Game Development journey
Beginner "how to" tutorials , programming, software usage, artwork, news and more
The hardest part of learning any programming language isn't the language itself. For instance, learning programming basics, figuring out what the functions are and how they work, how arguments are used, what is a variable and why is it used everywhere - it's all relatively easy.
The hardest and the most important brake through happens when you see why and how the code makes sense. It's like riding a bicycle - you have no idea how to ride it at the beginning until you do and once you do, you start to understand things that didn't make much sense to you before.
The advises I'm about to share in this post aren't some Internet researched guru instructions on how to learn programming on your own. This is exactly the approach I personally used when I was learning GDScript and Python.
After sever failed tries, ups and downs, books, video courses and internet tutors I had realized that, I new how to read code for the most part, I could even make some corrections to slightly alter the program's behavior, but I couldn't write my own - I was still lucking some crucial understanding about:
In simple words - I was that kid who is one step before riding but he's still afraid to take off the training wheels. I forced myself to brake that barrier during steps 4 and 5 (mentioned below), but I highly recommend you read all 7 of them, especially if your're a complete beginner.
Read a book, complete a course or a lesson online - whatever suits you. Make sure you get the basic understanding of the language and its 'building blocks' - variables, conditional statements, loops, functions etc.
Chances are - you won't be able to actually code yet after those beginner courses, even though some of them will promise you will become a programmer and write your own apps, real life projects etc. However, they will give you much needed knowledge which will be your instruments to make it possible and make the first steps.
The idea is to learn how to use those instruments in practice, how to apply what you've learned to actually build something, make projects. Still not sure where or how to start? It's OK. Start by simply following a beginner level project based tutorial.
If you're happen to be learning Godot or GDScript, you may check out some of my work. For examplem, this one about shooting in top down game in Godot 4 and 3.5.
Recreating a real project helps to understand how different elements of the programming language can be combined to produce a certain behavior or algorithms. That's what you need, because learning just the syntax won't teach you coding unless you already know how to do it.
I would highly recommend to take notes, google or read documentation if you don't know something and make sure you understand what each piece of code does as well as how they all work together.
No matter how many tutorials you read, all the information can be useless if you are not able to execute simple ideas on your own or just using the documentation. For that you need to 'force' your brain to transform knowledge into habits and skills.
What worked best for me at that stage of learning was taking a project from the tutorial I've just finished and build it from scratch again but this time on my own without looking at the source code (allowed only if you get completely stuck).
If error happens don't rush to compare your code to the original one, instead try to find what is the problem first. For me, this step was a crucial turning point while learning programming (GDScript in particular) on my own.
To make it easier, before starting try to imagine the overall picture of that project and the steps to take. Write them down. Think thoroughly what is the purpose of each of the steps then start coding.
At first, it might be hard to remember what goes after what and the logic, but you should make efforts - encourage your brain to make new neuron connections. It won't happen by simply writing the code you see in front of you on the screen, it only happens when you teach your brain to make sense of the code you repeat writing on your own so it can move that knowledge to the subconscious mind.
Do it until things start making sense without efforts and become easy to understand. Once they do - you'll feel confident enough to build your own things.
Go ahead and challenge yourself - try to build systems you don't know how to build. Start with simple things - learn, practice, constantly challenge yourself and move to more complex tasks.
Create an imaginary representation of the language (framework, game engine - anything you are learning). For example, you may think of it as a virtual building kit so flexible you can use its tools to make your own tools and instruments It'll help to see every piece of code as a part of a bigger picture - it won't be isolated and therefore will make much more sense.
First of all you should understand your limits and always try to push them. When we have an idea of a project we always see this nicely looking end result in our imagination. In reality though, once you start working on that idea, it turns out the limitations in knowledge and experience don't allow you to make it the way you imagined. So, instead of settling for less and compromising the idea - push your limits by learning and trying until you achieve the result you'd be proud of.
Of course, for that to work you've got to have a clear understanding of what is that you want from your project.
That's it guys, this is the guide on how to learn programming on your own. It's what helped me - worked like a charm, so I decided to share it in my blog.
I consider it to be more of a motivation than a guide though, because there was a time when I thought writing code was some special skill which only the chosen ones were able to acquire 🙂 - turns out if you find the right approach, learn and practice - you can too become that "chosen one" 🙂 . Good luck, guys. Believe in your abilities!
Don't hesitate to leave your thoughts or questions in the comments.
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