How To Escape Tutorial Hell

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Are you currently trapped in tutorial hell, or maybe you're afraid of getting stuck there? It's a common struggle, and the conflicting advice out there can be really overwhelming.
In this video, we'll answer the question: Should you stop watching tutorials?
We'll explore the necessary balance between learning from tutorials and applying that knowledge to your own projects.
From the pitfalls of tutorial dependency to the importance of self-directed learning, we'll let you know what has worked best for us and hopefully help you navigate your path in game development.
Whether you're a beginner or seasoned developer, this video offers you insights and personal experience on breaking free from tutorial hell and leveling up your skills.
If you're new to our channel, we're Brandon & Nikki from Sasquatch B Studios. We sold our house to start our game studio, and work full time on building our business and making our game Samurado.
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[@YoshimiMilk]

Watching a tutorial on how to avoid/escape Tutorial Hell is the most Tutorial hell thing to ever do

[@Yangwaochin]

Hit App Idea save and make it advert at parks busy intersects ten city building a high rise building with ten cities stacked up to space

[@jakasnazwa123]

The problem only indirectly lies with the student. In the vast majority of cases, the creator of the tutorial prepares it without knowledge of the teaching methodology. No tasks to do on your own, etc. Tutorials are often used to show "Look how I can do it".

[@yt_n-c0de-r]

YES! Tutoring, in the original sense of the word, are meant to guide the learner towards the learning goal. But most just use it as a wrapper word, for "code along videos", as the medium doesn't allow for interactive or even individual support. They may teach a topic by chance, but are usually teaching copying techniques or, not understanding and transferring the knowledge on new problems. They are more like "this is how I'd do it, I don't know how you can or should do it." As a RL student tutor, I guide them to figure things out. I also don't do video tutorials for the reasons mentioned... Even if I was a good content creator.

[@-LightSmit]

Great message. "If you know how to learn, then you'll be unstoppable" - My examples: GameDev: Having a vision The guitar: Playing songs I like Japanese language: Games, books and Anime English language: Only movies (Native language is Afrikaans) Professional runner: Competition The same with my 3 kids, they don't always like to do Japanese reading and writing homework, but I often change the reading for an RPG Switch game, or I give them options. Take care! Light

[@xuchengtong2013]

The video is fantastic, and I agree with the majority of its viewpoints. There is an old saying that goes, "Learning without thinking leads to blindness, confusion and perplexity, and thinking without learning leads to idleness, vanity and trouble." Balance is crucial. It is important to push ourselves slightly beyond our current knowledge and comfort level to grow. If we rely too heavily on tutorials and never challenge ourselves, we may not see much improvement and may struggle with feelings of insecurity and lack of achievement. Conversely, if we always stay within our comfort zone and only do what we already know, we will not be able to develop and enhance our skills. It is essential to find a balance between pushing ourselves and staying within our comfort zone to continue growing and improving.

[@user-rm2pj9jf8s]

Rather, the definite problem is that most KZbin game tutorials do not work as actual games when you follow along. They simply show small features while claiming it is a game. I've watched many KZbin game tutorials, and 90% of them stop at implementing small features instead of a complete game. Since each instructor has a different coding style, beginners find it particularly difficult as they cannot combine what they've implemented so far. In my opinion, the most important thing is to first find a tutorial that allows you to 'complete' 'an' entire game from start to finish, follow it through to the end, and then make your own game.

[@facelessanon]

From my experience, the tutorials that discuss small features are the ones that work. The ones that discuss macro-scale matters are the ones that work the least. You're gonna be making your own games, not someone else's. So I would suggest otherwise... but if it works, then please go for it!

[@user-rm2pj9jf8s]

​@@facelessanon I agree with your opinion. However, most beginners are unable to complete the game from start to finish. The problem is completing it to the end, and I think it would be better to use that code(Complete Game) as a basis to create a similar genre game. I think it's better to look at implementing features only after reaching a certain level, but when a beginner, it's better to follow a tutorial that they can complete while following the workflow.

[@shawns4354]

Most you just find the one mechanic you need and do what they do, but in your game. Some however leave out important info. Like in setting up an outline that outline shows though other objects.

[@Xavire1603]

As a beginner with 0 experience, watching tutorials is invaluable. Without them, i wouldnt even know how to start. I agree however that making it yourself is the way to actually learn, copy/pasting the tutorial wont take you very far. But sometimes a little push is needed in order to start walking. Dont feel bad if you need to watch a tutorial, but make sure you actually learn something.

[@ericmatthews9894]

A problem I have always had is finding tutorials that teach what I want to learn. This guy shows you how to switch between rifles but not between a rifle and a pistol. I figured that out on my own and yes, it was very gratifying. Another issue is one guy will show you this and other will show you that, but the two don't mix and one or both will not work now. It seems like no one person has a complete and comprehensive tutorial on exactly what I'm trying to learn. And that gets frustrating because I am trying to learn third person shooters which is a very common type of game.

