6 Resources I Used to Learn Game Development

hey everyone thanks for joining me for a slightly different type of video today where i'll be trying to answer a question that's asked in the comments of nearly every one of my devlogs what resources have i personally used to build up whatever game development skill set i currently have in this video i've had the privilege of collaborating with many of the creators whose resources i've used to build the games you've seen so far on my channel from blink all the way to dauphin over almost two years at this point now rather than just spitting out a bunch of names and giving you links down in the description which i will still do i want to provide some insight into how i actually used each of these resources and even more specifically than that certain pieces of content that i found useful as i learned to build my various games so that's probably enough intro for now let's go ahead and jump into the list [Music] game from scratch is the first resource i want to share because it is one of the very first that i relied on when getting a bit more serious about game development game from scratch is a comprehensive resource for game development news resources and tutorials it's run by a fellow named mike who has been a champion of free and open source software and happens to have been an early advocate and tutorial author for the godot engine i stumbled upon mike's channel for the first time years ago while i was still researching the pros and cons of various engines for use with blink so before i even decided to dive in with unity game from scratch has so many videos providing clear and concise overviews of individual game engines and tools and also covering major updates to those tools whenever i want more info on an engine or framework i've just heard of or want to deeper dive into a recent update this is where i go specifically i found great value from videos like why godot over unity or unreal engine and godot 3.2.2 released this type of content both helped me make an informed decision about the toolset i've chosen to use and keeps me up to date with new updates to that toolset as they're released all these videos that i just mentioned as well as all the videos i will be mentioning will be down in the description below i hope you get a chance to check out game from scratch even if you're comfortable with the tool set you already used i think it's both interesting and important to just keep an open mind about the different tools in the game industry and see how the industry itself is evolving [Music] next up i'd like to talk about gd quest because it's been perhaps my most used resource as i've learned to work with the godot engine gdquest is run by a fellow named nathan and is a free software project and social company with a mission of bringing people together to become better game developers they focus on godot tutorials and tools and release all of their code under mit or gpl licenses on their github most recently you might recall my references to their tutorials on loading dialogue from json into godot for use in a dialog system or creating a procedural generation algorithm which i used to create my cave system in dauphin these are great examples of the high quality content they produce that can cover more complex game development topics on the other hand gdquest also produces great content for beginners their intro to gd script for programming beginners video is a fantastic place to start if you want to make a game but don't have any previous programming experience in addition to content focused on the godot engine gdquest provides many resources on other free and open source software that can aid you in developing your game i've enjoyed watching videos about tools like krita lmms and even just linux overall as a choice of operating system it's the reason why i now do a fair bit of development on dauphin from within popos if you have any interest at all in making games with godot or writing code or making music and art with free and open source software i definitely recommend checking out gdquest they have just a really great mission statement they're passionate about what they do and they've been a really important resource to me as i've built dauphin all right next up has been a personal favorite channel of mine recently especially as i've been building out my first big rpg and that channel is heartbeast you've probably heard me mention heartbeast on my channel before and that's for a good reason it's run by a fellow named ben who has a real talent for making incredibly clear and thorough tutorial series both on smaller topics like random level generation and larger topics like building an rpg his 22 part make an action rpg in godot series was absolutely instrumental to my switch from unity to godot following along with that tutorial from the beginning all the way to the end taught me so much about the engine and ended up influencing my decision to make the switch from unity apart from great tutorial series ben has also been creating devlogs recently for his current personal project that he's working on with his brother these give some good insight into the game design choices he makes how he organizes his work and how he allocates his time and finally i want to give a little shout out to the pixel art videos that bin creates as someone who's still struggling to learn and feel comfortable with pixel art these videos are a great motivator and glimpse into how someone with more experience goes about building a new piece of art heartbeats continues to be one of my all-time favorite game development channels with its mix of thorough and informative tutorials and motivational content i definitely recommend giving it a shot even if godot is not your main game development tool alright continuing on with this theme of teaching i'd now like to introduce a channel called born cg run by a fellow named colin born cg is a channel about learning technology simply it started out primarily as a resource for teaching blender for animation but in 2019 and expanded to begin covering the basics of the godot engine my first experience with colin's channel was with his video titled blender 2.8 tutorial 1. this is one of the videos that enabled me to open up blender and create the polar bear that i was using in polar which you guys might remember was my very first foray into 3d game development these days colin is working on an updated blender tutorial series with the first entry being called let's learn blender 1 getting started for beginners if you're looking to start learning blender i absolutely recommend checking out colin's videos on this topic i've also recently checked out some of the videos in collins godot 3.2 series let's build a platformer i am super impressed with the quality and thoroughness of these tutorials the first entry does a really great job explaining the basics of the engine its interface and the basics of the node system if you're just starting out with godot this should be an essential piece of your learning material colin is a high school teacher and he's been leading a summer camp for nearly 15 years to teach game design and animation to elementary and middle schoolers it's clear that he has a talent and a passion for the work that he does and it definitely is reflected in the quality of his content i hope you'll check him out speaking of teachers the next channel i'd like to introduce has a mission to introduce computers and programming to younger aspiring developers and believes it's never too early to do so this channel is called kids can code and it's run by a fellow named chris i wouldn't let the name throw you off though there is certainly a wealth of beginner-focused content both on the kids can code youtube and website there are also some really modular concise and more advanced tutorials that chris has published kids can code is actually the home to one of my favorite godot tutorial series called know your nodes this is such a cool series where chris produces independent videos each focused on a single godot node type like the tile map ysort or pathfollow 2d it's a great resource to help teach you how to properly use a particular node and utilize all the functionality it has to offer another really cool series on kids can code is godot recipes rather than focusing on nodes these videos focus on individual pieces of common functionality that you may want to implement in your game things like melee attacks interaction between kinematic and rigid bodies and minimaps much like some of the content gdquest produces these slightly more advanced videos are great for implementing more complex functionality in your games finally i want to give chris a shout out for some of his game dev in depth videos where he talks about algorithms like a star path finding in a more engine agnostic way i haven't made it all the way through this pathfinding series yet but i certainly will in the future when i look to implement that in dauphin with all these really interesting tutorial series that chris has created you should have plenty of reasons to go check out his channel i recommend throwing him a sub while you're there i think he deserves quite a bit more [Music] last but certainly not least is a channel that really just takes things to the next level both with its driving force of game industry veterans and captivating animated presentation style this channel is ask gamedev which has its content produced by a team of two derek and matt they have a mission to help viewers elevate their games and inspire others when i first stumbled upon this channel i was completely blown away by the breadth of content they produce a quick glance at their playlist section gives a pretty good overview they have reviews of individual game engines and tools marketing and publishing tips and resources to help you succeed as a solo game designer and developer this channel's a little bit different to the ones i've mentioned so far in this video you're not going to find a lot of tutorials on like how to implement an inventory system for example instead what ask gamedev's content encourages you to do is take a step back and try to make better choices about how you're designing your game and the steps you're taking to actually create it this is something that can be easily overlooked by someone who just wants to go heads down and write code all day like me a great example is their video seven game design mistakes to avoid the first recommendation is to remember the acronym ask avoid starting kingdoms basically avoid starting too big and too broad with your design something i'd of course never do and they go on to talk about how to be flexible with your commitment to certain feature ideas and how to properly incorporate story in the early hours of your game it's worth noting that the advice in these videos is not coming from some hobbyist game developer it's coming from a team of folks who have experience in the indie and aaa industries so i know i have a lot to learn ask gamedev also has a wealth of motivational content such as their videos on inspiring single developer games and their showcase videos of games made with the godot engine they even have an hour-long chill beats to make games 2 video if you've not visited the channel before i recommend hopping into the playlist tab and seeing if you can find some content to help you fill any gaps you may have with your current project for me i know it's design as i start to think about making my game play systems and dolphin feel more connected and also incorporating a story in any case i think there's something for everyone on ask gamedev so i hope you get the chance to go check it out so that was my list of five resources that i have personally used to help teach myself game development and actually motivate myself to do it over the past two years i think these resources have a good mix of content both for absolute beginners as well as tutorials on more complex topics for more advanced programmers i really hope you guys found this video useful and if you know of any other great resources that have been a boon for you on your game development journey please share their names down in the comments i'd love for this video to be a helpful resource to those looking to get started with their first project as always thanks so much for watching keep your eyes peeled for the next devlog and stay safe

