(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best game programming books

Thanks for all the advice. It’s been very helpful in formulating our next steps.

Over the last 24 hours I have followed all the links and directions from everyone down many an internet rabbit hole and onto all of the associated tangents. I love not knowing where you’re going to end up. This has lead me to many places, but the below have been the most useful.

Redditor Lockieee posted this http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/29ndpa/launched_an_iphone_app_today_heres_a_list_of/
not long ago, it’s a mega list of useful resources he accumulated from looking at r/startups for the development of his app. He actually just launched a new word game called Haste which we have already been playing and love (the world really is a small place). https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/haste/id784262653?mt=8

Not only that but he has responded to some of my questions which is fantastic. Go Reddit. Pretty much every link on Lockieee’s page is useful, but a particular mention goes to AppAnnie. It has a huge amount of useful info, and accumulates everything you would want to know about every app in one place. We will use this to double check our idea is unique and also research the competition.

This link provides a great high level roadmap for everything from the app idea, to naming your app, to launching your app http://www.apadmi.com/successful-apps-guide/ very useful for filing in the gaps and providing a guide.

I have also been pointed in the direction of a few books that I will get from the library or Amazon and read over the next week.

Appreneur – Secrets to Success in the App Store by Taylor Pierce http://www.amazon.com/Appreneur-Secrets-Success-App-Store/dp/1478300019

App Empire – Make Money, Have a Life and Let Technology Work For You by Chad Mureta http://www.amazon.com/App-Empire-Make-Money-Technology/dp/111810787X

Appillionaires – Secrets from Developers Who Struck it Rich on the App Store by Chris Stevens http://www.amazon.com/Appillionaires-Secrets-Developers-Struck-Store/dp/1119978645

So the plan for the next week or so is threefold. I will read all of the above, and at the same time, my boy and I will refine our idea, bust out the crayons, draw some mockups, and describe in detail all the different elements to the game.

Lastly we will use AppAnnie to research the idea, check it’s unique, and also look for other successful word game apps. We will download and play them and make notes of what we like and don’t like and add this to our “development brief”

After that I will check back in a week with our progress. Once again thanks for all your help.

You may want to narrow that down a bit, but okay, here are some highlights, with amazon links to help disambiguate.

• Game Programming Gems series -- (8 books currently) Lots of snippets and articles contributed from developers across the game industry.
  http://www.amazon.com/Game-Programming-Gems-Adam-Lake/dp/1584507020/
  
  
  
• Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory -- Great intro to the details of how game engines are built. It's a good balance for detail and readability for a beginner. Even for someone just using engines such as UDK or Unity3d I would recommend this to understand what is going on under the hood.
  www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Architecture-Jason-Gregory/dp/1568814135/
  
  
  
• 3D Game Engine Design -- More technical and detailed descripting of designing and developing a game engine, but not as noob friendly as Game Engine Architecture
  http://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Design-Second-Edition/dp/0122290631/
  
  
  
• 3D Game Engine Architecture -- Follow up to 3D Game Engine Design that goes in to lower level detail and general updates.
  http://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Architecture-Engineering-Applications/dp/012229064X/
  
  
  
• Artificial Intelligence for Games by Millington / Funge -- I believe this is the current "must read" for game AI. The only book I've seen that goes in to Behavior Trees and other modern concepts.
  http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Games-Second-Edition/dp/0123747317/
  
  
  
• AI Programming Wisdom series -- 4 books, like Game Programming Gems but for AI. Not a must have but I'd recommend them. They seem to be out of print though, so good luck finding them.
  http://www.amazon.com/AI-Game-Programming-Wisdom-CD-ROM/dp/1584500778/
  
  
  
• Real Time Rendering -- One of the better books on rendering. I'm not a big render guy but this is the book that everyone recommends to me.
  http://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Third-Edition-Akenine-Moller/
  
  
  
• Real Time Cameras -- THE book on how to implement cameras well, written by THE guy when it comes to video game camera systems.
  http://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Cameras-Mark-Haigh-Hutchinson/dp/0123116341/
  
  
  
• Code Complete -- The only book not game related I'm listing, it's basic stuff to help you learn to write better code. There are parts that I (and many others) disagree with but in general it's a lot of good advice.
  http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670/
  
  
  There are many others, but looking at my shelf these are the big ones that stick out for recommendations.

