You kinda NEED to watch some tutorials if you want to learn Unity, but how much do you learn from blindly following along? Is there value in just skimming tutorial videos? This video is my plan for how I intend to learn Unity by following along with some tutorials, but only skimming others, and then practicing by building out practice games from scratch.

AI Generated Summary:

Getting Started with Unity: A Personal Journey Initial Learning Experience

• Caroline begins a tutorial on Udemy by Alex Dev, focusing on the basics of Unity for complete beginners.
• After completing the first part of the course, she showcases a simple platformer featuring an animated onion character with basic movement mechanics.

Impressions of Unity's Capabilities

• The project consists of only 53 lines of code controlling the character, highlighting how quickly one can create functional game elements in Unity.
• Caroline expresses amazement at how easily physics and collision are integrated into game objects without extensive coding.

Challenges Faced in Learning

• She references Mark Brown from Game Maker's Toolkit, who emphasizes that merely following tutorials does not equate to genuine learning.
• Caroline relates to this experience; she finds that active participation is crucial for understanding rather than passive observation.

Navigating Tutorial Dilemmas

• Caroline discovers Zigorus' channel offering tutorials on classic games like Tetris and Breakout but feels hesitant about blindly following them.
• She worries that simply replicating these projects won't foster her creativity or personal growth as a developer.

Understanding Game Development Fundamentals

• Caroline reflects on two aspects of building games: understanding basic building blocks (like sprites and colliders).
• She appreciates Unity’s graphical state machine feature for animations compared to more manual methods used in Monogame.

Building Blocks vs. Game Creation

• While recognizing that creating game objects involves fundamental components like position and velocity, she questions how these elements translate into different types of games.
• Caroline contemplates how various games (Pong, Asteroids, Tetris, Pac-Man) utilize similar building blocks yet result in distinct gameplay experiences.

Game Development Journey: Learning from Tutorials Exploring Game Development Resources

• She expresses a desire to avoid copying others' work while curating a playlist of recent tutorials that cover various game types, including clickers and space shooters.
• The playlist includes diverse games like 2048 and vampire survivors, highlighting Caroline's interest in learning through different genres despite personal preferences against platformers.

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• A video by Code Laboratory is mentioned, where the creator shares insights gained from years of developing 2D games, emphasizing about 15 core concepts essential for creating any 2D game.
• Key concepts include secret bosses, random skins, destructible objects, and particle effects; mastering these can significantly enhance game development skills.

Balancing Work and Learning

• Caroline outlines her daily routine balancing part-time work at a call center with game development activities during the day.
• She plans to utilize downtime at work to watch tutorial videos but acknowledge limitations due to fatigue and interruptions from phone calls.

Implementing Learned Concepts

• After watching tutorials at work, Caroline intends to apply what she has learned by attempting to create games independently without referring back to original materials.

Progressing Through Game Development Projects

• Caroline reports completing a course project with modifications based on personal preferences while maintaining core functionalities.

Game Development Adjustments

• Caroline intends to make changes to an existing game rather than starting from scratch. She aims to address a timing issue and improve the gameplay experience.

Learning from Tutorials

• Caroline feels confident about making tweaks based on insights gained from tutorials. They express satisfaction with the tutorial's content and pace, noting that this second part progressed faster than the first.