Better way to learn programming?

hello I’ve been trying to learn gdscript for about few days now watching tutorials and doing learn to code from zero but i feel like I’m getting no where and nothing sticking. Am i doing something wrong, is there a better way to do this or should i just redo those again and try again. any feedback and recommendations is appreciated,

1 Like

Learn by doing your own projects. Can’t recommend it enough.

Don’t just watch tutorials, it’s much more important to try it out yourself in practice. Try to understand every piece of code they use, why they use it and how it works, play around with the different settings and values to see what happens. Combine it with your own ideas.

Think of a simple game idea as a challenge for yourself, e.g. “Make a 2D character respond to arrow inputs and collect coins”, then break it into smaller pieces, e.g. character input, movement, collisions, collecting coins, storing game state, etc. and try to solve it one by one with the help of either Godot docs, YT tutorials, forums, etc. If you’re completely stuck, ask here on this forum for support with a specific issue.

Day by day you’ll become more confident with your abilities and can finish a full game one day.

4 Likes

“Make a 2D character respond to arrow inputs and collect coins”, then break it into smaller pieces, e.g. character input, movement, collisions, collecting coins, storing game state, etc. and try to solve it one by one with the help of either Godot docs, YT tutorials, forums, etc. If you’re completely stuck, ask here on this forum for support with a specific issue.

This is actually really good advice. I started programming back in the early 2000’s - Youtube didn’t even exist - … very little resources and tools. I coded in Notepad :sweat_smile: … so yes, right now it is a great time to start learning because you have LLM’s or best known as AI’s like chat GPT that can explain you in detail how things work and what they mean.

One thing though, don’t think it will take you a few weeks to grasp programming, this is indeed a long journey, but nonetheless I think you can start doing and seing cool stuff happening right away - even if you still don’t grasp the abstractions - which you will at some point in the near future (if you keep at it) and also, enjoy the process, that is key.

2 Likes

It’s hard to recommend a “better” way to learn programming since everybody learns differently, and things click at different times. I got the feeling when I was looking through Learn to Code From Zero that a new programmer might feel like they’re not getting the whole picture. It’s cool they let you move a robot around on a screen, but what are the underlying mechanisms by which the robot moves? How is it being drawn to the screen? I feel like all that abstraction leaves programming feeling more mysterious than it is, so don’t be hard on yourself for not fully “getting” it.

I’d always recommend starting by writing simple text-based/terminal applications, since you can focus purely on the code. When I was in my early days of learning, I found a lot of value in online courses that give you a sandbox to experiment and a curriculum to follow. Codecademy helped me a lot, though it’s been many years since I looked at their content. In any case, here’s a python course which might be valuable. It’s structure is similar to GDScript so it won’t feel too unfamiliar switching between them.

Hope that helps.

3 Likes