to vanish into the shadow realm halfway through the series. Pretty frustrating if you ask me.
@@syvulpie Nope, they left TH-cam
@@raysandrarexxia941 There is still enough videos on the channel that can definitely help
There's a lot of basic stuff. But for something like prerendered backgrounds I'll have to adapt a tutorial for unreal because I haven't found a single video or text tutorial about the “proper” way to do it (Z-buffer magic) in unity. Everyone's rendering backgrounds in layers and stack them in front of the camera. It works, but seems to be very tedious and non-automatable.
IMO, learning from online tutorials is a bad idea. It's fine to do a few to initially get into the tool, but after that you should move to a textbook if available, or the manual/tutorials put out by the engine developers if not. Those resources tend to ensure that you are learning the fundamentals and aren't just duplicating something without any understanding. Textbooks also always include specific exercises that will push your understanding further which are very useful.
Online tutorials also seem to put people in the mindset of googling to solve problems without first trying to think about it and fix it themselves, which is a really bad habit to develop. A large amount of beginner problems can be solved by just taking some time to think about the problem and fiddle with things yourself.
I make my own engine 😅
I was stuck in tutorial hell for about 2.5 years and I’ve finally started making my own stuff without needing tutorials! I just needed to pause the video after a while and predict what code will be used to fix a problem and take notes for later
5:30 Visual scripting is also an option, I started learning unreal engine really quickly because of its blueprints. Visual scripting means you get these blocks of code that you can connect together to get whatever result you want. It may seem weird but it's actually really powerful.
for non 3d games, yes. for 3d games, visual scripting is THE best way to acrew technical debt, which you WILL pay in either dev time or performance. It's muuuuch better to eat the up front cost of learning programming. and build something solid which can be easily fixed later when you know what you're doing.
I use something similar called “GDevelop”. I have a really hard time understanding code on its own, even when I was following a tutorial so that I could learn Godot, but GDevelop is much simpler for me with “if _ then” statements instead. I can’t code for shit, but I can understand logic. There’s even some community-made extensions that act as shortcuts for certain events, but I try to replicate them in my own way so that I can learn what events were used to make those shortcuts. I was also a Scratch kid in middle school, so I’m definitely biased, but logic based events are so much easier for me to understand than a bunch if strings of text and numbers that have different formats for different engines.
@@BusinessWolf1 I've used the Blueprint system in Unreal. It just left me feeling _so_ confused and to be honest I'd rather just have looked at the code.
It's also very inefficient. I had a system whereby there was a flag variable to mute/unmute the background music. To do this, I had to actually check if the flag variable was true/false, then assign the same value again, then pass that value to the audio player which then had to check whether it was actually paused or not before accepting the flag variable. And even then for some reason it was the wrong way round at runtime. When "Paused" was true, the audio played on anyway.
It was a mess and Yandere Dev-tier nonsense. If you'd written that in code within a AAA environment you'd be hauled up.
"Tutorial hell"
well, I'm happy I ascaped it really soon.
and the main cause for it was *LASERS*
when I started I wanted a turret that shot lasers and the last thing I thought is that I would be doing some trigonometry and find out that lasers are just a strip of like 6 pixels...
yup, just 6 pixels, you then use a program (an iteration) to put them row after row and create the laser and that's how they stop once hitting a wall.
and well the tutorial explained only how to make the player shoot it, not turrets, and well lets just say I had to spend 5 days figuring out.
1) let turret shoot laser
2) make laser align with turret barrel
3) make laser stop with barrel and not follow player
4) Make laser start at the position of the turret that fired it, instead of all going to the same turret.
5) somehow all laser used the same direction to hit player not counting for where they where so if a laser was above player it would shoot down, and if another was under the player it shot down as well.
6) give turret an animation before shooting player
7) stop laser from instantly deleting a player on hit
8) for the love of god why do I have to do trigonometry (wasn't actually hard I'm just dumb)
and well yeah it was quite the journey, and since I had only me and the game engine manual I had to figure it out by my self, and it was a nice experience...
now I will forever look with admiration any game that has a laser in it
Thanks so much man. I'm just getting interested in the building blocks of game development right now, but I haven't been sure how to really get started, especially when it comes to coding. So having some options to actually start with will be a big help!
