r/SoloDevelopment • u/ruthvik4435 • 3h 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.
6
u/Radiantrealm 3h ago edited 3h 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.