How to be a Unity Ninja?

The hope, the goal and the dream is to be a Unity Power User by this year and i would like your input.

Right now i'd classify myself as lower-intermediate in making 2D games on Unity. I know all the basics, now i want to improve upon it. I'm can't stress this enough: I have made games before.
Now i want to make better more polished ones, with less jitters and better UIs. Overhauled Graphics and Multiplayer functionalities . A degree of sophistication if you will. And i want to do all that right here in Unity.

Some important questions i want to get across:

1. Would you recommend spending time on https://unity3d.com/learn videos as opposed to outside sources and stuff like youtube? I would like to see the first day to the day of release of a fully commercial game.
   
   
2. What are the relevant established threads i should see in this forum (i.e Unity Forums)? Since Game Development is cross functional i want to see threads like Feedback Friday here, but for Game Music Composition, Network Programming, Shaders, Performance handling tweaks, Unity Plugins, Procedural Programming and more. List any threads dealing with the main domains of game development/design here.
   
   
3. To that end It would be greatly appreciated if you can cite the people you think are great on twitter and YouTube.

This is a 2D/3D agnostic question.
Which means having a holistic and intuitive 2D, 3D development know-how. Something that goes in depth on many aspects of using Unity. Making 1st person, 3rd person, strategy and platformers. You name it.

(May this thread live long and prosper)

 

IMO, the good idea would be to forget about the whole "Ninja" thing, and keep participating in project while (preferably) making money in the process.

The engine, although accessible, is quite big, and even when you can make a 3d game prototype in one day, there will be still quite a lot of things you won't know.

So, basically, I think that instead of trying to grab all the available information online, the better idea would be to find a niche for yourself -(as in stuff you LIKE to do), and keep working there. Information you do not use will be forgotten. When you work on something you like, the information you find is perceived to be important, and when you apply things you learned in practice, you'll be less likely to forget them afterwards.

So, find yourself a niche, start working, and keep making games. You'll pick necessary information as you go. Unity "learn" can be useful, but it is good idea to know what you're looking for, and not just browse randomly.

 

I know what i have in my head, i also know that i am not realistically making it in anytime soon.

But this isn't pyrotechnics,
My niche is to tell great stories using a variety of games. B/c i am interested in making RTS, arcade, bullet hell versions of ideas. Some Ludum Dare throw aways in different styles you see.
I need to extend my range of usefulness in order to convey that. Which means i want to dabble enough in areas of Unity in order to make MVPs in some genres. Make semblance games. For me It's an incentive to have something to return to or start from other than a blank canvas.

In other words, what i am looking for here is to find out how to branch out. Make good habits on Unity, threads to stay punctual on to get better at using Unity.

 

What stops you from making an RPG/bullet hell/RTS prototype today? Do that. Solve specific problems you encounter in the process. Ask specific questions about it. Most likely you won't ever forget anything you learned this way.

Right now you seem to be looking for advice that will end up being an unused knowledge. So you might as well just skip the part where you're looking for that advice and go straight for making your game.

 

I've said this a many of times, but I'll say it again.

You can learn all you want, go to school even, but the only way to really learn and learn realities is to just do it.
@neginfinity is very very much correct. Doing all them dumb demo's despite how good they are, they aren't what you want to do, and will become more an annoyance only knowing what they teach you. Granted they are very very good for learning materials, you'll just end up like I did. Did the tutorials, demos, etc and still being left on how to do so and so.

So the best way to learn is to do something you really want to do, nothing wrong with asking questions.

 

Sorry but this is my Process. I'm not trying to procrastinate here. I'm trying to make a better foundation. Game development is very extensive. And I'm interested in making good scalable games. I would be more enabled to make a better game by watching a DIY by good developers. I don't know many good practices in many aspects of game development. It's very trial and error right now as well as taking a long time. I want to be able to watch like a semi finished development of (e.g the menu system, or adding multiplayer to a bullet hell) by proficient and experienced people and see it polished towards completion.
I want this place to be about:
People you should follow for making Pixel Art;
-achebit etc
threads to look out for composing modular game Music..
-
Devloggers discussing procedural programming.
I just want latent experience here.
I will be making prototypes of games using this. It may serve as a Springboard with good development practices that i can then edit and make a game upon. Otherwise the whole project has a weak foundation.
Does Unity "Learn" cater to this sort of thing ?

 

I've found I learn best by spinning off lots (and lots and lots) of small test projects that focus on whatever problem I'm trying to solve. We're one year into Unity and we've worked on three relatively serious projects, tabled two of them, and one looks like it'll really go somewhere. My local Unity folder has 32 projects, and our shared network archive has 20 more. Probably 4 or 5 of those are directly related to our current project.

To add to what neg and N1 already said, the only thing you're going to learn online or here is the answer to specific questions. The rest is up to you.

Code. Iterate.

