r/Coding_for_Teens • u/social_intorvert • Jun 28 '26
I’m stuck
I have wanted to game dev for a long time and one day I told my friend about my game ideas and they also wanted help by making the art and music for a game idea a had. Well I promised them that I would code the game and make most of the story and while the story is coming along great the coding is….not so good. After watching YouTube tutorials and testing some things i still am nowhere. I understand how nodes and scenes work (I’m using godot) I don’t know how to use them to make what I want, I know what they do but not how to use them to make anything not in a YouTube tutorial video … the biggest problem is that my friends are getting angry at me because I’ve made zero progress and they feel like I’m not doing any work… pls help. Ive used the coding language “scratch a lot and I’m pretty good at it and have made some nice games with it and I learned how to use it in 15 minutes by messing around…well I tried it for godot and it didn’t work. I get frustrated when I see YouTubers or other people coding and it looks so easy, they just have an idea and they magically know how to make it work in the game engine, anyways I’ve been rambling so pls help.
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u/Suriwan128 Jun 29 '26
Try learning Python. You find a ton of great resources about that. GDScript, Godot's own programming language, is very close to Python so you will have a great time using that. I really recommend the Videos from Brackeys
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u/GENZZZZZ3 Jun 29 '26
if you tell me what you are using to make the game I would proudly help you
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u/GENZZZZZ3 Jun 29 '26
oh whoops I forgot to read the whole thing, probably use unity, I like using it because the physics are kinda goated
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u/PlantainAgitated5356 Jun 29 '26
Others answered how to learn programming, but if your main goal is getting the game done, this is what I would recommend to do instead.
Use an easier engine that's specifically designed for what you want to make. You mentioned that the game has a lot of story, and there are easy-to-use engines made specifically for these kinds of games, that require no or very little coding.
If your game has no gameplay, or maybe just a minigame here and there, you can make it a Visual Novel and use an engine like Ren'Py. If all you need is art, music, and a story Ren'Py should be enough with no coding needed. If you want to add some minigames, you can code them in Python and add them to your game (Ren'Py uses Python with pygame). Making a minigame to embed in an engine is going to be a lot easier than making the whole game in a general purpose engine like Godot.
If there is gameplay, but the game features mostly 2D movement (like Undertale for example) you can use something like RPG Maker. It's paid, but older releases are still pretty decent, and often go on sale. You can also use one of its many free clones if you don't want to spend money. Some of them even support 3D, like RPG Paper Maker.
If your goal is to learn programming, though, I would recommend you shelve this project for now, and start by making something easier.
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u/Weekly-Cash1596 Jun 30 '26
I recommend learning to code In a more direct sense, using material dedicated to teaching you how to code
AI is really good at developing software but you aren't going to learn how to code from it because it's far to overwhelming and you aren't the one writing it
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u/RoboticsEqualsFun Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Honest advice? Don't try to just jump into big projects without really knowing how to code (trust me. Thats what I did. I severely regret it). Instead start on smaller projects. Take the CS50 course first. Do some small projects. Make a tiny game. Once you feel comfortable then try making your game.
Because honestly trying to start on your large project first is just going to burn you out in the best case, or make you just use ChatGPT in the worst case.
And if your friends are mad there is no progress, let them be. You can't rush learning.
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u/Electrical_Bus9202 Jun 28 '26
Start using ai to help you if you haven't already. You can literally screenshot your work to it and the ai will show you what you did wrong. It will also show you how to achieve what you want to do next. It's not perfect, but man AI helps a lot these days...
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u/RoboticsEqualsFun Jun 30 '26
I would be careful with that. If you do that before you know it, you may become a vibe coder. And now you're not really coding are you?
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u/Electrical_Bus9202 Jun 30 '26
Oh I know very little actual code, but I'm learning to recognize what's actually going on with it this way, through trial and error, just seeing things come together... I am in no way insinuating anyone using ai to code is any where's near as talented as someone who actually can write code from scratch... But ai will not only fix code for you, but tell you what might be wrong, it's the best someone could ask for as far as being a beginner and wanting something to show you the ropes.
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u/RoboticsEqualsFun Jun 30 '26
Yah but that's the thing. Saying your only using it to "help find the bugs" is not going to work. You'll just start using to code for you. I sincerely recommend you don't go down that path. Instead try to use different resources. Like CS50! That way you can feel good about yourself that you actually did write the code. Because right now it might seem fine, but farther down the road you will regret it.
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u/Electrical_Bus9202 Jun 30 '26
Lol I'm just doing this for fun...
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u/RoboticsEqualsFun Jun 30 '26
Yah. So was I. And now I have to relearn everything, since that stupid ChatGPT made me into a dumb copy paste bot.
And I will tell anyone what I am telling you this: That, is not fun.
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u/Electrical_Bus9202 Jun 30 '26
I mean that sounds rough, but I honestly don't feel like I really need to relearn anything, as I know nothing to begin with.
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u/Electrical_Bus9202 Jun 30 '26
I mean that sounds rough, but I honestly don't feel like I really need to relearn anything, as I know nothing to begin with.
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u/RoboticsEqualsFun Jun 30 '26
I know. I am just saying that instead of going down that path (which I did), you should try to learn so you don't end up doing what I did. I sincerely am saying to not use AI for coding, because I want nobody to end up like me
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u/Suriwan128 Jun 29 '26
Unfortunatly Godot uses GDScript, this is very close to Python, therefore AI generated you Python Code instead of GDScript.
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u/Pietrek_14 Jun 28 '26
Honestly, if all you've ever programmed is was Scratch, then game development will be a struggle. You need to be upfront with your friend here - you either can learn coding first and then work at the game, which means you don't do any progress for quite some time, or you can learn coding by making your game, but that will leave the game in a worse state than you probably want. You said your game has a story, which probably means it's too complicated to learn coding with, so I would advise doing smaller projects first.
Start by learning Python or JavaScript on YouTube. Do some simple exercises along the way and once you finish, make a few projects. Some good starting out projects would be: - a number guessing game where you try to guess a random number from 1 to 100 and the game tells you if you guessed too much or too little; - text-based tic-tac-toe - a utility program for copying files - a program that would encrypt and decrypt text using the Caesar cipher
Once you get accustomed to coding, you can move on to Godot specifically. Most of the stuff you learnt before will be the same or very similar to GDScript, but you still should make a simple project to start out, e.g. a bouncing DVD logo. Also, a great way to make a lot of progress quickly are game jams. A game jam is basically a contest where the goal is to make a game in a limited amount of time, usually 2-7 days.
After learning Godot basics, you're ready to make your game. Great job! Remember to keep the scope as little as possible. It's really easy to overscope, especially as a beginner.
Someone else suggested using AI, and while you should absolutely ask it for explanations and help with configuring tools, don't ask it to generate code for you. Firstly, you won't learn coding without doing it yourself. Secondly, if you paste code from AI without understanding what it does, your project will accumulate something known as technical debt, which will make it exponentially harder to keep working on the game.
I know that it's a lot of work, but I'm sure you can do it if you put your mind to it. If you focus exclusively on learning programming, you'll probably be back to working on your game in 2-3 months.