Your video is worthy of its title.
I'm learning through deep dives on individual features. Very slow, but...
Recently impressed myself by making a surface/ground check OnCollision script from scratch.
Officially out of tutorial hell \o/
Hey, thanks guy. Your reminders that you need to actually explore and play around with things on your own was needed.
Your recommendation of making a Snake clone was also very good, I did it just because of this. I didn't know how to manage the snakes body at first, I thought about just looking it up but your advice got through to me and I worked it out on my own. It really is all about breaking something down into simpler concepts
Great video bro, I'm so happy that I'm not the only one getting responses like this in discord
Awesome video! I was thinking about getting into game development as a hobby, but had no idea where to start. Now I do!
5:15 that whole game ??!!! Man you're awesome ! I came to game development with the inspiration of you and hope I do well. I started with c++ but I went python (coz I thought it was cool) and am currently learning the language. Nice video !
This is pretty good advice broken down very well done. thank you for putting this video together.
There’s a really good tutorial series I found somewhere about making a colony survival game in godot, think rimworld, and the only reason I think it’s so good is that despite it being so slow, and going over maybe 10-20 lines of code in 5 minutes, he actually goes in depth to explain how or why what works, and how it interacts with the rest of the code
Most tutorials I’ve seen for game development just try to put as much code in as possible, and just barely go over how it works, or just show you it and not tell you about it.
Really great video, I am in the process myself and I agree with you at every point. The tip for 0% fee website at the end is also great!
Ty so much i know this video is a old one however i find your insights very helpful and encouraging to continue to learn
Good shit. You managed to cram a lot of useful advice and takes into 14 minutes of content. Much appreciated.
I really want to get into game development, and for my Design Technology class we got to make a game on Scratch. I don't recommend Scratch as platform but it was really cool to use because I felt like I was learning stuff.
Your advice is amazing, not just for game dev. Following tutorials and then adding your own twists or making something more complicated from what you learned from the tutorial is a great way to get out of tutorial hell.
Competing in stuff like game jams really puts your work out there and it adds new perspectives as other people look at your work.
If you want to improve at other things like writing or drawing, I would suggest entering small writing or drawing competitions or even just posting your work online to improve
Fantastic video!
Tutorial hell beginner here. Your explanation about breaking featured actions down into basic actions, to complete any or almost any task, finally clicked with me. Lol thank you! Subscribed!
Just wanted to say thanks for the video, I knew most of this, but I keep doubting myself and seeing others' perspective really motivates me. I am pursuing Software Development but want to do games on the side as a learning experience and a way to express my creativity.
A friend and I are currently working on our first game. In order to avoid the tutorial issue, I taught myself how to use the software and look things up as I go if I can’t find out how to do it myself. Although it may take longer, I retain way more information now.
Excellent guideline, thank you!
Fantastic video! This is the best I've seen on the topic. I definitely agree that game jams are a great way into game development.
Nice video! I just got out of what I now call the first circle of tutorial hell and im actually learning a lot, like I started following a script of plataformer movement from the craft games page and im actually being able to do it, very good video
Amazing video really inspirational thank you for this. Helped a lot
Thank you so much
Before this I was determined to sell my first project.
WAtching your video gives me some understanding on making tiny projects to learn
Great video. I actually understand where to go now after being stuck on tutorials
Thank you bro this is a good mix of optimistic and realistic 👍
I was kinda stuck in tutorial hell for a little bit but got out fast by making my own game and using 100 different tutorials to tell me how to do it. This made me learn what all the different things were actually doing and not just copy the code line for line.
Wow man how much humility in this man! characteristics of a real artist.
I asked server on discord on if I should use C++ or game dev. Many people say its hard, you cant do it, go for easy. I cant decided. You motivate me to go with what I want. Earned a sub, thanks
Nice video. I find I push to learn the finer details when I work on games I care about.
I just finished my first game jam this week. It was extremely hard and I had to pull an all nighter the last day, but I got something that I was proud of at the end.