 

Unity Learn center has a bits and pieces of relevant information (unfortunately, in video tutorial format, often without transcription), and does not cover everything. Relevant information is usually found in manual and scripting references. I'm fairly certain that unity learning center would not cover topics like composition and pixel art and would only concentrate on scripting aspects.

I think you concentrate too much on "foundation", and greatly overestimate its importance. The core of genres you listed is quite simple, and because game development is in the end related to software development, foundation is not THAT important, because you can change the "foundation" when you need it. It is not architecture or building real castles. Things can be changed at any moment.

That's why I'd recommend to skip the "foundation" and good practices and instead, say, spend a week making a bullet hell game. You'll make a great deal more than you'd ever learn from watching someone work on their project. When you watch people tinker with their project, you're missing the whole thought process that is going on in their head. That's why tinkering with something yourself is much better idea.

 

Drives me nuts. Why doesn't Unity hire a literate intern to write that stuff down???

 

Basically.... if you do as I said, and skip searching for "useful things to follow" "best practices", etc. And go straight for making a game prototype, then, say, in a few months (the engine needs roughly one month to get used to it) time you'll have a playable game, that'll be rough around the edges.

However.... if you go about it the way you want - gathering best practices, following people, watching other people's project, then you'll waste few years, and in the end will have nothing to show. No playable games and no prototypes.

Your initial question also reminded me of this comic (no offense intended):

Spoiler

When you have something like Unity at your disposal, most of the ideas you have and think are too hard to implement are actually simple. To make them happen you need to start working on them. So, by trying to learn "best practices" (even if you mean well), you'll simply delay the moment where you start working on your ideas and gain very little.

That's why I suggest to go straight for building the prototype. As @MV10 said, Prototype, Iterate, repeat. Don't turn your ideas into some sort of unreachable distant goal by thinking that you "need to learn something first, before trying to do what you really want".

 

Haha that would be like hiring a driver for Uber. It's going to be replaced by auto generated transcripts thanks to machine learning in the near future. You can see the evidence on Youtube

Thanks to all of you, for validating the purpose of this forum and the honest opinions. I'll be coming here for more in-game troubleshooting and A/B testing related questions hopefully in the near future. It's good to hear from other people about this.

 

Yep. Basically, I think I only ever used those tutorials two or three times total because of that, and picked the rest mostly by tinkering and reading various pieces of the information all over the net. At least written documentation is good.

 

They did. Its called the manual and the scripting reference.

Edit: This is a serious comment. Writing out the stuff in learn would create a second set of text documentation that would need to be constantly maintained as Unity shifts. Better to have one source of the truth, and use the videos as a gentle introduction to that source.

 

none taken. I love zen pencils.

 

how do you do the quote thing here? like this> MV10 said: ↑

 

Yes. Spend time on learn. Watch every video there. Then spend time on YouTube, watch the videos there of people you like. Also spend time browsing the manual and the scripting API.

I totally agree with the others that doing is more important then learning. But in between doing, learn.

Videos are great while your hands are occupied, but your mind is not. Doing the dishes or folding washing. The manual is great for times when your body is occupied, but your hands and mind is not. Riding a bus, waiting in a queue, eating lunch.

We don't really have any established mega threads. The forums aren't for reading (that's the documentation).The forums are for participating. Share your ideas and efforts, and provide feedback to others. You'll be surprised what you learn.

There is always this guy. I think he's pretty clever. And handsome too.

 

Either hit "Reply" in the bottom right to quote the entire post, or highlight the text you want to quote and a small "Reply" button will show up in your browser window:

 

Oh great now it works, thanks.

 

This thread reaffirms my inner monologue. It goes like this:

Spoiler

 

I do believe the first thing you should do is find a niche for graphics, as rewriting core mechanics or remaking UI because you switch from 3D to low poly 3D to 2D vector to pixel art is horrible. Once you settle on your art style that "actually" fits your limitations and capabilities you can start building systems that you can trust and depend on which if you iterate enough should reach a professional standard.

It's hard at the beginning as you don't really know what it is to be "pro" or make customers happy, I also don't know. So I figured the best way is to fake it till you make it. This means I found my niche being "pixel art" and I would start playing other really good pixel art games and study every aspect of it. I would start with the UI and analyze if this is properly designed and if it was I would use it. Next I would polish it / cut features / improve features of that UI until I believe it was better than the original and would no longer be a copy. Rinse and repeat as you know their standards are professional and been tested and proven already. Obviously never copy art and create your own game, as I am trying to talk about the "design" of things that make it professional game in the first place.

 

@neginfinity You are absolutely right, and I love the comic. I can spend months sometimes reading books and researching ideas and never getting any actual work done. Then, when I do finally open the editor (even if I think I'm not ready) I find I can get things working, in much less time than I expected. Reading technical, or even motivational books is great fun and has its place but really you'll never produce anything just by consuming information. It's all about getting your hands dirty and doing the work.