Where to start? Learn GDScript, Python course, or generic "Make [game] in Godot course?

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Hello, everyone!

(tl;dr)

Where should I start? A GDScript course, a broader Python course, or just a generic Godot-based course like those Zenva keep trying to sell me?

Are there any recommendations for longer courses that are explained well rather than the sadly common “copy-paste this” or “type after me”?
(this has partly been inspired by a current offer from Zenva about Godot courses, and a similar offer from Humble, offering Godot courses from Mammoth Industries - any personal reviews or opinions on either are also appreciated)

I would like to know where to start so I can learn a good foundation to get my own ideas out without having to swear at tutorials for everything I want to implement. That happened when trying to get into Unity (boo hiss) last year, and it started happening again with Godot last month, and I’ve now decided that I want to learn this right, starting with a decent online foundation course (around my full-time job).

Thanks for any help and recommendations you can offer, and I look forward to posting shorter messages and hanging out here in future :slight_smile:

== extra stuff because I can’t write short posts!==
I have a basic understanding of code logic and some of the commands, and I often know what the code should be doing, but I can’t write it, and get frustrated with it easily. That’s where I keep getting stuck. If I can finally crack my fear/hatred of code, and start writing my own simple lines and functions, I’m sure I’ll be able to muddle through the rest of the gamedev stuff I want to do as a hobby without these constant roadblocks.

While I’m really new to coding, I’m not new to games. I’ve played all sorts of genres over the last 30 years, and have been working in the industry (localisation and narrative design mainly) for over 5 years.

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I can only speak from personal experience, but over the years I found that getting into game development is the easiest if you first watch a few basic tutorials for the engine you’re gonna use, BUT do not get stuck watching them, as you mentioned. Learn enough to understand how the engine roughly works, then what worked for me best: Just try to do something. Write some code, come up with a very simple task you want to do, then try to write code for it. Often times, I learn more from code completion and the IDE or Engine telling me what a function does, than any other tutorial online. Start typing some English, one word, Script, Sprite etc… and then see what functions or properties they have. If you can, get a very simple open source game made in Godot, download the source code and start changing things to see what happens, how it affects things, then if you have an idea, try to change some objects or behavior by only reading the docs, but not looking up videos about how to do it.

Long story short, watch tutorials only to get a basic understanding of the engine, then start experimenting yourself, it’s the best way to learn in my opinion.

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No matter what you hear, aside from formatting type stuff, GDscript really isn’t that much like python. For game dev it’s way better.