I’m so glad to be here to learn about Unity and gamedev (and to improve my written english as well, as it’s not my first languague).
I have a question about how to start, having into account that I have zero programming knowledge and this is my first attempt of developing anything ever. Which visual scripting tool is better for starters, PlayMaker or Bolt?
The idea that I have is quite simple: a single-screen horde 2D action platformer like Super Crate Box (or the Towerfall quest mode) with just one weapon and just two or three different power ups. I’ve been reading that GameMaker Studio is a way better tool for starters and projects like that but, in the long run, I would love to learn C# and Unity as a whole.
So, all in all, which software (GM Studio or Unity) and/or visual scripting tool (Bolt or PlayMaker) would you recommend to an absolute beginner who is motivated to finish a simple 2D game in 3-4 months? And yes, know that sounds a little unrealistic.
This is, of course, merely my own opinion which is based on my own experiences. But as someone who started off learning how to write code, I can’t wrap my head around visual scripting tools. I’m sure they work for lots of folks or they wouldn’t exist, but to me it feels like having to learn two things at once: programming and that specific tool.
By that I mean that a visual scripting tool doesn’t save you from having to learn programming… It just means you don’t have to understand code. You still have to be able to think like a programmer, understand logic flow, variables, control structures, etc. But using a visual tool, you also have to learn how to add nodes, what various properties are called and what they do… it just feels like extra stuff to me.
Besides that, if you end up encountering an issue with a third-party script you’re using, you’re now missing the skill set required to be able to fix it. Depending on your options, that may force your hand to have to become familiar enough with code anyway, and you’ve ended up not even saving any time.
Or what if you decided your game needed the performance boost provided by using ECS? Or what if you wanted to get a job as a regular boring application developer and do gamedev on the side? Being limited to using visual scripting tools can prevent you from being able to pursue these options.
So for this reason, I think learning to just write scripts is worth the time investment. If you want to still work with visual scripting tools, I think that’s fine, but if it were me starting out, I’d hope someone would recommend not relying on them as my primary means of programming. Having more tools in your toolbox is always a good thing, but I think it’s important to have high quality generalist tools before investing in the more specialized, niche tools.
Almost all general tutorials, the Unity manual, and help on the forum will be in C#. In my opinion learning Unity with only visual scripting would be far more difficult than learning C#.
If you want to start with a visual-scripting tool, go with Bolt, since it’s free, while PlayMaker is not.
I haven’t used either, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone spend money on assets until they’re certain that they want to keep using Unity past the “just trying it out” phase.
But also, as was mentioned, visual-scripting isn’t a way to get around programming.
You’re still programming; you’re just not writing code.