I haven't got stuck in tutorial hell yet simply because I see something happen and my brain immediately goes "Nah, imma do my own thing."
Hey. I just wanted to thank you for your videos. I watched this video two years ago, and it inspired me to make a TH-cam video in a similar format. I never expected much to come of it, but that video ended up doing very well for me, much better than anything else I made.
Sometimes just talking over footage over your own game is good enough.
I was just being a bit lazy, but it seems to work. lol
CS surfing videos with unrelated commentary are a thing after all.
This was very helpful. Thank you.
Ok so I am currently going through tutorial hell and a problem that I noticed I had was that sometimes I didn't really understand what I was writing. So, what I have started doing is writing down the function of each line of code and dissecting what makes them work. After I started doing this I found that I am able to use what I learn in the tutorials outside of the tutorial project.
This was my problem and I wish I decided to do what you did. I assumed I would understand it the more I did it, but that was wrong. It got to the point where I gave up assuming this was just something I would never “get”. Now I’m getting back into it after realizing the tutorials in general assume a lot about the reader and that may not be where i am at, but there is nothing wrong with that
Thanks man, very useful!
Thank you for this!
Thank you soo much for this
I tried learning Godot, but my computer was so slow it always kept me waiting for it.
I’m working on my first game in gamemaker studio 2, and so far the language has been extremely easy to learn. They have functions for almost everything, so you don’t need to do a lot of math. The main problem I’ve had to deal with though is whether or not I’m doing things in the most efficient way possible. It always seems like there is a better way to do stuff
In game dev it is like that: There is always a better solution. But if your code works, even if ugly, and it doesn't destroy performance, then it is a good solution.
I've been in tutorial hell. I was really just copying code. In the end I had a game but I had no idea how it worked and I had no idea how to add new features. I've started learning code again a week ago and I already know more then I did back then.
thanks for the video!
I took the easy route when making my first few games with Unity. Now I realize I don't know much about game development, this video specifically answers my question on what I should be doing. I think I am taking this next few months to develop with pygames.
Also you said something about people Lua, the first code I learned was Lua and c++ for Roblox. Lua is probably the most counterintuitive coding language for learning crossover.
I think I realized what I was missing on a previous attempt is just a graphics API that I'm happy with that I can play with esoteric ideas quickly. Since all engines have unsurmountable limitations one way or another I wasn't going to bother learning one because I am sure I would be limited. Previously I started with ideas and had to write a whole graphics API around it tatbarely implements the idea which was very frustrating, because when the next idea comes along, you start from scratch. That's why I got stuck, just not enough motivation to redo the graphics every time.
Great vid mate
Awesome videos thanks 👍🏼👍
Great video!
I'm so glad that I found out you live stream
absolutely love this vid. it helped a bunch. i do want to point out that at one point during the "what do you do once you realize you are in tutorial hell" you said to watch more tutorials lol i feel like that is kind of backwards from the initial message
Cheers super good info there thanks and for me i try to code in c# doing some games i really like to play or the character is who i really like so that my interest keeps on going even i hit into problems so its kinda fun for me to code :D
I started game development about two months ago. I downloaded Unity and have been following a tutorial on TH-cam and I'm on course to developing my first game.
Great video
I just clicked to have something in the background, but you made me realize i've been on tutorial hell for Blender since 2018, thanks
I’ve heard about a website called code wars and you have to solve problems with code so it’s a great way to tests what you learned and what you are best at after a tutorial and be able to practice whenever
The thing that helped me the most is after following a tutorial, I would go back and remake the entire project from memory the best I could and add try to add in some extra stuff. I would also try to make a project without a tutorial first, then watch the tutorial to see how someone with more experience solved the same issues. It allowed me to learn multiple ways of doing things as well as seeing which methods are generally more effective for solving certain issues. When following tutorials, the goal shouldn't be to finish the tutorial, but to learn the essential tools and methods for creating things.
You convinced me for game jams thanks man
I enjoyed this video!