I'm not a professional graphics programmer, but I am a CS grad and a senior developer for about 10 years. I haven't yet had the time to dive into fully committing myself, however, here was my personal plan for when that moment came.

This gave some great advice and was my starting point:

https://interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2018/07/08/how-to-start-learn-graphics-programming/

​

Then I was going to read this to learn about game engine architecture:

https://www.amazon.com/Engine-Architecture-Third-Jason-Gregory/dp/1138035459/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539093840&sr=1-3&keywords=game+engine

​

I have heard that this book is the actual implementation of a game engine and a good follow up to reading game engine architecture:

https://www.amazon.com/SFML-Development-Example-Raimondas-Pupius/dp/1785287346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539093789&sr=1-1&keywords=SFML

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-SFML-Development-Raimondas-Pupius/dp/178646988X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539093813&sr=1-2&keywords=SFML

​

Then I was going to start diving into the 3D and mathematics

Read first:

https://www.amazon.com/Math-Primer-Graphics-Game-Development/dp/1568817231/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539094027&sr=8-1&keywords=3d+math

Read next:

https://learnopengl.com/

Then I was just going to try and build my own 3D engine and figure it out as I went along.

I've also heard that implementing actual siggraph papers is super helpful and once you're at that point, you've kind of arrived as far as graphics programming is concerned.

I think what you're experiencing with the analysis paralysis is very normal. I'm going to say that you have this fear because you're thinking about all the things you're going to have to do and it freaks you out. Don't think about all the books and all the work you're going to have to do to reach your destination. Simply sit down each day and work on something. Just improve upon what you did the day before and have a weekly goal or something in mind. This breaks up what you're trying to accomplish into smaller steps and isn't nearly as intimidating. Don't look at everything on the horizon. Just start writing code.

John Carmack said it best when he gave someone advice on becoming a programmer "You should write hundreds of programs".

Link: http://d3dvortex.blogspot.com/2005/07/programming-advice-from-john-carmack-i.html

​

​

​

​

​

Finally home and having a chance to reply. I pulled five books off of my shelf that I would recommend, but there are doubtless more that you should read.

Raph Koster's Theory of Fun for Game Design

Janet H. Murray's Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace

Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan's First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game

Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan's Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media

They wrote a Third Person as well, I just haven't gotten the chance to read it yet. You might be able to find PDF copies online somewhere, but if you have the money, you should try to support the writer's by buying. Show them that people are interested in critical discourse about games.

Next week I think I'm going to order a few new texts (after payday), and I'd be happy to let you know what I think once i have them in hand.

You make some great points about good practices, especially in online tutorials. I see so much horrendous code out there posted on forums by beginners and it just makes me sad. It isn't their fault (or at least not entirely).

I wrote two editions of a Learning Swift book before I burned out (they are pretty out of date since even the second edition was only written for Swift 2). I got great feedback on them but it is INCREDIBLY exhausting and complicated to present good programming practices along side practical learning. I definitely developed a new respect for text-book writers.

There is also a reason that beginning computer science classes start on the command line learning data structures and algorithms before ever diving into UI. However, I also don't think everyone needs to dive that deep to get something useful out of programming. I don't know what the solution is, but there are certainly thousands of people trying with online courses, tutorials, boot camps, universities, etc.

nope, I borrowed them from some gameboy advance game. It was a school project so I didn't have to worry about copyrights

You should be warned that LibGDX is NOT a game engine, it is a game FRAMEWORK/API. It means that you have to do everything in code, there's no drag and drop, visual editor etc. tools found in unity. You will have to implement everything yourself, from menu buttons, screen transitions, loading resources, creating a game loop etc. It is very much harder this way, but you'll learn more. LibGDX is more of a OpenGL wrapper, but from there you are on your own.

