I'm a beginner developer and want some tips and shared experiences. (I use Godot 4)
A lot of these are skills you'll build over time - you don't have to go read five books about architecture before you can start writing your first line of code, of course. Just tuck these things in the back of your mind and build your skills there over time.
(Except for off-site backups and git. Those protect you from losing all of your work, and you should set them up right now if you haven't already.)
Just make games, that is really it.
Try to keep it fun for yourself to do development, if the fun dies, so will your game dev dreams.
Don't overcomplicate things by trying to make a project that is way too ambitious and large. Shoot for something small first, keep making small projects until it is becoming easy to manage.
I personally always recommend starting with incremental games (like Cookie Clicker), but those are also my favorite games to work on to begin with. Something like Flappy Bird, or Frogger are also great ideas for small-scoped games that you can actually make as a beginner!
If you look through my profile, almost everything I've uploaded here has less than 40 hours of development time invested in it. You can make small games and pump them out fast while you learn! My game: Knifepoint (Prologue) by Frontline Studios is the most time I've spent on a project, and I think that is only about 30 hours, and most of that was reworking systems I had already implemented.
The easiest way to get good at making games, is to just make games!
Good luck, friend!
I agree with what others have said (I’m not a Godot developer, but still).
One of the most important things (already mentioned) is using Git. Version control and having backups are essential skills. On that note, learn how to use branches. It will come in handy, especially when you start working on projects with others. (I can’t even count how many hours I lost on my first group project because of merge errors.)
Other than that, don’t be afraid to start. Don’t wait for things to be perfect or for the “right moment”. Just make something. You’ve had three days, so I hope to see something soon :))
On this note JOIN GAME JAM. They are a veryyyy good experience. And you can learn from others.
Reading documentation and finding solutions are also key skills. Everyone runs into problems, so knowing how to navigate and understand documentation is very important. It can feel daunting at first, but you’ll get used to it over time.
Best of luck <3