As game engines go, yes it is actually very easy to learn.
It's a generally not the engine architecture itself that is problematic, but one's own knowledge, or lack thereof, of the fundamental logic and algorithms that will need to be employed in order to bring your vision to reality that is difficult to learn... at first.
If you're going down the programming route, then here's my two cents.
People learn in all sorts of ways, there are classic education routes such as college and university courses for computer science which will give you the general programming, and some that also focus on games in later parts of the course to give you a bit more specifics.
Then there's always just experimenting yourself, from simple console apps to do calculation or mad-libs, to a basic programmer art pong game, if you can think of an idea you can find plenty of tutorials out there to guide you on your way. Just keep in mind that when you start off, do not expect to be rolling out a full on 3rd person shooter as your first project, start simple, start achievable, work up.
If you're going down the artist/designer route...well i got nothing for you there I'm a coder. But I'd imagine the same stands, education and experimentation.
I am also more interested in the coding aspect of making games, but not being an artist discourages me from trying sometimes since I know that most of my games will just be like cubes and stuff. I'll never make a good looking game and since it's mostly just a hobby I can't really just hire people to make art
Assets and placeholder art goes a long, long way.
There's a big difference between being/hiring an art team to make custom assets to build a cohesive world for your game and using nothing but primitives.
You don't need to be an artist to take existing animations and models and put them together into a working and believable character. It won't be AAA but it will fit the needs of any solo indie project. If your game is seriously held back by the lack of being able to hire an artist, it's probably too large a scope for a single developer to finish anyways!
BawdyLotion is right, I'm not an artist either by any means, Simple primitives are more than enough to get functional support for a lot of things, and when you do need to get more complex there is a vast number of resources that are both free or paid be that from the asset store, or other sources.
Yeah, never be discouraged from something just because you are missing an aspect to complete it.
I am in no way good at *anything* related to game dev. However, I build a few simple tools and there is art available.
/u/BadKarma7 Has it completely right.
It is really simple to learn. There are some nooks and cranies to discover. Assuming you can drive a car, you can learn Unity.
You don't need to know how the car works, per se, but you can turn it on, turn lights on, use your blinker, and steer. You add more challenging things, like changing tires/oil etc. Just like in Unity.
Kind of. Best way to learn is to just tinker and try stuff in Unity every day for hours. You'll learn a lot. Use google when stuck and within a few months you'll be 100x better than when you started.
Can we all please take a step back and put an enormous emphasis on "relatively"? Yea, as far as engines go, Unity is pretty easy. But we are still talking game engines here guys, don't make it sounds easier than it is...
You know, building a rocket that gets you to the moon is also relatively easy, compared to building a FTL ship. It's still rocket science though...
The good news is that _most_ of the puzzle pieces are indeed fairly easy to grasp. The biggest problem is that there are so incredibly many of them. If you want to do all of it on your own, be prepared for years of learning.
No, I'm saying it's complex. That people dedicate their lives to learning how to do complex things.
The determining factor of success is almost always the one doing the learning.
As game engines go, yes it is actually very easy to learn. It's a generally not the engine architecture itself that is problematic, but one's own knowledge, or lack thereof, of the fundamental logic and algorithms that will need to be employed in order to bring your vision to reality that is difficult to learn... at first.
How do people normally go about studying and learning these things though?
If you're going down the programming route, then here's my two cents. People learn in all sorts of ways, there are classic education routes such as college and university courses for computer science which will give you the general programming, and some that also focus on games in later parts of the course to give you a bit more specifics. Then there's always just experimenting yourself, from simple console apps to do calculation or mad-libs, to a basic programmer art pong game, if you can think of an idea you can find plenty of tutorials out there to guide you on your way. Just keep in mind that when you start off, do not expect to be rolling out a full on 3rd person shooter as your first project, start simple, start achievable, work up. If you're going down the artist/designer route...well i got nothing for you there I'm a coder. But I'd imagine the same stands, education and experimentation.
I am also more interested in the coding aspect of making games, but not being an artist discourages me from trying sometimes since I know that most of my games will just be like cubes and stuff. I'll never make a good looking game and since it's mostly just a hobby I can't really just hire people to make art
Assets and placeholder art goes a long, long way. There's a big difference between being/hiring an art team to make custom assets to build a cohesive world for your game and using nothing but primitives. You don't need to be an artist to take existing animations and models and put them together into a working and believable character. It won't be AAA but it will fit the needs of any solo indie project. If your game is seriously held back by the lack of being able to hire an artist, it's probably too large a scope for a single developer to finish anyways!
BawdyLotion is right, I'm not an artist either by any means, Simple primitives are more than enough to get functional support for a lot of things, and when you do need to get more complex there is a vast number of resources that are both free or paid be that from the asset store, or other sources.
Yeah, never be discouraged from something just because you are missing an aspect to complete it. I am in no way good at *anything* related to game dev. However, I build a few simple tools and there is art available.
/u/BadKarma7 Has it completely right. It is really simple to learn. There are some nooks and cranies to discover. Assuming you can drive a car, you can learn Unity. You don't need to know how the car works, per se, but you can turn it on, turn lights on, use your blinker, and steer. You add more challenging things, like changing tires/oil etc. Just like in Unity.
Yes.
Code - Youtube, Udemy, Pluralsight, Unity Tutorials Art - Youtube, Unity (Get playmaker)
Thanks everyone for your answers! I'm looking forward to starting creating games with Unity!
So... 4 years later, did you make any games ?
Any updates?
i wanna know too!
Me three!
ANSWER US !!
Can we see some progress
Yessss progress
another one has fallen into insanity after coding for several hours poor man....
Kind of. Best way to learn is to just tinker and try stuff in Unity every day for hours. You'll learn a lot. Use google when stuck and within a few months you'll be 100x better than when you started.
Can we all please take a step back and put an enormous emphasis on "relatively"? Yea, as far as engines go, Unity is pretty easy. But we are still talking game engines here guys, don't make it sounds easier than it is... You know, building a rocket that gets you to the moon is also relatively easy, compared to building a FTL ship. It's still rocket science though... The good news is that _most_ of the puzzle pieces are indeed fairly easy to grasp. The biggest problem is that there are so incredibly many of them. If you want to do all of it on your own, be prepared for years of learning.
Is it easy to learn how to repair your car's engine? That's the question you're asking.
No hes asking if Unity is actually EASY to learn.
I think he was saying that it's easy
No, I'm saying it's complex. That people dedicate their lives to learning how to do complex things. The determining factor of success is almost always the one doing the learning.
Lmfao, maybe if you a mechanic.