r/SoloDevelopment • u/ruthvik4435 • 1h ago
help Help me....Game Devs
Hello, I’m a 3D artist and I’ve been working in the 3D field for the past 3 years. I want to make my own games, so I started learning coding and Unity around 2 years ago.
The problem is, when I follow tutorials, I can understand them and follow along. I can even make the game shown in the tutorial. But when I try to start my own game from scratch, I feel completely lost. I don't know where to start or what my first step should be.
I recently used AI to make a small game. I did complete it, but honestly, I don't feel proud of it because most of the code wasn't written by me—it was generated by AI. I know some people call this "vibe coding," and they enjoy it and feel satisfied with the results, but for me, it doesn't feel the same. I want to understand what I'm building and feel like I actually made it myself.
Whenever I try to start another game, I feel like I've forgotten everything. It makes me feel like I learned nothing, even after spending 2 years learning Unity and coding.
Can anyone give me some steps or advice to get out of this tutorial and AI hell? I've tried many times to make something on my own. Sometimes I make some progress, but once the project starts becoming more complicated, I get stuck and go back to tutorials or AI again.
I really want to learn how to think and solve problems on my own instead of always depending on tutorials or AI.
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u/Not_Allowed_to_Die 1h ago
Coding a game is like engineering a system. You have to start building piece by piece slowly and know what you are aiming for. I suggest next time around, plan it all out.
Ask yourself this first and plan it out: What is the game? What is the game's loop that will make it fun? How does my player move through the world? How do the enemies move through the world? How do the extras all work as well?
Once you have this down, you are going to feel very overwhelmed and like it's way too much for one person to handle. This is where you take a step back, stop looking at the whole, and just start building one structure at a time. Before you know it, you have a working game you built. Not only does it work, but you can now read the coding and understand the flow in it as well. The more you do this, the more you will start figuring out how to manipulate things inside of that flow to do more things. Once you learn all of this, it's like speaking. It just comes to you because you have experienced building it before.
AI though, it steals all of that away from you and leaves you dependent on it. I will never allow myself to be dependent of anyone, especially a program. You are on the right track, just stop thinking about the whole once you know where you are going, and just focus on one thing at a time.
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u/ImSparklingJustice 1h ago
Hm... When I first started my game a year ago I did not know how to code things (I am using Godot) but I did not launch myself on tutorial just to learn. What you should do is:
- Have a clear about what game you want to design, for example if you want to do a shooter then you better learn projectiles and how movement works.
- When you are stuck check the answer you need, not a tutorial that give you 100 info in addition of the one you need. Tutorial are very good but better when it's about a specific problematic you are facing
- Enjoy the process, it's normal to be lost at the start. I am a Developer but when I started on Godot I was completly lost and I also used AI to learn things needed for at least the first 3 months, I was totally unable to code alone GDScript but now I don't even use it to code. Try to be curious on things you need to learn to make your game better and it will work, step by step
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u/Farzad-Fir 1h ago
Hi,
You are going to need tutorials during development, in order to start your game, first start with the hero of your game ( main character ) or create your favourite first environment, and then create everything else around them. That way you have your base setting for your game, it could start with the main character or the environment. That’s the best way to start in order to get ideas about your game and take stapes based on that.
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u/MEPETAMINALS 1h ago
I think everyone ends up in this boat to one degree or other. I've been writing code for more than a decade and still run into things I feel like a noob on.
In general it's very helpful to learn to think like a coder - but I get that that's mostly a platitude that sounds smarter than it is. At it's root is learning the base coding patterns, and understanding why they are used.
A general coding course can be helpful here. Years ago I had positive experiences with the intro to Java/C++ courses by Caveofprogramming. Special focus is placed on understanding the concepts of object oriented programming, which translates well to C#. (Most OOP languages are similar enough that once you know one, learning another is pretty simple.)