If you want to try it this way I recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Libgdx-Development-Andreas-Oehlke/dp/1782166041

It guides you from start to finish in making a sidescrolling platformer game. It goes through organising your code with layer design pattern, creating assets, menus, screen transitions, particle effects, physics (will bullet3D), sounds, game logic (moving, jumping), level editor (parsing simple graphic image) etc. Based on this I made my game linked above.

I am learning unity now and it's much easier. You can do simple menus with clickable buttons and screen transitions in 5 minutes.

If you really want to stay with java there's jMonkeyEngine, something like Unity but less popular and you program in Java:

http://jmonkeyengine.org/

I don't have any experience with it, but I heard it's pretty good

> Whether intended or not, this communicates they must matter, or else why ask for them?

They are not being asked for. They are being mentioned, because it's presumed that there will be questions about them, but they are not being asked for.

> The way you get more clear about those things not mattering is by telling the applicants not to implement them.

"Make any simplifying assumptions you need to" means "don't implement anything you don't want to or don't have time to".

> Some vague statement about how the applicant should implement them if they have time is the opposite of saying they don't matter.

It doesn't say "you should implement them if you have time". It says "feel free to implement whatever you want to implement".

> Is it possible that a) your team hasn't done many of them as part of job applications and b) your existing developers did not implement the assignment before giving it to applicants?

Based on the git repo, this has been a thing for about a year. The company is in a period of rapid hiring, and many of the developers working here would have done this exercise. As for b), we actually have a weekly session to discuss different ways of implementing this particular exercise using this book which consists of nothing except that exercise implemented in different ways. I'm pretty sure this session started first, and the coding assignment came after.

The concept of the game looks nice and simple, I like it :) There are 2 very good books about the engine out there (I am not aware of any other that are out yet) you can take a look at:
1.Godot Engine Game Development in 24 Hours

2. Godot Engine Game Development Projects

Good luck! :)

The book I read recently thanks to reddit highlights why I am now seeking 3rd party assets as much as I can.

> "Always ask yourself - how many of your working hours are equivalent to the price? How long would it take to code it yourself? Self-made libraries, engines and tools need lots of care. Care equals working hours. Working hours equals cash. Can you afford to do it yourself?"
>
> - Thomas Schwarzi, Game Project Completed: How Successful Indie Game Developers Finish Their Projects. (http://www.amazon.com/Game-Project-Completed-Successful-Developers-ebook/dp/B00INF6MGA)

Earlier in the book he describes the way to tell how much money you are making per hour as a indie, is to take the amount of sales and divide it by your working hours. If you spend extra time because you didn't use the available 3rd party tools, you are only cutting into your hourly wages.

FYI: Python managed to eek out the most widely used computer science language used to teach programming in universities.

Honestly, learning how to program is a different beast from learning how to program well in a certain language. Choose one that seems to have the most resources you find useful.

Personally, if I had to teach someone from scratch, I'd go with Adventures in Minecraft. If you were of a childish disposition (given your language), it might be a great fit.

You also might consider C# or Scala - there are some good intro to programming courses for those languages. This book teaches a beginning user how to do basically everything upto and including using linux command line etc using Scala.

Don't watch videos unless they're from professionals, or are very professional. Nothing personal, it's just a time spent thing. Get an into to C# with Unity book.

This one will teach you the basics you need to get started as a programmer, using Unity.
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Developing-Games-Unity-Beginners/dp/1849696586

I would say you might do some other programming too, you should know that memory management exists; but don't listen to anybody trying to put you down for using Unity and C#. Remembering to clear memory you've allocated is hardly rocket science, though I'm sure it gets more interesting than what I've seen.

Know what a Turing machine is if you want to write programs for one, don't be silly.