[@bradleywood1984]

First! I've found one of the things that helped me is allowing myself to fail. I would get into this weird space where I wouldn't want to fail so I would not try. But now, I've embraced failure and now I tackle some big stuff and keep failing and trying until I get it.

[@Brick_is_cool]

Yes, you are :)

[@vinhnghiang1273]

I have the same problem. I know what i need to do but I keep wonder if i can do it or im gonna make mistakes and then do nothing

[@daniel3dart]

This video hit really hard today. Alone, conflicting advice, real application too OP :/ Confidence and rules are the least of my worries. I got 99 problems and they are all in Runtime WTF?! LOL We are all in this learning journey together. Great Video!!

[@unikat-kmnkmn2799]

I am still in tutorial hell since 2014

[@antonpanov5180]

Okay, another tutorial about how to escape tutorial hell :D

[@mirandaart3012]

i love watching tutorials and saving them to playlists, i like to watch and copy, and try to have notes on why i did those lines of code. Then when i feel confident enough i will try to make something using the knowledge i gained from those tutorials (i admit i always have them on in the background, just incase lol)

[@geddy21twelve]

One of the ways I combat tutorial hell with concepts that are outside of my current understanding is to use AI. Every time I come across a concept that is foreign to me, I'll pause the video, hop over to chat GPT and ask it to explain the concept to me. If its explanation doesn't resonate with me, I'll ask it to give me an apology and that usually does it. Combined with diligent note-taking, this has been the most effective way for me to educate myself.

[@mattrobb3566]

Some great tips once again, thanks. My main take away from this is the idea of 'Building off Little Micro Victories' (9.11). Its a great new way for me to steadily move through a Project to see each step competently completed is another Micro Victory. That will help my Mental Health during development, and maybe I wont give up this time. Thanks again.

[@umoyGC]

@git-amend is one of my favorite tutChannels here on YT... I'm still stucking in 4-5 mini projects but still creeping bit by bit further :D thanks to those channels and videos of people like you and him :D I thank you guys a lot. And probably will mark you in my credits (if the projects reach the goal) :D

[@Bazerath]

I feel like the message Brandon gives is my exact situation. I am learning on my own, watching tutorials between project time while balancing actual progress. I sense that I'm not far off from hitting a wall cause Of my lack of knowledge. I'm setting small goals and stretching my learning process. Great video

[@twistedliverstudio]

Love this video, I also did the same thing at the 5 min mark the no googling - but since I had installed the docs with the editor I opened to docs to actually read them and found what I needed witch was more helpful for me in the long run as a lot of docs have some examples of the syntax and explaining what it does, more people need to learn some documentation is good, I also started creating my own docs on how I put certain things together so I can reference them in the future I find this to be very helpful. Keep this good stuff coming very much enjoying this channel.

[@MrLardmonkey]

Thanks for making this, I have been feeling adrift with my coding projects lately.

[@dubistdran5781]

What I've seen in many tutorials is that people say "We now need X then we add Y to it, then we go there and do Z" but not explaining WHY you need this, which sometimes makes it really hard to understand

[@mikhailhumphries]

tutorial hell gave you the skills you have now. i only got out of tutorial hell after 6 months so your hell gave you more knowledge. Now my code not as good as i could be because im in "doing hell" where i dont want to watch a full 20 minute tutorial

[@Aka1chi]

Thank you! Your videos are always inspiring for beginner game developers like me

[@bluzenkk]

I think i escaped tutorial hell around the 2 years mark too. eventually i see the pattern and kinda know how to use those tutorial. the tutoirals are like index to me now, so if say i want to make a 2d controller, i will go back to the best controller tutorial i saw and just copy the code. and since i have watch so many different tutorials... i know what makes the clean code 2d controller. and after copying a few times.. i kinda just remembered it..

[@heavymetalmixer91]

"Avoid being comfortable like a plague" I think this is my biggest issue. I got used to formal education so I don't know how to actually do it on my own, and when I have a challenge in front of me I just leave.

[@mostrealtutu]

first minute is enough. no need for a 10min video.

[@everything-has-a-handle-now]

The tutorials I watch are mostly just entertainment. It's so rare I actually use a KZbin video when I want to know something instead of using docs/text-based tutorials. Even when learning something from scratch I like to take projects and just break everything to figure it out.

[@diegogb1999]

Whats the name of the extension you use to get color tags in each video with x4, 21VPH and stuff like that?

[@DmitryZajarchenko]

I escaped tutorial hell by reading a book from the 1972 that book is the white book, alias" K&R The C programming language " it opened my eyes how truly a computer works, it also teaches advanced algorithms this book is highly technical, but it taught me how a programmer should code, by analysing by learning algorithms, AI , MATH in general, programming isn't simple loops is an art it's highly sequential,.

