I suck at coding and game design in general.
I’d suggest a book on C# programming instead of the Unity books. Then come back to Unity when you have the basics of C# mastered. Makes Unity a whole lot easier when you aren’t trying to learn both C# and Unity at the same time. YMMV
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Hey Rich. You’ve been around these forums for over 4 years now. I know for a while there you were having trouble getting your hands on a computer that could run Unity, so you’ve only recently gotten your hands dirty. But the thing about game design is that you don’t even NEED a computer to do it.
Lots of people start a game idea out by prototyping it on paper. For things that could be translated physically into card or board games, this lets you actually BUILD the game and play it with friends or family, so you can see if it’s fun before spending endless hours coding it up.
For other game types, though, this process usually just means writing things out, making charts, and planning gameplay elements. You can do this physically on paper, or use Google Documents or something to keep things more organized and easier to manage (plus, you won’t lose them!).
Since you’re still new to the actual design and development process, I’d recommend simply recreating a classic game you loved from your childhood. If you missed out on the Arcade/Atari/NES era, consider recreating a game you’ve always HEARD of and were interested in but never played. Don’t reach too big. Just aim to make something, and see it through.
After you get it done, consider adding something new to it. Maybe you picked Asteroids and you wanted to add a new enemy type, or some cool visual effect. Experiment with new features you’re not familiar with (like saving and loading a game, adding animated menus, etc) and use this game as an excuse to keep learning new things. By the time you’ve gotten through all the features you want to learn, you might’ve added so much to the game as to make it something new! Consider redoing the art a bit for it and release it as your own thing, if you like! You might’ve even learned something about game design along the way.
The key is to understand you have to put the effort in every single step of the way. Buying a book doesn’t get you any further in your goal… Even reading it only helps so much. You need to actually get in there and start doing it. Go for it, and don’t be afraid of failing or not knowing how to do something. Every time you run into something you don’t understand, stop and learn that thing before proceeding. That’s how you become proficient at something.
Just keep at it, man. Don’t be so focused on your end goal that you can’t give your attention to all the little tasks along the way that will get you there.
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As it happens I downloaded a free Kindle book about C# on my Amazon tablet last night, I’ll have a read of that and see what I can learn.
I might also see if Sheffield College does any coding classses part time.
The kind of thing I’d like to have a go at for a project is a remake of 80’s Spectrum game Manic Miner.