Why do you want to learn to code? What's your goal?
I want to be able to make a living off of making games one day. That day may be 15 years from now, but I am happy just learning and getting better right now because I have a strong love for video games.
I have a few "dream games" to make farther down the line. One of my plans is to make a story-focused monster catcher MMO game (similar to PokeMMO) as a challenge to GameFreak, Nintendo. Don't worry because I know this isn't even happening 3 years from now.
What will you get when you reach your goal?
I will have a job I love and proof for everyone that the indie game dev dream is very much possible, and maybe something to strive for (as long as you are prepared for a lot of work!).
Where and at what time will you practice?
On my PC in what my family calls the "bonus room." I will start practicing sometime between 12:30 PM and 12:45 PM
For how long will you practice?
I plan on spending about 2 hours everyday on this course.
How will you avoid distractions?
I started getting up in the morning earlier and going to sleep earlier. Night time is when everyone is messaging and trying to play some videogames, so giving myself time in the morning ensures I don't have to worry about a bunch of people getting in the way of my learning.
How will you stay accountable?
I am going to make a YouTube channel about self-development and game dev. I will teach others as I learn, so I will have a whole expecting community to keep me accountable.
I also started a daily self-reflection journal that I use to help me understand and mentally work through what I can be doing better every day.
Excellent plan! A few pieces of advice given my own history in game development:
Definitely focus on something you're passionate about! An MMO with monster catcher elements is definitely something a lot of people have wanted to see, and I'm sure we can both envision why that would be a lot of fun. My best advice here, is to break down the overall idea into the smallest pieces you can imagine! What smaller pieces / elements exist in this genre? Off the top of my head, here's a bit of how I'd break that down:
There's plenty more, but if you think about your dream game as a small arcade single player experience (for the prototype), you can easily break the game into digestible pieces, and hopefully learn the individual elements one by one, and really see the project come together! Seeing progress is highly motivating, as is sharing that progress. Projects always tend to be much bigger than we anticipate, so it's best to pick something you're passionate about, and keep the scope as small as possible, building on it as you go. You can easily keep building up, but it's hard to tear down and work in reverse once things get complex!
Smart thinking on the AM hours - I used to do the same staying up extremely late in my 20's (bad idea, earlier is better, IMO!), so I can definitely attest to that working well. Best of luck on your journey, be sure to share your learning with us!
