What methods do you guys use when watching tutorials and learning in general

Hi guys im interested in finding out what way people learn unity and coding i personally feel since starting unity back in unity 3 days in college i learned the worst way by watching video tutorials and copy n pasting every line of code then when left to own devices i would get stuck .Thankfully i managed to move past that and release a game what methods have you guys used and what pitfalls have you had because of them I personally think tutorials are terrible way to learn as when we are kids we normally just dive in to things an learn from errors and breaking things .

 

You just described the method I used to learn programming back in the 90s. I don't know if I would call it a very effective way of learning though and while my current method does use it to some degree I no longer rely on it solely. Tutorials have become part of my learning process because they can cut straight to the part that matters.

Looking up additional info in the official docs or searching sites like Stack Overflow are yet another and often I'll take a brief break from a tutorial to look further into topics (eg API calls) that the author only briefly explained.

 

I personally am not a fan of the video tutorial. I find myself wanting it to just speed up and get on with it. I would much rather read a set of instructions than watch someone else do it. I have been through the basic unity official tutorials though. When doing it i never just copy and pasted code. I would watch the video once to the end without interruption paying more attention to where on screen to click, where to find menu commands, and how it looked while the instructor was doing something than reading the code he wrote. I listened to the instructions of why he did what and just try to absorb it. Upon completionof the video I would scroll down and read through the code written very carefully not passing a part until I felt sure i understood what it meant. Then once I felt like I knew what was happening I would switch over to unity and recreate the lesson from memory the best I could only switching back to READ the pre written code to refresh my memory on syntax. I learn best from doing so this was what worked for me.

After the basic tutorials I just dove in and started work learning as I went. At this point the tutorials were all too specific to be of any real use so I abandoned them. Did I quit learning? NO and I never will. Im sure even the most experienced gurus learn new things on a daily basis through trial and error, peer collaboration, or new feature documentation. So how do I keep learning? YOU FINE PEOPLE.....

Whether you know it or not you guys have taught me more than all of the video tutorials combined and I would like to thank you. You may look at my post history and think I'm just making things up but its the truth. Here is the magic, and I suggest this to ALL new users than have nearly no knowledge.......Someone else has already asked. Don't believe me, just do a google search. I have asked the unity community a thousand questions without ever starting a thread. So far they have all been answered. I'm sure someday I will have a problem with something rare or advanced and actually need to ask but for a noobs problems like mine the answer is already there if you look.

So in conclusion I really just need to say thanks to everyone. I dont mean just the gurus that answer the questions either. If it wasn't some complete noob asking a completely dumb question I might would have buckled and asked myself. So my answer is that......the community, the answer guys and the question guys.

 

Yes I found that when watching a video i would always look for the correct way to do things rather then just do it and in turn caused me to either give up on the project get frustrated and start something new like starting Unity i went straight to c# simply because the net said to rather then looking at both JS n Unity and decide for myself which caused more problems right now im using unity script have made few projects my self released one on google play zigzag clone lol
now just focused on fully mastering Unity script without tutorials on random topics i really now use tuts for just basic coding practices like the unity site videos and convert it too js which in turn allows me to learn its weird i know but I have always been amassed when watching tuts how do they know all this stuff from top of their heads .
I am starting to take things from unity write them down like i need to learn and understand raycasts and enums so now il spend roughly 1-2 hours on that topic until i master it then find a way to use it in a small project

 

I tend to have a step process. I start with the thirty thousand feet overview. This normally happens via YouTube videos and Wikipedia articles. On a new topic I need to get orientated. I have no idea what the key words are. No idea what I should be typing into google. No language to frame relevant questions.

Once I have the high level view, I'll jump into a specific tutorial project. I pick a tutorial that seems decent. At this stage it can be text or video. Then I'll try and do kind of the same thing as the tutorial as I follow along. So if the tutorial is running through how to make an object turn red, I'll make it turn blue. If the tutorial makes a character jump, I'll make it jump twice as high. And so on. This gentle messing with the tutorial means I tend to actually understand what is happening, instead of just copying the code by rote. And it inevitably leads me off on other google searches that get me into the shallow end of the documentation.

Then I'll start my own learning project. Its something simple that can be completed in a day or two. A space invaders clone, a single text web page, a server that will send me back the current date and time. Something on my own to prove I've properly understood the concepts. It normally involves a lot of detailed looking into the docs, and a lot of 'aha' moments as new concepts click. This sort of project highlights holes in my knowledge. Things I thought I knew, but didn't.

Finally I can start real work. By this point I have a frame work established to hang new knowledge on. So now I can just work away on my real project and google the things I need to know. I tend to prefer text tutorials at this point, I can easily grab the relevant information and put it into an appropriate spot on my frame work.

If I really want to cement things, I'll start teaching other people the same task. Either in person, on internet forums, via YouTube, or just to my wife at home. Teaching is a great way to really cement advanced concepts.

 

I always just think of a idea of what I want to make and try to break it down. Let's say Zelda. Ok start with player and break it down. Player movement. Then if I'm not sure I type in 4 way movement c# in google. Read a few tutorials or forum post that stand. This way I can get a general idea of different ways to do the same thing. Doesn't always work and it takes a bit longer but it works for me.