I've participated in a few game jams (Two for Pokémon fangames, one for Gameboy Homebrew) and am gonna be doing another one in about a week for dungeon-crawlers (Which is 9 days long, the shortest I'll have ever done), and yeah, they're a really good way of actually being able to release something. Everything I've ever actually made available to the public has been because of game jams, so I consider them a pretty important part of the process. Obviously you don't *have* to do them to be a game dev, but it *really* helps.
Early projects that I do to learn any game engine: 2d Puzzle game, 3d shooter, a mobile game of some sort (like clash of clans or pick the lock), rogue lite, and anything else that peaks my interest (complex math + card game)
Love this man
Always have a close end goal when starting out.
I myself have gotten stuck on a game wanting to add more and getting frustrated when i can't fit it in.
Very good video ty.
good stuff! Loved the part where u smak a clock lol
Oke
I followed a 2d flappy birds tutorial as my first game and managed to add an offscreen death barrier but spent 6 hours trying to make the game stop when you hit a pipe 😂 I’ve started following a 3D tutorial in hopes I can try and combine things I’ve learned from the 2 and make a basic game for myself
Thank you so much
My best advice is to build a library of code! Whenever that code you being trying to make finally works, save the code. For example I have a folder with tons more subfolders for different types of code. That way you don’t have to keep coding in basic things like player movement. You can literally just drag and drop and have simple things like that work instantly. More workflow advice than anything
Thank god you are here omg.
Im a programmer and i have 0 clue about pixel art, music ect...
I got stuck in tutorial hell for 2 years, finally got a good set of videos to learn lua and can do simple stuff already!
I found a 4 hour full walkthrough of C#
Yes.
Thanks, I've been in a bit of a rut around the first projects area. I tried to jump in with a big idea and I can design/program, but asset creation has been a big wall.
I nearly joined a game jam hoping to get some more experience with the broader process and this has reassured me that's a good idea.
what do you do if you feel like you have been stuck in tutorial hell for years? i work sometimes 70 or more hours a week so every time i start a tutorial ive already forgotten most of what ive "learned" idk maybe im just not ment to make games.
No one is not meant to do anything. As long as making games interests you, you can do it. I think a solution for you would be that every time something is introduced in ta tutorial, you should pause and try to make full sense of it in your head. Do not resume until you completely and utterly understand what was taught. You could go on a day long tangent researching how exactly the collisions work. I think this way, you’ll remember each and every feature. And maybe learn the programming language you’re using without the focus on game dev. When you know how to use the language for normal non game projects, you can then use a game dev tutorial with that language. Good luck on your journey.
Don't be afraid to just look stuff up for specific things your doing. Developers that have been at their job for years do it even. Google is your friend :)
You might be stuck in the "store, regurgitate, and forget" learning style that schools forced on us, which is not a good way to learn. Break what you're doing to its core concepts, I like to say aloud what I'm doing and how it could apply to something else, it makes the tutorials longer but I actually retain stuff
i was stuck for like, 2 days for the same reason. what I did is commenting my code (when i copy) and so I know what I did and why I did, and I started remembering after. trying to re-do is useful too
TUTORIAL HELL! YEAH THAT'S WHAT I GOT STUCK IN!!!
Like I have no idea how to implement mechanics I actually want because I don't know how to search for instructions. I haven't figured out the lower level things and I have no idea how to escape
I'm learning how to code and I made my first game with Love 2d (a 2d game engine that uses Lua). There's short Udemy courses that walk you through building games with Love 2d (which I would recommend). I made my first game and it was an excellent intro to game development.
Some good libraries / frameworks for people looking:
- Love2D and Lua (5/5)
- Raylib with almost any language (4/5)
- Ebiten and Golang (4/5)
- Prototype and Golang (4/5)
- Monogame and C# (4/5)
SFML and C++
CSFML and C
SDL2 and C/C++
Allegro and C/C++
Personally I'd put Raylib at 5/5. It's fantastic, easy to use, and can be used across most popular languages.
@@mr.redman3863 Yeah!
@@lonelyfloat2582 My only reason for putting it not on 5/5 is because I never got it up and running on mac with C++, and it couldn't get it to work with some languages and Golang's support isn't cross platform. :) But I definitely see where you're coming from. :D
@@eboatwright_ Ah, that makes sense.
