In high school I had a friend who would always crush my dreams but we've fallen out of contact so here we go...

I was thinking about making a general programming course but using godot. In godot I can throw together some simple scenes to make learning the basics not boring. While most learners probably set out on learning a specific not-gdscript language, I feel many could be convinced that being in godot is worth the time seeing as it should be much easier to keep interested outside the environment of boring print "hello world" to console tutoring.

I would name the course “THE NOT BORING PROGRAMMING COURSE" in all caps and seek monetization through youtube. The first level I have designed just has students generate 3d boxes from an Vec3 input. I have tested this concept in RL classes and the look of joy on their faces when they use a for loop to generate a huge stack of boxes is always so special.

Please come at me with any doubts you've got before I spend credits on a webcam thing. Also, webcam things?

    Nah, I've always thought that there should be a course going from the very basics of programming and what is a float what is a integer, a bool, etc, etc. All the way to making a basic game. I've just never felt like being the one to make it happen. 😮‍💨

    Yeah, that's a great idea. But you will likely never make any serious money on YouTube unless you have hundreds of thousands of followers. I'd suggest looking into something like Udemy and making it a paid course (but not too expensive, maybe $10 or $20). With Udemy you can expect to make a small commission off each student, not the full price (for a $10 course, you might only make $3 a piece) but with thousands of students, you can make your money back.

      I do not want to be defeatist or replace your friend, but here I go:

      I have asked myself before how to get into game programming without having had much contact to programming before. Would one really learn to program with a script language alone ? Aren't scripts just patches of code taken out of context, and aren't there already enough tutorials about scripting game engines ? Would people ever get above the level of retyping what some else is typing before them, without knowing the context ?

      I would argue that, if people come to game engine as newbies, they have little to no idea on what to imagine when they read about concepts as types of light, pbs material, shaders, shadow maps. If school is long ago even linear algebra must be learned anew. Not talking about concepts of the engine like the scene tree and inheritance, of which one maybe and arguably should have a basic grasp to make better use of the power. An up-to-date documentation, with more code examples, would probably and again arguably be better for newcomers to get behind engine's the concepts before going into scripting these concepts.

      I was thinking of a different approach, maybe closer to what @Megalomaniak said, to start building a small render framework, with something as simple as C or basic C++ as in "C with classes", with a trivial flat shader pipeline, basic linear algebra (just touch it briefly, then switch to something like glm and let the eager try on their own), basic rigid body physics, and bring these together so people get the overview, and learn to value what an engine offers.

      I am not a programmer, just found to this a few years ago, so I may be totally wrong. But for me it was a real eye opener, after helplessly clicking around in a game engine, to do my own naive renderer, getting somewhere with the help of tutorials and books. I think I can now make much better use of what an engine has to offer.

      And one thing, I must say, as sorry as I am: there is no game programming without at least basic math like linear algebra. If it goes deeper, into simulation, force integration and such, then a basic understanding of calculus is needed as well only to use the right tools for the job, when you want to make more than a platformer or arcade game or an fps shooter.

      Now skin me.

        Pixophir there is no game programming without at least basic math like linear algebra.

        Oh, without a doubt.

        May I suggest Udemy? See what courses are already available there and make something unique? You can even make paid classes on there. I've seen many people, from teachers to beginners, put stuff on there.

        I don’t have any intention on teaching game design or how game engines work. But I’m at a good place after all these years (coupled with many previous years of teaching experience) to teach programming fundamentals. The basics of programming are absolutely boring, and I believe with just a few simple Godot scenes I can move the “Hello World” print monotony into a more engaging space.

        I’d argue that most of the programming done in the world doesn’t include math harder than a junior high level. I am interested in making a Udemy course, but with that route I’d have to basically finish the whole thing before I uploaded it. I saw one video saying YouTube ad revenue could do better anyway?

        I am worried that beginners don’t know how much overlap there is in programming and start their journey thinking “I’d better start with language x”. I would argue that for people such as myself 6-7 years ago, it would have been better to stay engaged and actually learn a thing or two rather that try and give up on boring “add stuff and print to console” tutorials.

        I am looking to capture a wide audience. I would make introduce all the important differences between programming and scripting. So far as I design this course I’ve been able to keep the interest of 10 year olds, even the girls. I think I’ll make a little video showing you guys later.