Thanks, happy to see it was also free for Australians.

http://www.amazon.com.au/Game-Project-Completed-Successful-Developers-ebook/dp/B00INF6MGA/

Prof. C.V. Lopes, the Editor in Chief, has published Exercises in Programming Style, a very interesting book that is seems pragmatic and focused on details of practice.

However, browsing the contents of the first two issues of this new journal, I don't see anything with that flavor. The topics all seem to me academic in tone and focused on minutia and arcana.

For comparison see the topics in the journal "Software: Practice and Experience" -- which of course is not at all free and open like ASEP.

Thanks a lot! Any chances to get it on amazon.es? My kindle is attached to it and I can't download any of your versions.

EDIT: Nevermind, if I change the address to .es it works! :D THANKS A LOT
In case somebody has the same "issue" this is the link in amazon.es

Yeah I completely agree. I was going to use the recommended Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine book to make the First Person Shooter they go over, but was looking to do more than just that as that book is not very large and wouldn't take up the whole semester. Wasn't sure if other people had different recommendations to better approach learning a certain portion of UE4 as you mentioned.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Pretty sure this quote was originally from this book - and pinched by WhatCulture: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grand-Thieves-Tomb-Raiders-Conquered/dp/1845137043/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3ULQEK9DBLAUC&keywords=grand+thieves+and+tomb+raiders&qid=1564485577&s=gateway&sprefix=grand+thieves+%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1

(crediting cus it's an original interview there!)

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Libgdx-Development-Andreas-Oehlke/dp/1782166041 i think is the best now. I purchased it. It's wrote about 0.9.7 but you can port to 1.0 very easy.

This is an interesting read if you like stuff like this: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Black-Book-Wolfenstein/dp/1539692876

If you're brand new to programming I honestly push people towards this book to start learning, mostly due to the realistic per day learning: http://www.amazon.ca/Java-Teach-Yourself-Covering-Edition/dp/067233710X/

Followed by this book:
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software

For specifically PHP:
http://www.phptherightway.com/

Pretty much anything else related to PHP will be found here:
https://github.com/ziadoz/awesome-php

SUPER CHEAP RIGHT NOW!
Beginning Java Game Programming Second Edition

Quite good, I think. The "Dummies" (I know, I know) guide is actually very decent, and would help structure what and how you are learning.

https://www.amazon.ca/GameMaker-Studio-Dummies-Michael-Rohde/dp/1118851773

Your question is a bit ambiguous, and while you're clear about the fact that you know software architecture and building architecture are different things, it's unclear whether you realise that game architecture is essentially game engine architecture.

Creating a game engine organically usually starts with creating the game, and then moving the bits that aren't reausable away. What's left is the engine with specific empty spaces to fill. The shape of those empty spaces will largely determine how the non-engine parts will be organized.

Let's grab an example - this is a relatively simple Java 2D engine. In this engine, your primary building block is a sequence. A sequence will have its own game loop within it, and will roughly correspond to a game state (overworld, dungeon, battle, cutscene). If you decide to use this engine to build your game, this will be your basic building block. You will organize your game in sequences.

There are engines that make things very simple - they leave you a very defined space. Love2D assumes you have a file called conf.lua which it's executed before everything else is loaded, and then you need a main source file where you provide contents for three defined functions: love.load, love.update and love.draw. That's it - you're free to fill in three blank spaces provided by the engine.

If you want to understand how a game project is organized, read on how the engine is built. The best source here is the GEA bible. Your second best bet would be to find a book that describes how a complete game is structured, start to finish - not an unfinished tutorial example, but something real, with a menu screen, saving the game or storing high score. Sound, music, all the moving parts. There are not many books like this, but some that I would recommend are:

• Fundamental 2D Game Programming with Java
  
  
• Game Engine Black Book: DOOM
  
  
• Game Engine Black Book: Wolfenstein 3D

I know that feeling.

I don't know how much you actually worked for a company before starting your indie company( internships?) but that helped me a lot.
The difference between working in a company and alone is that you have to accept the code other people have written. It helped me to adapt this feeling to my code too.

