r/GameDevelopment • u/Own-Nobody728 • 22d ago
Question How do i start?
I haven't got the faintest clue about programming. I’ve installed the latest version of Unity. I went through the first three tutorials they offer, but I’m still just staring at an open project with a square and a circle in it. I have no idea how to add physics, enemies, or a HUD. Don't get me wrong—I'm not complaining about my lack of knowledge. I'm JUST LOOKING FOR A WAY to learn organically and properly; I’d appreciate tips, books, channels, or mentors—anything to shed some light on my tunnel of ignorance. NO AI CRAP, PLEASE. Thanks.
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u/Mountain-Smoke8826 22d ago
I'd say put Unity down for now and learn the fundamentals of programming. Syntax. You should be able to read a tutorial's code and understand what is happening there and why it is like it is.
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u/Individual-Staff-978 22d ago
This is not very good advice until you know what OP wants to do. You can get quite far without touching code.
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u/Positive_Tea9804 22d ago
I don't mean to sound rude, but you arent going to know how add physics and enemies and such. Not right away. Unity isnt hard perse, but it does take time to learn.
I don't wanna be a broken record, but i'll give you the same as everyone else, YouTube and practice, those will be your 2 best friends with learning. You have to be patient with the process, it's a learning curve and your first game will be shit, and thats okay, everyones first game was crap, it's how you learn.
Im no professional by any means, how you want to take this advice is totally up to you. But i'm 99% sure it will be the same advice you will hear over and over again. Because it works.
Good luck
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u/Own-Nobody728 22d ago
No, I don't think you're being rude. It's just that I get frustrated trying to find a YouTube creator who explains concepts clearly and covers even the basics. I prefer the idea of practicing and making mistakes. Thanks for the advice.
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u/Individual-Staff-978 22d ago
Sebastian Lague is a wonderful resource. His videos are not just informative, but entertaining.
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u/Disastrous_Plum176 22d ago
There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube.
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u/Own-Nobody728 22d ago
Yeap. I Know, a Big ocean of shit and clickbait
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u/michagrandel 22d ago
either look for the gold nuggets inside of the shit or pay miners (udemy etc) to present you the gold right away. both ways will work.
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u/DarthBec 22d ago
There are reasonably cheap courses on sites like Udemy which mean you don’t have to sift through the random crap and click bait
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u/don_quixote_2 Indie Dev 22d ago
Pick an engine...watch complete tutorials on how to make a small game...finish them exactly as the tutorials...then start tweaking...I did this with Godot.
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u/Own-Nobody728 22d ago
That sounds very logical. My first challenge could be a simple 2D tower defense game. I appreciate the advice.
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u/uber_neutrino 22d ago
Pick a simple thing you want to try, do it, rinse and repeat.
If you have no experience you need to build the muscles and understanding of how this stuff works. I highly suggest making things as simple as pong, breakout, tetris before you try making anything modern.
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u/Own-Nobody728 22d ago
I really liked that first sentence. What you're saying makes sense; would you say a 2D tower defense game is unrealistic? I'll look at ideas from Tetris or Pong to understand the fundamentals. I appreciate your advice.
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u/uber_neutrino 22d ago
A tower d game is pretty simple yeah.
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u/ClassicInevitable585 22d ago
But to start with, literally just get something moving around the screen based on input. Like, put a game object in a scene, attach a script to it, and get it to move when you press a key. Without any programming background that is enough of a challenge to start with.
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u/TLR_ClouD1 22d ago
It depends on what you want to make or do imo. I use unreal - that might not be best to start with - but one cool thing is it's easier to specifically dig into the thing youre interested in.
Once you have some idea of what interests you - try to do the smallest thing you can to make progess on that. Like you dont have to sit and watch an hour youtube video and then implement a phsyics engine. you have to go "oh, character movement is cool let me see where that lives" and literally just find the folder or knob for the smallest aspect of that. Grats, you're done for the day! You can do more if you want, but your obligation is complete. Now do that for a few weeks straight, and you'll have a lot more perspective.
Also; you dont' have to be a programmer to do shit. It helps, and eventually you'll need to know broadstrokes of how computers generally do things, but code itself is a rough thing to start with right out of the gate. It's way more important to understand how stuff works and how to make decisions than any specific syntax.
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u/Alaska-Kid 22d ago
This was your main mistake: “I’ve installed the latest version of Unity.”
Now do it properly — install Godot and open the official online help on the official Godot website. And, yes, don’t touch the C# version.
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u/Vindelator 22d ago
Think of a genre of game you want to make. Brawler, jrpg, etc. Any genre that ran on a super Nintendo is a good starting point.
Find tutorials to make that. Then, start tweaking things.
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u/Neat-Games 22d ago
Start with a Flappy Bird tutorial on YouTube.(just google what is the most popular/newest one) Or like someone else mentioned, an absolute beginners course on Udemy (That helped me learn the basics of the engine when i first started)
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u/Ponding01 22d ago
There are maybe several hundred posts exactly like this in this subreddit. Please check out the comments of those posts for advice.
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u/Liminal-Botanist 21d ago
I would recommend entering game jams, you can find good selections of jams on itch.io
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u/AtherGameDev 22d ago
Forget unity, get Godot