[@skate1]

I agree that following steps and learning nothing is not great but if you do this for help to build your own game. It will be very helpful. I tried learning Java and took a class back in college but even though I passed the class I literally learned nothing. Ironically just a month ago I installed unity and started doing a step by step tutorial on building a game and I tell you its the best thing I could've done for myself because I am learning C# and unity at the same time without really trying to. My goal is to build a game and in the process I am learning extra stuff. So projects are the best ways to learn. I Search for videos on specifically the parts I need for my game and end up learning so much more like today I just learned how to fix a certain Null error and why it occurred.

[@TheArghnono]

Excellent video. "Tutorial hell" is simply a misdiagnosis of good old fashioned chronic procrastination. It is a real, common problem. I also support the idea that KZbin Unity (and gamedev) tutorials generally teach you horrible coding practices (git-amend is an exception). If you like learning from videos, follow some high level c# channels as well to learn how to make real programming projects that will not cause you pain when it grows beyond a few objects.

[@crafter7jake874]

haven't watched the vid yet but for me, i have been making games for about a year now, I didn't do it a whole lot so you can probably do it quicker,. I started watching tutorials for everything and I just learned it automaticly by strudying the sripts of the tutorials, now i can pretty confidently make scripts myself. the game i am working on rn has almost fully been made by me, i occasionaly watch a tutorial or search on the unity forums, but if i follow tutorials today i usually only take small parts of it to understand how something works

[@anonymous49125]

git amend mentioned --- great channel

[@tomminator6014]

- Watched tutorials - Tried making pong - Got stuck - Didn't understand the code/tutorials I googled My infinite loop

[@planetaryashes]

i'll be honest i've been going through tutorials a lot and with different game engines until back to unity learning how to use C# epically with the flappy bird tutorial of yours. i've tried to not be in comfort zone of tutorials there are where i put myself in "ok so i'm done with this part of the tutorial, let's see where it can work with other objects" like enemies or objects that can move, but after some things when it comes down unique mechanics that tutorials don't that's where i tend to struggle a bit. but yes tutorials are great to look over and learn, but you also have to use it somewhere along the line.

[@harimrlocal]

Thanks❤

[@LuizMoratelli]

One thing that help me a lot was buy some templates at store and learn from there, for example, I'm using TCG Engine to do my card game, and I learned so much abouth architecture for multiplayer and Scriptable Objects. Today (like 6 months after start tweaking) the asset I already now a lot of stuff, and can do almost any change to it, like I completely revamped the mana system, upgraded the board system and a lot more :D.

[@LuizMoratelli]

Just to make it clear, I would only recommend it for people with more experience, otherwise will be a canon ball at your face.

[@sxsignal]

events/delegates vs Observer pattern... similar and I keep bouncing back and forth >.< My problem, I'll watch every video and forum, about a concept before even trying, then I'll try them all... lots of time and 2 of the concepts that I'm trying to ID and not finding a lot of info on: 1. Using realworld esri data and figure out if a mesh or terrain is better 2. given a large data set of ESRI data, make terrain chunk of a real world and traverse through it

[@Egcyber7]

Keep us updated with veil of maia

[@Zenithix]

Tutorials and Courses that show you how to actually build a real project are best, start out building multiple projects that way so that you have a good foundation to work off of when you start making your own projects you will have an easier time looking up how to do specific things and know how to put it together.

[@markguyton2868]

If I am to believe what you say is true, then I've been in "tutorial hell" for 9+ years then (four of those I called college), good to know :\ I have completed one thing in those 9+ years and I can say I lost confidence in its completion... still want to pursue, but not easy anymore.

[@trevormorris7959]

How do I enter tutorial hell to begin with? I can't seem to sit through building someone else's project with them long enough to learn anything about Unity. I use C# every single day of my life for work, but I can't figure out how to use Unity lol

[@dreamleaf6784]

When does one declare themselves a indie game dev or how do you say you have a indie game studio? You get a business license or what?

[@dreamleaf6784]

The Internet says I can consider myself indie if I am working on a game or completed a game reguardless of money. And I guess I can just call my office a studio. So I'm in!

[@HumbertoBytes]

Is this a tutorial on how to escape tutorial hell?

[@smokinjoe9415]

Question: Having never developed ANY commercially successful products, what gives you any qualifications to have comments on how to be a successful developer? All these clowns do is copy content from other creators and rehash it in their words. Problem is that NONE of them have developed anything successful, and in most cases they have zero commercial experience and thus are not qualified to teach.

[@holacabeza]

Every millisecond you don't spend on game dev sets you one step closer to failure. Blazing speed. Don't sleep, poop fast, donate your kids, eat pills for food. You don't need anything in your life but your laptop. No excuses. I'm dead serious.

[@Brick_is_cool]

Epik :D

[@Coco-gg5vp]

First