Yes, and don’t be disheartened if you game doesn’t immediately look like RDR.
Basically, you have to find your own way through, and during that journey you’ll discover all sorts of usefull stuff, that’s only relevant to you.
Just chip away at one bit at a time. For instance, you could get a great looking level, but nothing does anything. Or you could have a level that’s basically made out of cubes, but has some amazing algorithms running behinds it. Both are part of the way to the whole.
And don’t be afraid a repeatedly re-doing things. You can have a good idea, but it can go through many incarnations before you get the right one…