Best way to learn gamedev by practice?

[icha]

I want to learn how to make games but my usual approach to learning is through solving existing problems. Now making a whole video game is a little different from grinding on leetcode or making a simple desktop app. What is the best genre or type of a game to tackle first and which set of tools would you recommend for the overall solo gamedev experience?

[devdude1337]

Simple - make a clone of an existing game. Take a look at 8 bit era games like Tetris/Columns, Breakout or Space Invaders. Use a programming language you are familiar with or is close to what you usually use. There is gazillions of libs, frameworks and engines to gibe you a quick start: Godot, Löve2D, SFML, SDL2, or (ewww) Unity.

[icha]

Thank you for advice. I see you're not too fond of Unity. Care to elaborate why? Also, which language/framework would be the most balanced choice, i.e. not too hardcore for newcomers and not too drag-and-drop-like?

[devdude1337]

Unity is an online shop that works as a game engine IMHO. But honestly for 3D prototyping it is allright. Unitys project structure is hard to scale right and most 3rd party stuff most people rely on is not of good quality.

For 2D games I'd go with Godot or LÖVE2D. When you are more of a programmer LÖVE will give you all the freedom. Godot is more opinionated but has all the batteries included for advanced game projects.

Oh, in case you want to go fairly low level you could also grab Raylib and your favorite C-Compiler :)

[amitmathew]

Our company, Quiver, has a free Godot 4 course that takes you from basics to a finished 2d infinite runner in about 2 hours. https://quiver.dev/tutorials/create-your-first-godot-4-game/. Feedback welcome!

Full disclosure: I’m the founder.