Developing a roguelike/dungeon crawler 2D game

[Shockbolt]

Just beware that "visual" programming -- while it sounds appealing -- can very quickly become hugely limiting as soon as you want to do even rudimentary code reuse (even just at the level of "functions" and such). (There's a reason nobody "serious" actually uses such things at the moment, at it's not just because of legacy.) And at the end of the day, they don't actually help you avoid programming -- you'll need to understand what the program actually does regardless of whether it's represented visually or textually.

Hopefully you won't need too much programming given that engines do a lot for you these days.

I would suggest that it would probably be better to just actually learn a bit of "real" programming in your engine of choice, but of course that's up to you.

For some reason, real programming is barely out of reach for my brains, even though I grasp pretty much everything else, even advanced mathematics. Maybe visual scripting will help give me the understanding I need to move onto more advanced programming. Whenever I try to learn a programming language or SDK, I get agitated when it starts simple and then leave you hanging before it even teach you how to make something like a score tracker, load/save function or even teach you how to make a basic but complete sideway scroller/platformer game etc.

Going with something like Unity and Pro D will give me a good glimpse into the logics that make up parts of what I want to create, and I think it will help me understand much better than spending too much time inventing the wheel all over on my own.

[AnonymousHero]

For some reason, real programming is barely out of reach for my brains, even though I grasp pretty much everything else, even advanced mathematics.

Yup, there's very little else in the world that's quite like programming, so it can very hard to connect to existing concepts in one's mind. Of course a thorough knowledge of math can help with the more mathy-type problems you'll encounter, but in general I don't think it helps all that much in general programming. (I'm also pretty mathematically inclined, fwiw.)

Maybe visual scripting will help give me the understanding I need to move onto more advanced programming. Whenever I try to learn a programming language or SDK, I get agitated when it starts simple and then leave you hanging before it even teach you how to make something like a score tracker, load/save function or even teach you how to make a basic but complete sideway scroller/platformer game etc.

Going with something like Unity and Pro D will give me a good glimpse into the logics that make up parts of what I want to create, and I think it will help me understand much better than spending too much time inventing the wheel all over on my own.

IIRC one approach which has been empirically shown to improve teaching/learning outcomes is to approach the same concept from multiple different angles in order to strengthen the connections between different existing known concepts and the new concept which is being taught/learned, so it could well be a good approach to learning.

There's certainly a lot in Unity by itself which will save you a lot of hard work as opposed to using a more bare-bones environment. I predict that you'll hit the limits of the "visual programming" things pretty early, though. But if it helps you learn "real" programming, then all the better for it!

Anyway, good luck!

It'd be great if you could post about your experiences going forward!

[MadeOfBees]

scripting is super easy, its not nearly as complex as programming.

If you have ever written a todo list for yourself, thats not that horribly off from scripting.

Find a decent guide and youll be making cool shit in a week in the language of your choice, unlike the months it takes to learn a programming language.