The difference is that you cant rewrite the whole code five or even more devs have written over the last few years even though you dont like it. You don't have the time to do this.

Also maybe you should look into this. I read it over the last two weeks and there is a lot of good advice on this 83 pages.

As the other guy said you can use JavaFX if you want to use Java.

If you want to make games in Java, this book takes you through making your own framework and making a few games/editors with it. I learned a lot from that.

If you want to make small games, Java will be fine. If you want to eventually move on to bigger projects, you might as well just move to C++ now and save yourself the trouble later.

Just under 2 weeks: Java in 24 Hours

Though, that's going to be the basics of the language assuming you're technically competent and of at least average intelligence.

There are several books like this one -> Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 3D.

These kind of books will help you achieve both things. Learn programming and make games at the same time. Each book will be focusing on a specific language and engine/framework. You pick the one you feel appeal the most.

Another one with emphasis on c# and a bit of unity introduction:

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Developing-Games-Unity-Beginners/dp/1849696586/

I have it and work through it, I can recommend it. If you know another language like me, then you could just quick read some basic concepts and concentrate on the things you need to know.

Variables and values (Scala), statements, expressions, conditionals and branching, functions, recursion, iteration (loops), simple collections (list, array), basic data structures (string, trees, queue and priority queue, etc.), (file) input and output, etc. Pretty much everything you would imagine a 2-semester intro course would cover.

A big part of the two intro courses was the development of a project over the course of each semester, which required a substantial amount of coding. (I implemented Snake for CS I, and tried and failed to implement a working tower defense game in CS II.)

Here's the book if you are interested.

If you are interested in the whole engine and the rendering process with all the tricks used to get wolf3d running so fast you might be interested in Fabien Sanglards "Game Engine Black Book: Wolfenstein 3d".
https://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Black-Book-Wolfenstein/dp/1539692876
(edited the link)

I used this site to help me learn. I also supplemented what I learned with this book here. Worked well for me.

I've actually been reading Exercises in Programming Style and enjoying it quite a lot.

This book is a step-by-step guide to learning java game programming and teaches how to make an asteroids clone. Hope this helps!

These are the series of texts I have been pointing students to, in addition to the online tutorials available.

Unreal Blueprints Book: http://www.amazon.com/Blueprints-Visual-Scripting-Unreal-Engine/dp/1785286013

Unreal C++ Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Creating-Games-UE4/dp/1784396575/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HFNGR8P5ZFQ95SRHQRH

My Favorite Unity3D book:
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Game-Design-Prototyping-Development/dp/0321933168

There you go:
https://www.amazon.it/Fundamental-2D-Game-Programming-Java/dp/1305076532

You re welcome :-)

The book's availabe on the .ca site. Can't get it on the .com site either, here in Schwarzenegger's Austrian neighborhood. :)

Manage to find some more tutorials that look decent. I haven't gone through any of these as of yet, but do plan too.

• Hack the Virtual Memory
  
• Multiplayer WebSocket Game server written in C
  
• Emulator 101
  
  Edit: Also considering to add Game Engine Black Book: Wolfenstein 3D it walks through the Wolfenstein game engine source.
  Edit: Found also How to Program a Text Adventure in C

Back in high school I used an old version of Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 days and found it useful in learning to code and java.

I am surpised no one suggested this book. I have given it to a few young kids and they had a great time.

Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 3D Beginner's Guide

I highly recommend reading his book of which this is an excerpt from: a lot of nostalgia and very approachable considering the topics he's covering.

I'm in the same boat and I recently bought this book: http://www.amazon.com/Blueprints-Visual-Scripting-Unreal-Engine/dp/1785286013

The Kindle version was only $15, so it was hard to say no. I'm only about 20% of the way through, but so far I'd recommend it.