One thing I’ve done to learn quickly is not to copy at all but clone the repo of a small project and understand every aspect of the code, every line every module, why it’s there how it’s used. You can really learn quickly best practices and good design. Only copy code you understand or else when it breaks you won’t know why.
Yo quick music tip.
High and low notes, make patterns that you enjoy, and record them to loop.
Use different instruments they have unique sounds but also different high low notes to make deeper patterns.
Music is simple, you just have to sit there a listen to all the sounds and which one goes great with one another. That's the long part.
Learning Scales has a base, and make a fun pattern with different scales is easy.
im making my first game (it's a visual novel, so isn't that hard) but your video really helped me, thanks✨✨
okay for the first thing to learn about game development and dealing with tutorial hell I would state that you follow this pattern:
1. find out what information you need to learn to have a Minimum Viable Product of the field (in game Dev it probably would be information about collisions, sprites, animation, scripting, rendering the screen, camera placement, raycasting, Artificial Intelligence, input, and physics)
2. learn the jargon and terms (this is so you know whats going on within the program or field of study and are not confused) [also some are above for game Dev]
3. find sources that teach in this field (gdquest kidscancode & hearbeast is good for godot engine and there also is davidepesce at his website of the same name. there is also GMTK for game design)
4. read the sources and see whether they help you learn what you need to learn and if not, either tuck them away or throw them out.
5. organize the notes and work on your knowledge so that you can reuse the knowledge learned in a modular plug and play way
the second thing is to test new ways of re-using the knowledge you already know, in dynamics that are not commonly tied together with said new way of using the code. [as stated in the video]
the third thing is to look at references... and not just the code, look at game trailers (with real gameplay) and ask what was most likely the decision they made that allowed that to work.
Hope this helps and you have a great day & Safe Travels!
Follow the tutorial course called The Ultimate Introduction to Pygame. 4 hours long and took me about 10 hours to get through. Built a game similar to flappy bird but different whilst following it. The ideas in that tutorial can be used to create literally any game imo.
I think you hit the nail on the head by stressing the importance of "play". Following tutorials is great to get a lay of the land but you should not be afraid to off and explore on your own.
my 1 year journey kept me in scope, but also made progress to a big project. cause here is the thing for beginners:
they wanna make their dream game NOT small meh games. HOWEVER.
make small meh games that are part of your big project. for example.
make a small simple farming game. this will:
1) give satisfaction of finished product
2) teach growing animation and basic 3d modeling
3) teach how to code timers and small inventory logic
then your next game can be a hack n slash arcade.
by the end of the year you can combine the logic and code to make all sorts of games. timers for other things not just for crops, you'll know combat and inventory management etc.
as a software engineer of 5 years you should ALWAYS repurpose your old code when able to. it isn't cheating, it's just smart!
To be honest, I think my main massive issue is just learning how to understand programming at all. I'm unsure where to even begin figuring out how to put together proper lines of code and what can even be used to make lines of code.
I was stuck in tutorial hell for 4 months while I was learning Godot, then I leaved game dev for 2 months and then I started game development with java and libgdx and believe me low level stuff makes u learn things more fast than Godot after spending 2 months with javaand I got my first pc and I started learning unity a week ago ;)
What a great and informative video. A lot of these style of videos aren’t really that helpful. So I like this one.
The things I’d add are:
1. If you a programmer by default, learn art of modelling at some point soon. Not right away, but try to get some practice and learning in reasonably early. As that will change things for you.
2. Try to focus on broad concepts and fundamentals. So you want to make a 2d platformer, really focus on 2d cameras and how they work, or 2d tile maps. Or pixel rendering, etc. broad concepts. Then focus in on the details later.
3. You can’t make Skyrim alone in your bedroom. At least, not in any feasible timeframe. So forget that. Focus on projects that blend elements from games you like. So how about an RPG style game with magic? That sounds fun. But limit the scope. So a 2d procedurally generated map? With rpg elements? Etc
4. Don’t be afraid or failing. But, don’t give up. Keep pushing. Sometimes you have to embrace the mess. And just accept that you’ll have some bad code and some crappy art etc. just try and finish something.
