Hope you still checking this post. I’ve been in a similar boat being able code other languages and a solid IT understanding from security to storage. I tried books and forums but didn’t quite put it together.
Then i found some awesome courses on Udemy, specifically game dev. Tv . And completed all their courses on unity and unreal to understand both engines in terms of basics.
It is dirt cheap also, sometimes less than 10$ for hours of courses. Intend to stay away from non native English speakers as i struggle to understand accents .
It totally changed my understanding and I can now write some games better than the basic make a ball move or jump .
I also reckon a buddy would be great so hit me up in dm if you want to chat
If you want to learn to make a game you have to start small. Pick a programming language to learn, lets say C or python, or java or C#. Then after learning the basics of it, start making text-mode games like guess the number. Then learn how object oriented programming works and make more games with it, and then learn how to create GUI programs and make tic-tac-toe or tetris style games. And learn how to use API’s in your programs to extend the functionality… maybe make a networked version of tic-tac-toe?
The creation of assets for a game like animated models, or the game levels, is a whole other ball of wax. You can buy those assets to make a game with, but the reverse is not true. you can’t go out and buy some code for a game, you’d have to hire a programmer.
Saving data to a server? Use an api for that… learn how to use api calls. Take a couple programming classes at a community college and learn about it. How can you have gone 13 years and taken dozens of classes and not know how to do anything?
I would say try GODOT, yes it is game engine.
Do very simple game and learn those aspects:
shaders, do some crazy ones, this will teach you how to do low level programming
do some scripting learn what are those objects and why games are made out of thousands of objects (this is quite different than programming gui or command line applications)
and finally do some C++ coding messing with engine.
Also play with some cuda examples/coding, that is also great for learning bottom level of any coding.
With that all (even some rough idea how to do it why that stuff is used), you can attack something big and complicated like unreal engine.
I don’t know how to write code and less than five years ago I couldn’t tell you the difference between Apple and Microsoft.
I’ve finished one published game (made with unity with help from another person) that did okay and soon will publish a second (made in unreal, mostly done on my own).
I think the difficulty of game development is in decision making. There is many ways to do any task and it is easy to overcomplicate and over scope.
Make it your primary mission to finish the game by any means necessary and you’ll find a way. If you can’t find a tutorial or answer to a problem and you’ve given your best effort - find a simpler workaround. Make compromises.
In the end you learn that many of the things you thought were important are not, and much that seemed complicated could be created simply.
If in four years you haven’t managed to finish some “simple” games I think you must have very skewed priorities and perspective. You are probably focusing on doing things “right” instead of focusing on finishing games.
All of the “complete” things relevant to real development will be “with direct x”.
Right but it more seems like developing own game engine while it may take more time before even starting a game but it’s always good idea to create own game series based on same core gameplay with own engine, after that it would be more easier to integrate game with custom engine.
Unreal 4 allows create Sub-systems for specific version of unreal framework (C++)
sub-systems are not hard to understand with whole documentation about it, probably studios use thier systems to build any game faster instead of using only default tools in editor.
The best plan for starting is organize the plan.
First, when I had concept of my game I try to sculpt every characters, optimize to low-poly mesh, bake normals and more maps for textures then rig skeletons for them. Get a lot of textures from unreal marketplace and from other resources with static meshes as well, so once I had some assets to work with it I learn about unreal engine 4 framework and it’s source code for basic knowledge how unreal works. Instead of using script and c++ classes I build own sub-systems for gameplay core and after that I start develop game from scratch like story, levels etc…
Make it your primary mission to finish the game by any means necessary and you’ll find a way. If you can’t find a tutorial or answer to a problem and you’ve given your best effort - find a simpler workaround. Make compromises.