How To Escape Tutorial Hell

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

[jakasnazwa]

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".

[-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

[정동우-nx]

Rather, the definite problem is that most YouTube 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 YouTube 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.

[xuchengtong]

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.

[unikat-kmnkmn]

I am still in tutorial hell since 2014

[Xavire]

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.

[bradleywood]

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.

[yokitosyosko]

I appreciate how down to earth and honest you are here.
Thanks for the lesson, subbed

[mattrobb]

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.

[heavymetalmixer]

"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.

[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

[codetheredone]

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!!

[ericmatthews]

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.

[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

[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.

[everything-has-a-handle-now]

The tutorials I watch are mostly just entertainment. It's so rare I actually use a YouTube 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.

[tomminator]

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

[mirandaart]

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)

[antonpanov]

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