So i may or may not get into game dev but im thinking of using a fantasy console becasue of lua or maybe godot becasue everyone says to use godot i guess. ive treid running unreal, unity on my low en dpc but they just dont work also there not really open source and open source is cool. i havent really made a game before i usally just copy and paste code from the internet or chatgpt… also id ther eanything else you want to share like what are beginner ideas, how didi you learn, or whatever thing you think of.
im not even sure if i want to get into game dev or not but it seems interesting.
Sadly I can’t write a long comment on this now but in general:
Learn a bit of programming BEFORE you get into game engines. You’ll thank yourself a lot, and if you don’t you will lack essential skills and concepts that will constantly make you have to stop what you’re doing and go back to learning basics. I really don’t recommend getting into game dev without knowing anything about programming. You should know what functions and classes are, and have a little bit of knowledge on Object Oriented Programming. It’s not as hard as you think and likely won’t take that long if you really get into it.
In terms of game engines, Godot and Unity are the most beginner friendly. I honestly wouldn’t recommend fantasy game consoles like Pico-8 to beginners. They’re intentionally limiting and force you to use old techniques that are harder than what’s available today. Unreal is also more oriented towards companies than individuals, and requiring either C++ or using their bulky blueprints system is a negative for me.
Temper your expectations. Make tiny 2D games to start. You won’t make a quality first person shooter or some open world game at the start. Keep it simple and small and slowly build up from there.
The biggest mistake by far are people getting stuck in “tutorial hell”. Unless you know what you’re doing, I’d consider buying courses (I recommend gamedev.tv) or following a playlist on youtube that teaches from 0. You’ll get frustrated quickly if you’re constantly jumping from source to source, and you’ll probably walk away missing a lot of info.