on lesson 19, the example is missing a key variable, the "cells" array, which holds all the coordinates of the graph, thus making the example even harder to understand.
additionally, it's extremely silly to not explain how for loops work in the "for loops" lesson, but instead explain them 2 lessons later in the "arrays" section. as a result, the for loops practice-work was a brick wall i was unable to clear without seeking outside help from the godot cafe discord server.
In the section 24 practice question #2, I have zero idea what exactly it's expecting from me. I think this is a solid example of where the program's proclivity for glossing over things leads to hard-to-understand situations in the code. I understand that I can type in "variable_name += 1" to increase that variable by 1, but i have no indication of what should trigger that behavior in the provided scenario.
I didn't find it useful for me, app just explains all the same stuff that I've heard dozens of times on YouTube and I think it's just the wrong approach. Basically the app explains "what it means", but the problem for people like me is not understanding "when and why to use it" in some real-world problems, not super simplified a+b examples. It's like ok, I learned it, what's next?
Since I'm in the process of learning English, I'll make an analogy like this. So this app is just like a dictionary with translations, it has all the words and terms, it says what they mean, there are even 1 or 2 sentences with examples of use, and technically you can just memorize all words, but that won't give you the ability to speak English, at most now you can just understand the text and some parts of what people are saying, and even that will have limitations, because you don't know the context, and you can't create sentences yourself, aka like in programming when you can read someone else's code (some times), but you can't write it yourself. In order to actually learn English, you need to not just have a memorized vocabulary, you need to see and hear how people actually use words, and only then try to use them yourself, so process goes like this: learned a word -> listened to how it is used -> try to use it yourself. The problem with programming is that you simply have no way of seeing how people using those words, even if you try to read someone else's code, you still won't have the context with which it was written, so you skip this middle part, because you have no way of getting it, so you go straight to the third part, and the problem here is that there is no feedback, you are simply forced to put this puzzle together blindly, basically brute forcing your way
Regarding to the app itself, I also think that it oversimplifies everything too much, so that starting from lesson 15, the code in the examples and practicals simply ceases to make any sense at all
I understand, you seem to have already learned programming notions covered by the app before, so as the app is an alternative to learning these notions, and you're now actually looking for the next step, so it's not what you need at all.
Languages are a good analogy and I'd say the app and many of the videos you watched follow exactly the process you describe: learn a concept, see how it's used, and use it yourself. Your problem is that at this stage what we're doing is more analogous to learning the alphabet and combining letters to write words words, and you've already done that and you're looking to put sentences together. You now need resources that take you through creating many different prototypes of increasing complexity.
This app and probably many videos you watched are a steppingstone for that phase. It's necessary if you want to help many people because without that, lots of people quit. The ideal formula would be something with a lot of optional notes that'd give people who get frustrated by the lack of context a lot of extra information without burdening students who can't take that extra cognitive load. I hope to have the time and resources to do something like this someday.
But to give you an idea, in our curriculum, it takes about 1 semester to get where you're looking to get, through 10 course modules. This app is 1 out of those 10 modules. You need this amount of learning and practice, layering concepts gradually, to get to the point where you have enough skills to really understand code.
There's really a lot to learn, but if you're looking for free resources to learn programming for games, I can recommend Godotneers' lessons. They don't form a structured learning path and some might be above your current skill level but they're each quite detailed and worth bookmarking. In the Godot community, people made free resource lists that have overlap but also allow you to cobble things together and unlocks pieces of the puzzle with each new series or project you follow. I'd recommend taking a look at that, and at your stage probably skipping the resources that explain basic coding concepts, it sounds like that's not what you need now.
This is by far the best programming fundamental course to start learning.
I wish I knew this sooner. I changed my career path as I couldn't pursue my game development career in India, but now that I stumbled upon this... I have nothing but greater versions of "Thanks" to say to this community. I hope I can switch back to the career of game development in India.
