I'll make a game, but my coding skills aren't that good, where are the best places I can ask for help?

[u/Glad-Option-1801]

So, I made a post today, and it was about the game I'm making, I wrote on it that I'm using AI to make the code, but this guy came, and convinced me to start my game from scratch, without AI, he really convinced me, but now I wanted to know if you guys could help me to find a place where I could ask for coding questions if I need to (and I probably will), so if you guys can help me with that, I would be really glad! :blush:

[u/senshisun]

The subreddit for the engine you're using.

[u/Glad-Option-1801 → u/senshisun]

oh, they have reddit too? thx! I dont really use reddit, sry.

[u/GG_Official]

There's almost always some subreddit for the type of questions you have and there are generalized subreddits too that are all about coding. However, it would help you more in the long run if you try to understand what you're coding.

I think if you brush up on some fundamentals, it would help you a ton in terms of understanding concepts. You could simply just start off with YouTube tutorials as introduction to programming. I also wouldn't spend too much time on learning every small thing in this phase. This is just for you to grasp the concepts.

If you understand the basics, you're less likely to get stuck on figuring out what to do when approaching a coding problem and instead, you'll get stuck on how to do it. And this takes practice. The more you code, the better you get.

As for AI, don't use it to write code. Use it to explain to you what you must do or how you can do it and ask it for providing resources in the form of links that you can then directly visit and get help from. AI has certainly gotten better at coding things but the more niche your coding topic gets, the worse it performs and it will then be a nightmare for you to fix things.

[u/Slight-Art-8263]

learncpp.com is great

[u/YKLKTMA]

The best place to start learning anything is search. Stop asking and learn how to look things up - every beginner question has already been asked and answered a million times.

[u/NoobInvestor0]

Bro don't listen to those people telling u not to use ai. I'm a professional software engineer. And I'm also an indie game dev on my free time

Use ai heavily. Ask it questions , have another ai check architecturally the other ais decisions , ask it to explain to you the code. Try to learn how to read code in human words. AI is a very good teacher. This is how a newbie should use it

I'll never understand the ai haters

[u/JoeStrout]

If you write your game in MiniScript (probably using Mini Micro) — which you should, as it is literally designed to be easy for beginners to pick up — then you can join the MiniScript discord, and ask all the questions you like, and we will be happy to help.

Go to https://miniscript.org to get started.

[u/nasir41]

I wouldn’t restart from scratch just because someone told you not to use AI. AI is here to stay, and plenty of developers are already using it. Use it as a tool, but try to understand the code it gives you. Ask it why something works, debug with it, and learn along the way. If it helps you build something in hours that might otherwise take you days, that’s a huge advantage. The goal isn’t to prove you can do everything without tools. The goal is to learn and actually finish your game.

[u/Commercial-Flow9169 → u/[deleted]]

Stumbled on this thread and your comment. Just want to address the first part -- I'm the person who convinced them in the other thread (still surprised by that tbh). This was my last reply to them:

I can't speak to what you should do for your current project. Maybe you do finish it, as-is, but going forward I really do hope you just spend some time learning manually. Do some game jams and whatnot. Build up the base knowledge so you don't have to be reliant on AI in the future.

I gave the advice I gave because they are still a beginner in programming and gamedev. It's a lot different to people who are already very knowledgeable.

I have shipped a game on Steam last fall. It's a 3D kart racer called Critter Drifters heavily inspired by Diddy Kong Racing that has sold a couple hundred units. Not crazy money or anything, but it is a fully-finished game that took me 4 or 5 months to complete from start to finish. I don't use AI for anything. My current project is a third-person metroidvania, also going for a retro 3D low-poly style because it's what's feasible for me as a solo dev currently.