What do you guys look for in game dev tutorials?

I am trying to start a unity game development youtube channel because I think it would be a great way to stay engaged in the community as well as keep expertise up on the subject. Teaching is a great tool to learn , as you must research and make sure that everything you provide is usable, helpful, and correct. And providing help to others is always great too. Another reason is that I think it would help with speaking because I am starting to focus on public speaking events and it's a skill that I have wanted to work on for a while.

I wanted to see what you guys think of when you watch video tutorials for game dev. Do you generally have a channel that you go to first? do you try to look for videos that provide the assets so you don't have to do it yourself? Do you look for shorter videos? ANY tips, ideas, or advice would be fantastic, and if you want to support or check the channel to see what should or can be improved: http://www.youtube.com/user/bigrookdigital , and if anyone else is a content creator for videos I would love to hear your opinions as well!

Thanks in advance guys.

 

I look for good instructional design, not making unreasonable assumptions and pitched at the right level for the learner (you need to know your target audience), not overloading the learner with too much information, adherence to the KISS principle, and especially not trying to fit an hours explanation into half an hour by talking too fast. Regular consolidation and some regard to Bloom's taxonomy would also help in a longer program.

 

1) LARGE FONTS!!
I find it infuriating that every single tutorial has tiny font that is barely legible and require you to run the video in HD in full screen to make out the text. That's rediculous and there is no reason for it. Just increase the font sized already.

2) Brevity! Brevity! Brevity!
If it has nothing to do with the tutorial, stop talking about it. Seriously. And don't take more than five seconds to get into it. I've seen videos that are three minutes in before they get started.

3) Basic Editing
I know this would pain a lot of people on youtube to hear, but every sigh, "uh...", and groan is not needed. Record the video, then edit it, then read a script. Don't do it live and don't leave in random distracting noises.

4) Show first, then tell.
There are way to many tutorials were the person doesn't bother to show what they are doing first so the viewer is forced to do it blind, or wonder if the video shows what they need at all.

5) Post scripts
Tutorials almost never post the scripts that they use, leaving the viewer shooting in the dark if the code fails.

6) Have a GDD if you are doing a full game
Full game tutorials are great, but they really need to come with an outline or design doc so the viewer knows where your going.

7) Have captions and keystrokes posted on the bottom of the video.

8) Don't bury the video in pop-ups to other videos.
People know how to look up other videos. What this really does is cannibalize yourself.

 

#1. Good modular design. Programming with Classes helps with this. It should be independent so that you could almost just copy and paste it in and have it work just as it did in the tutorial without requiring fiery hoops and sacrifices to the old ones.

#2. More than one example. If your going to show how to write something, try to show it in 2 or more ways. Your approach may not be my approach, but if you show me X is your approach, show us Y and Z approaches as well, maybe my type of approach is Z and that would help to understand the implementation your trying to show.

#3. Comments, comments and more comments. If your going to put it out there put in comments.

 

Text I can speed read through and refer back to with no rewinding.

 

Thanks so much guys, this is all great advice. This helps a lot and is very much appreciated!

And this is why i am loving the UNITY3D community forums so far.

 

Check out lynda.com for an example of good video tutorials. It is a premium service, but you can find some free videos if you poke around. Most of their presenters are professional and to the point, and every tutorial comes with a (mostly accurate) transcript. Like @Not_Sure and @ippdev said, a transcript is a big help.

This is good in some cases, but usually it will just confuse the viewer. For most situations, it is more clear to just show one way of doing things per video. If you want show an alternative approach, put it in another video. I'm going to be releasing an Editor GUI Framework on the asset store, where the user can create a GUI with a visual designer, or via code. When I do my tutorials I will keep the two approaches separate.

 

Thanks man. These are great examples. Question about the transcripts, is there a particular reason they are so beneficial to have? Is it a big loss without them? Each video is about 15 to 20 minutes and talking the entire time would add a lot of production time, and just curious about it, I didn't realize many ppl use them I guess.

 

Seriously, I have to say it again, large fonts.

 

Well, yeah. Most tutorials contain a lot of stuff I already know. If there's a transcript, I can skim the parts I know, and go right to the part I care about. If there's no transcript, I have to choose... Do I spend 20 minutes rehashing stuff I already know? Or do I skip it and miss out on whatever tips and tricks might have been in that section? The point is an experienced developer is going to want to skim, and a transcript makes that way easier.

If a transcript is too much work, how about listing the time index for each topic? That would let the viewer skip to the parts that interest them.

Oh, and if there's any code involved, please post the code below the video. Reading tiny-font code from a low-res 5 minute video is excruciating, when I know I could copy-and-paste it in 5 seconds flat. See the Unity Scripting Tutorials for a good example.

 

Ok cool, thanks for your perspective, I'll def add those and was something I hadn't thought about much before.

And I hear you on the large font. My first couple vids I didn't zoom in on the code and at 1080p it's super hard to read on anything else but a monitor with the same resolution, so I definitely zoom way in now.

What do you guys think about length? Generally I try to hit 15 to 20 min. Do you think splitting into more smaller videos with focus on a singular topic is better than a 20 min with multiple topics? I prefer longer vids but not sure that someone wants to click on a 20 min vid if they are looking for how to bake a mavmesh, you know?

Again thanks for your input guys, you're awesome.

 

As @AdamScura points out a transcript allows those already familiar with certain concepts contained therein to just go right to the meat they want off the bones. Any code snippets can be copy->pasted and adjusted to suit the individual needs of the project. If I am looking for an answer to one goldang holdup and google it I sure as heck ain't gonna pay any attention to the youtube vids that popped up on the search. I generally go to a forum thread and Unity Answers. In this regards for maximum exposure of your vids and tuts you may want to build an adjunct page/site that has the youtubes embedded and a full transcript with step by step and timestamps and the code in proper code formatting and font. If done in depth so both speed readers and video follow alongers can benefit you could become quite popular. If popular enough you could get swallowed for some decent cash by one of the major tutorial sites. I recall several months back one of the better of the new tutorial sites got bought out for 40 million or so by another more mature one that itself had been bought out by a larger net properties accumulator for 70 million or so.

 

I really like tutorials that are over explained and provide numerous tricks of completing one task. Yea, it sounds crazy but I have a very tough time catching onto brief explanations or simple one way tricks. For me, over explaining something creates a thought provoking environment.

 

You forgot to use a larger font for this message.

I like the font options for these forums.

 

I never paid for donation-based website/tutorial however this guy is too good to ignore so I paid, his tutorial format is excellent. Link http://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/

 

I'm surprised I didn't mention this guy already on this topic since I tell everyone both on these forums and in the classroom (I'm a TA now) that he's the best. Who is he? Quill18. If you want the best of the best to learn from, coding or teaching styles, check out Quill18creates. He's probably the best teacher I've seen, he taught me networking and procedural stuff in his tutorials. He even livestreams development of games he's making for game jams and such.