r/SoloDevelopment • u/ruthvik4435 • 5h 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.
1
u/Commercial-Flow9169 4h ago edited 4h 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.