The Path of the Game Dev — Day 1

And thus the first steps on the path have been taken. Hold fast, dear travelers, for the road that lies ahead will take courage…

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As one prone to making big decisions on a whim, I’m not sure becoming a game developer was ever a decision I anticipated making in 2020 (but then again, it is 2020). Especially as I’m finishing up my Master’s degree in a wildly unrelated field.

At first I thought I had to start from the ground up and master C# before touching anything else (Pro tip: don’t do that). While first few lessons of C# were a great introduction to some of the concepts Unity uses, on its own they weren’t easy to grasp — to be honest, it felt like I was trying to build a bridge across a canyon with just a nail and a hammer and no wooden planks. It was so easy to get caught up in the internal loop of “I don’t know, I guess I’m just not smart enough to figure it out”.

This afternoon’s big group meeting was extremely helpful. I tend not to see the problems I’m having with things, so when Jon suggested us newbies switch back and forth between the 2D development and the C# courses I almost smacked myself in the face. Of course! Why would I try to grapple with coroutines if I haven’t even learned how to move the player?

Biggest takeaways from the day: Progress isn’t linear (as much as we like it to be) and you can’t master an entire coding language in a day. Get to know the why behind the how. Explore all the tools available to you.

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