If you’ve ever done the classic move where you finish a tutorial, feel productive, then open your own project and instantly forget what to do… welcome. You’re not broken. You just haven’t trained the part of the brain that generates solutions.
dev.to has a lot of smart people, but beginners still get stuck in the same trap: passive learning feels like progress.
This is a practical, engine-agnostic post (Unity/Godot/Unreal all fine) on how to escape tutorial hell with a loop you can repeat forever.
The real issue: you’re optimizing for “recognition”, not “creation”
Tutorials train recognition:
- “Yeah, I’ve seen this before”
- “I remember that menu”
- “I know that line of code”
But building games requires creation:
- “What do I do next?”
- “Why did this break?”
- “How do I simplify this?”
So your learning method has to force creation.
The system: Struggle → Build → Repeat
This is the loop:
1) Struggle: try without help (short and controlled)
2) Build: implement the smallest version that works
3) Repeat: rebuild from memory + change one thing
The goal is not to “finish the tutorial”. The goal is to build the skill of moving forward without a guide.
Step 1: Struggle (but don’t cosplay as a genius)
Rule: You must attempt for 15 minutes before searching.
Why?
Because the struggle creates a map of what you don’t know. Without that map, searching becomes random doomscrolling.
What to do during those 15 minutes (simple routine)
Open a scratch note and write:
- Goal: “Player can jump”
- My guess: “I need gravity + input + velocity”
- Try: implement your best attempt
- Result: what happened?
- Next guess: one adjustment
This turns confusion into a process.
If you still fail after 15 minutes
Good. Now you earn the right to search, but with a constraint:
Search for one missing piece, not the whole solution.
Bad search:
- “how to make a platformer movement system”
Good search:
- “how to detect grounded in 2d”
- “difference between AddForce and setting velocity”
- “how to clamp camera movement”
Step 2: Build the smallest working version (embarrassingly small)
Beginners try to build “a real game” too early. That creates complexity and kills momentum.
You want minimum playable mechanics, not minimum viable product.
Example: “Top-down movement”
Smallest version:
- WASD moves a square
- no animations
- no fancy camera
- no sprint, no stamina, no diagonals handling beyond normalization
Then you ship the learning.
A constraint that helps
One mechanic at a time. One file if possible.
If your “movement” requires 9 scripts and a state machine, you are building a cathedral, not learning.
Step 3: Repeat (this is where the learning actually locks in)
This is the most important step and the one almost nobody does.
Once you get the thing working, do this:
Repeat Protocol
1) Delete it (or start a new empty project)
2) Rebuild it from memory
3) Only after you rebuild it, compare with a reference
4) Then change one variable and rebuild again
This is how you move from “I watched it” to “I own it”.
Practical mini-projects that kill tutorial hell (pick one)
These are designed to be:
- small enough to finish
- easy to debug
- easy to repeat with variations
1) Dodge Arena (2 hours)
Goal: survive 30 seconds
Mechanics:
- player moves
- enemies (or hazards) move toward player
- collisions reset the timer
Variations for repeats:
- add invincibility frames
- add dash cooldown
- add random spawn waves
2) One-Button Jump Game (2 to 4 hours)
Goal: jump over obstacles and score points
Mechanics:
- jump
- obstacles spawn
- game over on hit
Variations:
- variable jump height
- speed increases over time
- “perfect jump” bonus
3) Collect + Return (3 to 6 hours)
Goal: collect 3 items then return to exit
Mechanics:
- player movement
- pickups
- UI counter
- exit unlock
Variations:
- add a timer
- add a “wrong pickup” penalty
- add fog of war
4) Simple Horror Loop (3 to 6 hours)
Goal: find key, escape, avoid enemy
Mechanics:
- flashlight cone (fake is fine)
- key pickup
- enemy patrol/chase (basic)
- win/lose state
Variations:
- sound lure mechanic
- hiding spot
- random key location
If you finish any of these, you are already ahead of 90% of beginners.
How to use tutorials without getting trapped (rules that actually work)
Tutorials are not evil. Your usage pattern is.
The “30/70 rule”
- 30%: watching/reading
- 70%: building/testing/changing
If you are doing the reverse, you are training comfort, not skill.
Never follow a tutorial twice
If you need it twice, you did not learn it. You consumed it.
Instead:
- rebuild from memory
- then look up the one missing piece
Force a change immediately
When you do use a tutorial, you must change one thing before you close it:
- different control scheme
- different movement speed curve
- different enemy behavior
- different UI layout
No change = no learning.
Debugging mindset for beginners (so you stop rage-quitting)
When something breaks, beginners think:
“I’m bad at this”
Better thought:
“My mental model is missing one piece”
Use this micro checklist:
1) What did I expect to happen?
2) What actually happened?
3) What is one possible cause?
4) What is the smallest test I can run?
Your goal is not to “fix it fast”. Your goal is to tighten the loop.
A simple weekly plan for busy beginners (realistic)
If you only have 30 to 60 minutes a day, do this:
Week 1
- Day 1: pick one mini-project + define win condition
- Day 2: build core movement
- Day 3: add one obstacle/enemy
- Day 4: add win/lose state
- Day 5: rebuild from memory (Repeat Protocol)
- Day 6: variation #1
- Day 7: variation #2
This looks small because it is small. That’s the point. Finishing tiny things builds the identity: “I finish games”.
If you want a structured path (engine agnostic)
If you want more content like this (and the full channel + program behind it), I’ve put everything here:
It’s focused on helping beginner solo devs stop bouncing between tutorials and unfinished projects, and actually finish and release a first game with simple systems.
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