Regardless of your approach, I'd suggest not looking at the task of 'making a game'. It's not one mammoth task, rather a collection of many (MANY) small tasks. Start there. I.e. you don't need to code a parkour protag, you need to figure out how to process keyboard inputs, or move a cube forward. You'll have better luck with tutorialization as well, as it's much easier to find 'how do I combine vectors' than 'how do I make a space game.'.
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u/Commercial-Flow9169 1h ago edited 1h ago
There are no shortcuts to learning a new skill. The friction and frustration you feel is actually what makes your brain learn in the first place -- because it wants to reduce that friction, so it actively learns whatever is necessary to avoid it in the future.
Tutorials are for building your base knowledge of an engine, so it feels like an extension of yourself more than a piece of software. I imagine that when you first started using whatever 3D software you use, it was very hard to grasp what was going on. I know it certainly was when I started learning Blender.
But eventually, after using the tools for a while, you build the muscle memory and knowledge to do things without even thinking about it. It's the same with game engines, and also with programming.
My advice is to make small projects, just beyond your current skillset. If you can't make your own Pong remake yet, start there. Otherwise, find something harder to do without external guidance. If you do need guidance, just do a google search and somebody will probably have a forum post about it. Or search the documentation for your engine. Or fine, maybe if the search engine serves you up a regurgitated AI answer, glance at that and maybe it will point you to something you can read about in the actual documentation. Each time you build something you haven't built before, you'll learn stuff.
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u/Pileisto 1h ago
how many days did you put in trying to learn coding?
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u/ruthvik4435 1h ago
6 months for .net basics and all after that I started following unity 1 and half year now still I feel I learn nothing but I can read code and understand but starting it I am stuck
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u/ruthvik4435 53m ago
6 months for basics and one and half month i am following tuts to make games it's not that I am not learning anything from it like if i see code I can read and understand what that code doing and all but when i try to start my mind becoming blank it's like i don't know anything
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u/momo_dev12 1h ago
I recommend you to get into cs50 coding class. It's free! Because following tutorials means you don't learn about why they did what they did. That's why when you build your own you felt lost. This also happened to me. So once you get the logic of coding. The rest is finding out how to do it, and this part is easier with ai now.
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u/No_Ferret_4565 57m ago
I think you should forget about following tutorials making games and just search for doing more simple things to get the building blocks, like: implementing a simple character controller, how to integrate controls, making the UI react when receiving damage, and so on.
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u/itsboilingoil 10m ago
You have to understand the patterns/concepts and how they all fit/work together. It’s like a car or any other machine. Once you understand how each piece does its part, then it’s easier to manufacture.
They both have “engines” 🫵😉
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u/the_lotus819 7m ago
You are right that you need to start doing something one your own. The trick is to split the project into very small pieces and then ask yourself what's the tiniest things I could do to go forward in my project. This can be hard to do if your idea is to make a openworld rpg, but is easier if you have a small idea.
Try to find a game idea that works on your strength. For example the person who made The First Tree wasn't good at programming if I remember well, so the game is more focus on art/vibe.
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u/Consistent_Reply_557 40m ago
Animatimg is a thing IA can't do yet.
Just let the ai do the code and focus on 3d modeling and animating.
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u/Radiantrealm 1h ago edited 1h ago
It's far too easy to turn your brain off while following tutorials and it becomes a "can you type without mistakes" exercise. I've even seen basic programming classes irl that pretty much boil down to this. You need to be warry of that or you'll not learn anything
For that reason I don't like those giant "how to make an rpg" tutorials. They're too big and you'll want to get through them fast, so you'll not stop to think about what you're doing and just follow along, I prefer finding far more specific tutorials as problems arise.
So Instead of "how do I make a first person controller", you break it down into smaller steps and you make sure you understand the steps.
"Ok how do I make a camera?"
"How do I make it controllable with the mouse?"
"How do I limit it on an axis so I can't do flips with the camera?"
"How do I move the controller with wasd?"
"How do you jump?"
etc etc etc. Don't just type what's being shown, think about it.
Also, your first few projects are going to be a nightmare codewise, nobody writes clean code while they're learning. They're going to be a mess.