        After a picked up web dev and tried building a huge kids reading platform for 1.5 years I decided it’s probably better if I didn’t do anymore big projects solo. But if it’s one YouTube video at a time it doesn’t feel like a huge project.

        Yeah, YouTube could work. I just meant that you need a big following before you can make decent money. In fact, you need a certain amount of activity before you can even be accepted into the ad program. I got an invite a long time ago (and declined, cause I didn't think I would make enough) but it takes time to build the audience.

        @Erich_L

        Keep in mind that if you do videos targeting young viewers then it would be categorized as made for kids and you would not be paid by youtube. You can only get paid by outside sponsors/donors

        I think kids are considered under 13, so videos for high school students should be fine for ads. However, they don't use their targeting algorithm if the viewer is under 18. So you can still make money, but it will be harder for people to find the video.

        My human test subjects are all pre-teens, but I figure if I can keep them engaged I can keep the average person engaged. I don't see any reason to specifically target kids. Ever see that website kidsCanCode? Oof more like YouAre30AndCanBarelyReadThisCanCode.

        Right. I think those rules are more for children's cartoons and stuff like that. If you make content for teenagers, that can also be viewed by kids or adults, I don't see why that would be an issue.

        Fahir says he's not good at math, yet builds games for a living. Math in game development is actually very easy.

        I feel like you should go for it, don't let a forum discussion slow you down.

        Here I record some of my ideas for you to crush, build on, or whatever:

        There's a ton of teaching that could be done from this simple scene, but welcoming suggestions for what another, perhaps wildly different, scene could be.

        Yeah, it's pretty good. First, you're talking way too fast. I'm 41, and a native English speaker, and it was hard to keep up. You also might want to increase the font size in Godot editor settings so the code is easier to see in the video. Also, maybe learn the hot-keys for recording, or trim the video after. It looks unprofessional when a video starts with that hall of mirrors effect. Otherwise it's a nice start.

        Oh I know, I wasn't gunna set up the mic or edit for this, just wanted to share the idea as condensed and short as possible. Tell me does that not beat 'print("hello world")' a thousand times over? I forgot to share tho I added to the Box a setPopMessage function... which lets text pop out of the boxes. Which is a more direct replacement for print("hello world"). Anyway that's my idea, I'll be brainstorming on what would make another good scene.

        Yeah, the concept is good. Way more exciting than hello world.

        16 days later

        ![
        If this isn't art idk what is lololol. I am feeling a little discouraged about two things, first that beginners settle on a language they thing they should learn first- and that it will be an uphill battle to bring someone into godot just because it'll make learning programming fundamentals easier and more fun. The second uphill battle is selling basics instead of "hey, let's make this shopping app- just follow my 1300 instructions and forget what's going on line by line". Tutorials that have reproduce something cool seem like a better deal than learning what you need to know to make (more or less) anything.

        Erich_L in all caps and seek monetization through youtube.

        cybereality But you will likely never make any serious money on YouTube unless you have hundreds of thousands of followers

        I have a lot of mileage on creating a free programming intro course and publishing it on YouTube for free, trying to get monetization from it.

        My course is a practical one, with very clear and simple language, with as little bs and buzzwords as possible. I give examples with objects, with game examples, etc. For example, I explain algorithms talking about toothbrushes, and more.

        It's live since 2014, has gotten 300,000 views (from 30+ videos). Total revenue since 2014 with the videos from the course playlist: R$ 800 (US$ 160~) - it's absurd. YouTube is hell. It's heartbreaking to spend sometimes 15 days in a video and 2 years later, it shows: "US$ 0.13 revenue" (this is not from my course videos, but from a game jam one that took me a lot of time).

        You need AT LEAST 1 million views PER VIDEO and it wouldn't still pay you well.

        See the course playlist on YouTube.

        Meanwhile if you put that in Skillshare + Udemy + Other sources you are going to get US$ 160 much MUCH MUCH MUCH quickier - if the course is well structured. Go all the way with those paid options, and use YouTube only to promote the course with free segments from the course, etc!

        NOTE: At the same time I can't complain about YouTube not paying me enough, as I am one that use Ad and Tracker Blockers everywhere. It's been years since I've stumbled upon ads. So that means video creators do not get money from my views. So I can't expect to get money from my videos if others do the same.