How do I improve myself as a beginner?

Hello, I am Klarner, I am using Construct 2 ever since, made 2 full and basic game so far, I watched tutorials on youtube which is somehow useful and I want to learn more about Construct 2 and trying to develop far more complex games? so how do I improve myself as a beginner?

1. Watch more tutorials online.

2. Grab a Udemy course.

3. Try to replicate a cool game mechanic you saw in another game.

4. Ask "how do I..." questions on the forum.

5. Practice.

6. Fail.

7. Practice more.

Nice question!

Here are my thoughts:

1. Give yourself challenging tasks, you can find lots of these in "How do I.." forum.

2. Study other people's code, but keep in mind that it's not always good or correct (especially in "How do I.." forum ). You can usually recognize a good code if it's well formatted, commented, functions/loops/groups are being used, variables and objects have meaningful names etc.

3. Explore expressions - every object in C2 has dozens of useful expressions and many people have no idea about them.

4. Read this post - Best practices in C2

Both of these are great responses, Lancifer said to try and replicate game mechanics you saw in a game, this helped me a TON. im not an expert, but the reward of finally figuring out how to do something when you've tried and tried and researched and then it works is priceless

Thanks guys!

1. Watch more tutorials online.

Personally, I don't understand everyone's obsession with youtube tutorials. Yes, they are often helpful and people who record them are heroes. But it's such a waste of time - watching a 10-20 minute video while reading the same tutorial would only take a couple of minutes. Even if I skip to the end, I often have to return to random parts of the video trying to find the pieces of information I need. Ugh...

make super small games utilizing every default plugin that ships with c2 in one way or the other

Personally, I don't understand everyone's obsession with youtube tutorials. Yes, they are often helpful and people who record them are heroes. But it's such a waste of time - watching a 10-20 minute video while reading the same tutorial would only take a couple of minutes. Even if I skip to the end, I often have to return to random parts of the video trying to find the pieces of information I need. Ugh...

Well, if it's not your cup of tea, then so be it. Different people have different learning styles. What works for you might not work for others. (Yes, I'm aware that you used the word "personally" and it's only your opinion. )

What's my opinion? I'm glad you asked.

IMO, I think the obsession with video tutorials is because most of the younger generation are more of a visual learner. Some can't grasp the concept of an idea unless they actually see it in action. Maybe it's their lack of focus?..I don't know. Also, video tutorials are more in abundance than written tutorials. That's because many of the ones making the tutorials are lazy and would rather record themselves doing something than taking the time to write down what they're doing. There also wouldn't be so many if there wasn't a demand for them. So, that's a good indicator as to what most learners prefer.

But, FWIW, I do agree with you. I would prefer a written tutorial ( also, a few screenshots wouldn't hurt) over a video any day. As you said, it's much easier to locate a specific piece of information than to keep hitting the fast-forward or rewind buttons. I only mentioned it because I'm assuming that's what the OP prefers, based on his post.

Klarner

When I started learning Construct I found it very useful to go through the templates and examples included with C2 to get an idea about how the basic behaviours and object types worked: you can access these by selecting File/New and then scrolling down the list.

The following features/objects will become invaluable as you move onto more complex projects so take time to study their usage:

Array

Dictionary

Families

Functions

Groups

Containers

Learn the difference between global, local and instance variables and their best use cases.

As dop2000 has already mentioned, read up on the different expressions - loads of seemingly tricky coding problems can be solved with just a single expression.

When tackling new material to learn, or if I run into a problem I approach it as follows: read the relevant manual entries, search tutorials, search the forums. In 90% of cases the solution is already out there; if that doesn't answer my question then I'll submit a post.

Beyond that, my advice would be to make lots of small games before moving onto anything big - in addition to getting you really comfortable with C2 this process will help you recognise the general systems common to many games, give you experience in formatting and simplifying your event sheets and establish a pipeline for development that will stand you in good stead when moving onto your magnum opus. It's also a lot more motivating to have a string of completed projects that others can play and provide feedback on.

Hope that helps, and all the best with your creations