5. Document everything. Learn an interesting technique? Solve a complex problem? Find a useful article? Document it. You’ll probably find it useful later.
Good tutorial! I'm sure this will help a lot of people.
P.S. You know, I never thought about joining a game jam. I've seen it before though.
I’m only in high school but you inspire me to start pursuing programming as a whole and learning python through game dev. Thank you so much tho
thank you
Nice vid
I did not know that collecting items in a game had anything to do with collision. Thank you for giving that example.
Trial and error is the best way, just make something. Do code even if you don't know if it will work. If you dont know how to do something copy and paste some things. It helps you learn how it works to begin with. Especially if you need to tweak it.
Its like when people ask artists how to draw... I dunno, you just _draw._ Its kinda hard to explain. Learning how to do something is never easy, and the only way to properly do it is to be passionate about it and have a lot of motivation for it. Experience is the best teacher, usually, so the best way to learn something is to start with what you already know and build off of it. Reverse-engineering can also be helpful in some circumstances (that's how I learned how to make Minecraft data packs, for example). Though... obviously you need to be careful not to directly copy, especially if you plan on monetizing it.
Unrelated question: you online resources are you using for learning music? I've been learning music recently but can't seem to find "good" resources.
I don’t know. Just hopping around between TH-cam videos and whatever pops up when googling certain topics
Michael New is by far the best for teaching music theory (th-cam.com/play/PLTKhUdPIHIuhhCrMuKJWcjnXUfAN3f5Mn.html). Start with him, he presents the best way of understanding intervals, modes, rhythm, melody etc.
Once you've got those basics try:
Rick Beato
Andrew Huang
Adam Neely
12 Tone
There are many more, but those are the big players.
@@allena4034 hi, thanks so much for sharing this, ive been trying to get into music for several years now and this really looks like what i was looking for, do you also perhaps know of a good resource for learning an instrument (preferably piano?) thanks!
@@DemonixTB No problem :) I don't have experience in a channel that teaches piano, maybe try Five Minute Mozart? Piano is probably the easiest instrument to learn. Reason is, all you need to know is how to read a keyboard and then how to read musical ledger, the rest is just practising and memorising pieces.
oh man i’m so glad i found this channel.
I don’t know if you’re still trying to figure out good ways to get better at composition, but actively listening to music is one of the best (if not THE best) ways to improve your compositions.
What I mean by “actively listening” to music is solely focusing on the music itself, trying to break it down and get an idea of what’s actually happening.
I am not too familiar with common video game music structure, so I will use common radio music structure (and then jazz structure, for an alternative) to explain how you might break a song down.
(This part is not completely necessary to read in order to understand what I recommend practicing)
Most radio music will have a common way to break the structure down into three different types of parts: the verse (usually calmer), which is represented by A; the chorus (the climax(es)), which is represented by B; and the bridge (an optional piece of structure used as a new direction for the song. A change from the other parts, and is usually used later in the song), which is represented by C. Some common arrangements of these parts are ABACB, ABCB, and ABAB, for context on how these are usually used.
Jazz will usually have a head (similar to a verse, and usually used as the start and end to a song) and solos time (not the official name. To grossly sum it up, during this section, people will take solos, and those who aren’t are playing nothing or playing softer backing music to the soloist), while occasionally using a bridge and or intro (jazz almost always exits with the head, so it’s uncommon to see an outro). Jazz structure is usually the head, followed by solo time, followed by the head out, with an intro and/or bridge appearing sometimes.
(You can start reading again if you skipped the last part:)
To improve your video game music composition, you can take more basic tracks and try to find a structure to them that seems to be common. You might need to do this for quite a few songs to get a good understanding. After you find a common structure(s), you can dissect more complicated pieces to get ideas for how you can make more unique, stylized music for your game.
I am not a professional composer (I take more to musicianship. What I write is more of the radio song type of music, which is vastly different in the necessary skills needed when compared to more complex composition like styles (i.e. video game stuff)), so don’t completely rely on this, and take it all with a grain of salt, but I hope it might help.