Tutorials show how but don’t explain why

I’ve probably made 7 or 8 games following tutorials. At first it felt great because I felt I was making great progress in learning how to code and use unity. The problem is I don’t fully understand why most of the stuff I’m doing works. So when I try to make something on my own I end up spending hours researching how to do something simple and I don’t always success in figuring it out. When I do, I often don’t understand why it works so it makes it harder to remember for future use.
I’m not even sure I could recreate any of the tutorials games without frequently looking stuff up.
I’m at the point where I don’t know how to improve any further. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I’m willing to learn through videos, books, or websites. Doesn’t matter, but I need it to really break it down because I’m coming into this with no experience in unity or coding.

 

You're correct in this thinking! That's why I like to recommend tutorials as only a part of this balanced breakfast:

• Tutorials (video or written, based on preference)
  • Shows you how to do very specific things
• Scripting API Documentation
  • Explains what the things you're doing do
• Unity Manual
  • Describes why you do those things
• Experimentation
  • Figure out for yourself what happens when you venture off the beaten path
• Practice, Practice, Practice
  • Train your brain to think in all these terms

 

The scripting API documentation is very intimidating at first, but once you understand what it is saying you will find it one of the most valuable resources available when interacting with the Unity API's.

 

Thanks man. I’ve scrolled through the manual when I’m looking for a particular thing I’m trying to figure out. Maybe it is time to just read it from the top and try applying what it shows me.
I think I’ll also take other people’s scripts and use the manual to help me understand what they are doing.

 

Yeah, I can't say I recommend reading it cover to cover. There's a lot of information there, and there's a good chance most of it won't mean much to you until you've at least had a bit of exposure to the topic.

I recommend referencing it whenever you want to learn about a new topic. Like say you're dissatisfied with the lighting in your game and want to make it look like the artsy trailers you keep seeing on Kickstarter. Google something like "Unity manual lighting" which will probably return you the appropriate page in the manual. For newer elements, like Cinemachine, you might end up on a separate documentation source, since they kinda started splitting things off for package manager-installed content.

Just keep at it. 8 years ago I didn't really know what I was doing with Unity and nowadays I'm a Unity Pro*. And you can, too!

* - I mean, I literally get paid to use Unity daily. There's still a ton of stuff I don't know and have to learn every day.