Sat down and went through this in a couple hours or so. I've had experience with other programming languages both in and out of a classroom. I don't know what bugs and wording issues that the other reviews described, but I didn't experience them. In fact, this actually explained the basics a lot better than even classroom instructors in my opinion. There were several aspects that I knew about but didn't fully understand the mechanics behind, but the creator explained it in a perfectly understandable way which made for many "Aha!" moments. Great introductory to GDScript, and this little app makes me excited to delve into Godot without suffering from confusion from cross-concepts. It was well-written and a very good prep game.
Some people get frustrated by the sandboxing done by the app. Others would like a much longer course that has a lot more detail. Overall it's done well and it's used in many schools, but it's actually quite difficult to make a really inclusive programming basics course that works for everyone. You'd need something that adapts to different people. Also, often, different individuals need someone there to clear specific doubts that block them. I think that's in part why our stuff's used quite a bit in schools and we didn't really get issues reported by teachers - they are there with students in the classroom to clear doubts as they come up.
The assignments don't make any sense, because they don't set you any tasks to consolidate the material. You're just blindly, without thinking, rewriting what was in the documentation.
And the most disgusting thing is that there are a lot of things in the assignments that were written before you. You're writing code for some things, and something else is happening on the screen. As a result, it is impossible to understand what you did and how you did it. They don't explain to you what's going on behind the scenes. It's just a blind seal of what they say.
2. Overloading
In the beginning, they teach you some things, only to say later that they are useless and there are analogues. Let's say. But sometimes it happens that USEFUL analogs are given much less time in the text and tasks than those that we don't need right now.
3. Terms
Sometimes every first article mentions the same basic term. And sometimes they give you a term that you should use in the code, but they don't indicate what it does (or they do it very imperceptibly and once 10 lessons ago).
If I had gone back to the past when I was looking for a place to learn GDscripts, I would have passed by this application.
I have a learning disability that makes it hard to memorize stuff. Can you add a way to consult the lesson during practices without having to exit them?
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on lesson 19, the example is missing a key variable, the "cells" array, which holds all the coordinates of the graph, thus making the example even harder to understand.
additionally, it's extremely silly to not explain how for loops work in the "for loops" lesson, but instead explain them 2 lessons later in the "arrays" section. as a result, the for loops practice-work was a brick wall i was unable to clear without seeking outside help from the godot cafe discord server.
I didn't find it useful for me, app just explains all the same stuff that I've heard dozens of times on YouTube and I think it's just the wrong approach. Basically the app explains "what it means", but the problem for people like me is not understanding "when and why to use it" in some real-world problems, not super simplified a+b examples. It's like ok, I learned it, what's next?
Since I'm in the process of learning English, I'll make an analogy like this. So this app is just like a dictionary with translations, it has all the words and terms, it says what they mean, there are even 1 or 2 sentences with examples of use, and technically you can just memorize all words, but that won't give you the ability to speak English, at most now you can just understand the text and some parts of what people are saying, and even that will have limitations, because you don't know the context, and you can't create sentences yourself, aka like in programming when you can read someone else's code (some times), but you can't write it yourself. In order to actually learn English, you need to not just have a memorized vocabulary, you need to see and hear how people actually use words, and only then try to use them yourself, so process goes like this: learned a word -> listened to how it is used -> try to use it yourself. The problem with programming is that you simply have no way of seeing how people using those words, even if you try to read someone else's code, you still won't have the context with which it was written, so you skip this middle part, because you have no way of getting it, so you go straight to the third part, and the problem here is that there is no feedback, you are simply forced to put this puzzle together blindly, basically brute forcing your way
Regarding to the app itself, I also think that it oversimplifies everything too much, so that starting from lesson 15, the code in the examples and practicals simply ceases to make any sense at all
I understand, you seem to have already learned programming notions covered by the app before, so as the app is an alternative to learning these notions, and you're now actually looking for the next step, so it's not what you need at all.
