Guides
Straight answers to the starting questions
Long-form guides written the way we teach: specific, honest about tradeoffs, and biased toward finishing things.
Start game development
You have never made a game. Start here, in order.
How to start game development with no coding experience
The honest first month for someone who has never written a line of code — what to learn, what to ignore, and how to get something playable on screen in an afternoon.
Read the guideHow to make your first game
The realistic path: scope tiny, finish something in a weekend, and learn the game-loop mental model that everything else builds on.
Read the guideHow long does it take to learn game development?
Honest timelines by goal — first playable game, first finished game, first portfolio, first job — and what actually determines which end of the range you land on.
Read the guideCommon beginner mistakes in game development
The nine mistakes that stall almost every new developer — scope, tutorial loops, engine-hopping, premature art — and the specific correction for each.
Read the guideGame development roadmap
From zero to shipped or hired, stage by stage: foundations, first engine, three finished games, specialization and a portfolio that proves it.
Read the guideFirst game ideas that are actually finishable
Twelve project ideas scoped to a weekend or a week, with the specific skill each one teaches and the trap that makes it balloon.
Writing in progressChoose an engine
Pick the tool that matches what you want to build — then stop comparing and start building.
Best game engine for beginners
A decision framework instead of a hot take. Match Godot, Unity, Unreal, Roblox or the web to what you actually want to build.
Read the guideUnity vs Unreal vs Godot
A deep, no-fanboy comparison — languages, learning curves, 2D vs 3D strength, licensing history and job market — with a verdict per use case.
Read the guideGodot for beginners: your first project
Why Godot is the lowest-friction first engine, how its scene and node model actually works, and a first moving sprite in under an hour.
Writing in progressUnity for beginners: your first project
GameObjects, components and the C# script lifecycle — the mental model that makes the rest of Unity stop feeling arbitrary.
Writing in progressUnreal for beginners: your first project
Blueprints without the C++ cliff — actors, the event graph, and how far visual scripting really takes you before the language matters.
Writing in progressRoblox Studio for beginners
The fastest route to real players: parts, scripts and Luau, plus an honest read on which skills transfer off-platform and which don't.
Writing in progressLearn game programming
The languages behind each engine, taught in game terms.
Debugging basics for game developers
Read the error, find the owning line, prove the fix — the repeatable method that turns a broken build from panic into a checklist.
Read the guideC# for game developers
The subset of C# that games actually use — classes, components, update loops and vectors — without the enterprise detour.
Writing in progressGDScript basics
Godot's Python-flavored language from first principles: variables, nodes, signals and the _process loop.
Writing in progressBlueprints vs C++ in Unreal
What visual scripting is genuinely good at, where it stops scaling, and how shipped games actually mix the two.
Writing in progressJavaScript and Phaser for browser games
If you already know some JavaScript, this is the shortest path to a game other people can play from a URL.
Writing in progressPublish your game
Getting a finished game in front of real players.
Publishing your first game on itch.io
The complete first upload: builds, page setup, pricing, and why itch is the right place for game number one.
Read the guideA playtesting checklist for your first game
How to watch someone play without helping them, what to write down, and which feedback to act on.
Writing in progressPreparing a game for Steam
What Steamworks actually requires, the fee, the review timeline, and the store-page work that decides wishlists.
Writing in progressDeploying a game to the web
Exporting to HTML5 and getting it hosted so anyone can play from a link, on any device.
Writing in progressPublishing a game to mobile stores
Developer accounts, build signing, store requirements and review — the parts that surprise first-time mobile shippers.
Writing in progressStore page assets that sell a game
Capsule art, screenshots, a trailer and a description — the five assets that do nearly all the work.
Writing in progress