One does not simply leave tutorial hell...
Hello, my name is Mariusz and I'm knee-deep in tutorial hell.
I didn't notice it myself. I had to be confronted with that.
I started over many tutorials: official ones (twice), Zenva Academy (until I encountered a code snippet that did not work), Brackeys (recently just started).
Hell, I even created a curated newsletter to share new and useful links for aspiring Godot game makers! That's not necessarily related to the topic...
Tutorial hell happens when a beginner in some skill…
gets stuck in a cycle of endlessly following tutorials and not doing their own projects with the knowledge they got.
You know, like when you create a newsletter to document the making of your games, and two years later you're still at phase zero (aka learning).
This leads to a lack of confidence, a sense of wasted time, and so on.
Mostly because the hell-damned person needs step-by-step instructions instead of just doing stuff.
The funny part is when you search for advice online. You learn that you should start a small project, experiment with tutorial code or properties, see what happens, or maybe build something original.
It's like telling a depressed person not to be sad.
A tutorial hell damned person wants to do all that, and the reason for that isn't that they can't start.
I think that the main problems tutorial hell-damned people have come down to
lack of a learning roadmap (they don't know what they lack in their learning, so they reach for every possible tutorial out there),
their knowledge not properly segregated (they rely on their memory, where chaos rules and priorities make them forget the details),
when thinking about their game they dream about their final product, not being able to break down into components they need to make.
The problem with sticking in tutorial hell lies in the same things as learning any skill. It's not enough to read (or listen) a tutorial once. We know (although some forget) that learning is all about repetition. And I would add that all knowledge requires some defragmentation.
Here's how I'm tackling tutorial hell!
First, I'm taking notes by hand, which I later copy to Notion. I approach it like a school kid - making detailed notes to return to. I know that in time I will repeat all those steps so many times that I will be able to speak GDScript as I speak English. But to ascend tutorial hell I need those notes right now.
As David Allen once said
Your mind is to make ideas, not store them
And I think the same goes for knowledge that is not a muscle memory or something.
In Notion I made a table to store info about Godot Nodes. You might say that this is pointless because that would be duplicating the documentation. You're right, that's not the information I will stare there. Not sure if I will store anything in them. But I know I will reference nodes in every step made.
That's the next table - steps.
🎶Every step you take, every code you break, I'll be noting here! 🎵
Every step should be as small as possible.
A step is a repeatable action I will come back to.
It can be linked to nodes that were used, different steps that occurred at the same time next to each other in the tutorials I've read.
Every step will be grouped by the phase it appeared in.
But in the end, I will add every means of categorization segmentation I can think of. This will help me return to them when needed.
I noticed that the best tutoÂrials beginners can do are those hours-long tutorials that try to clone existing games. These tutorials not only give you a roadmap on how to make a game in any genre, but they will also show you the steps you’d want to note.
One surprising conclusion I had is that to get out of tutorial hell would be to stay in it for a while!
When making notes you’ll notice that many of those steps repeat themselves. I know that when I’m doing something for the second time in a different context would give me a boost in confidence.
Here it is—my way of addressing tutorial hell (but not time management hell or focus hell).
How do you handle tutorial hell?
I can relate to this, as I was stuck in tutorial hell and purgatory for many, many years. As one that suffers from perfectionism it's a hard spiral to break from. I don't know much about coding or making games but for me its constantly telling myself "finished not perfect" has helped or "let it go, come back later". Usually when I see the cycle start more often than not I need to stop what I'm doing and go outside.
Good points that can apply to most self-learning situations.