Languages are a good analogy and I'd say the app and many of the videos you watched follow exactly the process you describe: learn a concept, see how it's used, and use it yourself. Your problem is that at this stage what we're doing is more analogous to learning the alphabet and combining letters to write words words, and you've already done that and you're looking to put sentences together. You now need resources that take you through creating many different prototypes of increasing complexity.
This app and probably many videos you watched are a steppingstone for that phase. It's necessary if you want to help many people because without that, lots of people quit. The ideal formula would be something with a lot of optional notes that'd give people who get frustrated by the lack of context a lot of extra information without burdening students who can't take that extra cognitive load. I hope to have the time and resources to do something like this someday.
But to give you an idea, in our curriculum, it takes about 1 semester to get where you're looking to get, through 10 course modules. This app is 1 out of those 10 modules. You need this amount of learning and practice, layering concepts gradually, to get to the point where you have enough skills to really understand code.
There's really a lot to learn, but if you're looking for free resources to learn programming for games, I can recommend Godotneers' lessons. They don't form a structured learning path and some might be above your current skill level but they're each quite detailed and worth bookmarking. In the Godot community, people made free resource lists that have overlap but also allow you to cobble things together and unlocks pieces of the puzzle with each new series or project you follow. I'd recommend taking a look at that, and at your stage probably skipping the resources that explain basic coding concepts, it sounds like that's not what you need now.
This is by far the best programming fundamental course to start learning.
I wish I knew this sooner. I changed my career path as I couldn't pursue my game development career in India, but now that I stumbled upon this... I have nothing but greater versions of "Thanks" to say to this community. I hope I can switch back to the career of game development in India.
Thanks for the kind words!
Sat down and went through this in a couple hours or so. I've had experience with other programming languages both in and out of a classroom. I don't know what bugs and wording issues that the other reviews described, but I didn't experience them. In fact, this actually explained the basics a lot better than even classroom instructors in my opinion. There were several aspects that I knew about but didn't fully understand the mechanics behind, but the creator explained it in a perfectly understandable way which made for many "Aha!" moments. Great introductory to GDScript, and this little app makes me excited to delve into Godot without suffering from confusion from cross-concepts. It was well-written and a very good prep game.
Thank you!
Some people get frustrated by the sandboxing done by the app. Others would like a much longer course that has a lot more detail. Overall it's done well and it's used in many schools, but it's actually quite difficult to make a really inclusive programming basics course that works for everyone. You'd need something that adapts to different people. Also, often, different individuals need someone there to clear specific doubts that block them. I think that's in part why our stuff's used quite a bit in schools and we didn't really get issues reported by teachers - they are there with students in the classroom to clear doubts as they come up.
I hate this app. I suffer more than I learn.
1. Incomprehensibility
The assignments don't make any sense, because they don't set you any tasks to consolidate the material. You're just blindly, without thinking, rewriting what was in the documentation.
And the most disgusting thing is that there are a lot of things in the assignments that were written before you. You're writing code for some things, and something else is happening on the screen. As a result, it is impossible to understand what you did and how you did it. They don't explain to you what's going on behind the scenes. It's just a blind seal of what they say.
2. Overloading
In the beginning, they teach you some things, only to say later that they are useless and there are analogues. Let's say. But sometimes it happens that USEFUL analogs are given much less time in the text and tasks than those that we don't need right now.
3. Terms
Sometimes every first article mentions the same basic term. And sometimes they give you a term that you should use in the code, but they don't indicate what it does (or they do it very imperceptibly and once 10 lessons ago).
If I had gone back to the past when I was looking for a place to learn GDscripts, I would have passed by this application.
I do not speak English, so I used a translator. I'm sorry for the stupid mistakes.
I have a learning disability that makes it hard to memorize stuff. Can you add a way to consult the lesson during practices without having to exit them?
ADD MUSIC TO THIS GAME
it would make it waayyy more awesome
there is no need, just put some YTMusic on background