Github is very powerful and the way branches work in git is much more refiend than in SVN (I am using both). But you are right SVN is a bit more simple to learn. The need for switching between Shell and GUI stems from the fact that the GUI tool is not comphrehesive enough. Thats why I started to use Source Tree recently. It supports much more options and branch management is way better than Github For Windows.
Also to anyone new to GitHub, dont forget about the Network Graph. That is a powerful feature of GitHub where you can see what each branch is doing and how much code your branch has…
I also advice you to work with multiple branches. Create a new branch for each new feature (or each user) and work the branch. Once it feels like done, merge it to the master branch. In the current proejct I am wokring on (not a game project and its fully code), each programmer has his-own branch. We do not make changes to another persons branch. However if i feel like I want someone elses code in my branch, I will simply checkout that user’s branch and merge it into mine. At the end of the week, we merge all our branches to the master. And on the start of next week, each person will merge the master back into their own individual branch so everyone has the latest code, and start working from that.