US link for those interested

https://www.amazon.com/GameMaker-Studio-Dummies-Michael-Rohde/dp/1118851773

Not to worry. You only need 24 hours!!! https://www.amazon.com/Java-Hours-Teach-Yourself-Covering/dp/0672337029 /s

Im not sure if they are the type of books you are looking for but Game Over about Nintendos rise to power (written in 1994) and Grand Thieves and Tomb Raiders about the early days of the British Games industry.

Both are great reads and are a facinating look into the industry.

Book's Website:

http://tagide.com/EPSBook/

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Exercises-Programming-Style-Cristina-Videira/dp/1482227371

Code:

https://github.com/crista/exercises-in-programming-style

The GameMaker for Dummies book is available both new and used on the Buying Choices page for the book on Amazon. I picked mine up new for $7.99 incl tax and shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1118851773/ref=olp_f_used?ie=UTF8&f_new=true&f_used=true&f_usedAcceptable=true&f_usedGood=true&f_usedLikeNew=true&f_usedVeryGood=true

This is a real thing, but I don't know if it's outdated.

I would look at this one.
Java 8 in 21 days.
http://www.amazon.com/Java-Teach-Yourself-Covering-Edition/dp/067233710X

This book got me rolling. Check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Developing-Games-Unity-Beginners/dp/1849696586/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1ENXWHXSQ3WMSSX6A8DN

My advice is to stick to Python for now, and work through the book Exercises in Programming Style https://www.amazon.com/dp/1482227371/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_JHj3Db3Q6F3GM functional programming section.

After that, you can move to Clojure or Haskell.

Sam's Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours

While I have your ear, any idea when the book will be in stock on Amazon.ca? I could buy it from Amazon.com but then I'd have to pay for shipping and there would likely be import fees when it shows up.

another one

i'll stop now u get the point :D

mai e si bundle-ul asta

Oh, I missed that there was a book. Here it is for my fellow sleepy heads:

Exercises in Programming Style by Cristina Videira Lopes

I haven’t read it because I have no time and 2 young children, but I badly want to read exercises in programming style

If you're brand new to programming, I used the first four chapters of this book as a review recently.

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Developing-Games-Unity-Beginners/dp/1849696586

It's not perfect either, but it shows you how to start writing console programs inside Unity and how to apply those concepts. Get the cheap e-book version and display it on a secondary monitor or laptop. More importantly, it will apply to other programming languages. Brace yourself though, if you learn both Java and C++/C# at the same time basically be prepared to hate Java until your gravestone reads "fuck Java."

The problem with tutorials is that they either gloss over important things, drag on incessantly about trivial things, or just don't cover the topics in a logical way; I.E. you want to teach someone about data types once you've explained variables: that's probably a good time to do a cursory explanation of scope (the area in which a variable exists)- maybe the tutorial doesn't, maybe you end up confused later. Lots of rewinding as hosts do stuff at a weird pace, lots of shitty hosts, and not to mention lots of time spent looking for relevant tutorials (and topics) in the first place.

Buy a couple books and learn what's in them; tutorials are a PITA imo.

When you're first learning programming if you don't understand something keep going and you'll probably learn something else. Don't just get hung up on topics like inheritance or variable scope across classes (private vs public - when you start having programs span multiple files, which is the whole point of object oriented design) - those kinds of topics tend to click the first time you actually use them. Focus on what you've gained, not what you don't understand. Gain something every time you sit down.

Also, be prepared to spend a lot of time on it. From the tone of your post, you probably aren't ready for complex game development; but that doesn't mean you never will be. For you benefit, stop visualizing a complex game and just tear apart it's elements.

How do I make an object exist? How do I move that object (transform)? What are the terms used by Unity- like Prefab and GameObject, what do they actually mean? Maybe for your first project you get a cube in space with your own script that responds to Unity's Input.Key interface, and you can move it around. Critically, don't use prefabricated stuff like the default Character Controller. Supposedly it's for prototyping, but it's terrible in general and you didn't learn anything by using it.

Unity3d isn't like RPGmaker, it's not a WYSIWYG or a drag-and-drop, it's drag-and-drop features exists to make the programming half easier: not to replace them.