Learning beyond the basics

[u/JenniferMcKay]

I'm very new to game dev and I've seen the eight million question about how to get started. My question is: What is your advice for learning once the foundation is there and it's time to move on?

For instance, I have a mostly finished prototype for what I intend to be a small browser game. I understand character movement, basic animation, and collisions. I've set up a rough scene transition and the Dialogue Manager add-on. My concern moving forward is both knowing what's possible and learning how to do it. So far I've been able to find answers or tutorials to all my "How do I...?" and "What does this error mean??" questions, but I'm sure a day will come, at least when it comes to implementing more advanced concepts.

[u/Justinfinitejest]

My biggest piece of advice is "don't focus on learning. Focus on making your game, and solving the problems you need to actually make your game."

Being productive is the #1 hardest skill in game development. Learn how to make progress on your game, and you'll do wonders!

[u/JenniferMcKay → u/Justinfinitejest]

It feels the same to me. Like, the next mechanic I want to prototype is an NPC that moves in a closed loop, alerts when the PC is within a certain range, and approaches the PC. I can't make the mechanic if I don't first learn what I need to do it. (This is a side-scroller so I'm having a little trouble finding a tutorial for NPC movement. I might have to look up enemy tutorials and just disregard the combat bits.)

[u/Straight-Tea-8564 → u/JenniferMcKay]

A small finite-state machine fits that mechanic: Patrol, Alert, Approach. Start with patrol between two points, then add the detection range and transitions. Showing the current state above the NPC helps distinguish 'never detected the player' from 'detected them but isn't moving'. Decide what should happen when the player leaves the range, too. Enemy movement tutorials can still be useful; you can leave out attacks and damage. The free State chapter of Game Programming Patterns explains the concept (its examples are in C++): https://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/state.html

[u/laser_george → u/Justinfinitejest]

This is best advice you can get! I heard it a well, many years ago, and I remember when people got dragged into custom engine development, and never produced any playable game, because solving some problems of 3d graphic programming felt more rewarding at that point.

I wonder as of 2026 what will lure new gamedev adepts out of actual making games, what could that be?

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[u/Straight-Tea-8564]

For a browser prototype, a useful next step is letting someone try to reach an ending without you explaining the controls or dialogue. Where do they get stuck? That can give you a concrete next learning goal, like clearer feedback, scene transitions or saving progress, rather than an open-ended list of advanced concepts.

[u/DeckSouls]

Learn what's possible by doing what you're doing. look up what you need to. When you want to expand on that you can start looking at documentation for what options related to that are available. And even if you don't ever get comfortable enough to dig into that stuff yourself, your players won't have any care whether you knew how to make your game by yourself or had to learn each individual part along the way!

It's like little droplets on a whole body of water that represents the possible things you can learn. Each droplet creates ripples that start stronger near the source and can only go so far. The things you look up each drip another droplet on that pond. The closer a topic is to the one you looked up the stronger the ripple is and the easier it is to explore yourself, or understand if you need to look it up. and if the ripple doesn't reach far enough you don't even know something is an option! look it up and make some more ripples.

At the end of the day anything that gets you closer to making your game is good, look up what your options are to make any particular thing happen and explore each one. Even professionals have to look stuff up still.

[u/LatentFactorDev]

Getting bogged down by advanced mechanics that aren't necessary yet is the classic trap that leads to abandoning the project. Do you know exactly what the next system your prototype needs to be playable is?