Channel: DevDuck

Views: 59,899

Keywords: how to learn game dev, how to get started with game dev, game dev beginner tutorial, game dev beginner resources, where to begin game dev, devduck, how to learn godot, godot gamedev tutorial, gamefromscratch, askgamedev, heartbeast, gdquest, kidscancode, borncg

Id: UJlEtRI796A

Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/_devduck]

If you don't want to watch, the channels are:

• GameFromScratch
• GDQuest
• HeartBeast
• BornCG
• KidsCanCode
• Ask Gamedev

In the video, I try to call out specific pieces of content that I found useful along the way, especially as I've been working to build my first RPG in Godot. Hope some of you find it useful!

[u/xphlawlessx]

Your videos are a huge deal. I (the programmer) watch them with my friend (the artist) and we both get a lot out of it. There's a real shortage of high quality devlogs with this amount of depth, a lot are either more technical, or more base level. (Nothing wrong with either approach) these always feel exactly right to me.

[u/robieuu]

Where’s miziziziz

[u/TitaniaProductionz]

Really loved this video! Lots of great choices here for beginners to Godot, some which i have already used.

[u/nerfjanmayen]

Askgamedev's video mentions you, now I'm stuck in an infinite loop

Also your original godot video is one of the things that convinced me to try godot so thanks for that!