A few days ago, I purchased a couple of courses that were basically given away as part of Humble Bundles.
One was a Blender course. I have only done the Spaceship course on that so far, but it was full of brilliant information, and it was presented in a really concise way, going from total beginner and all the way through to texturing and exporting your finished model.
The other course I bought was one on using Unreal Engine to design games. Here Is The Unreal Engine Course. There are 6 days left on it, and I have to say, for €25, it is well worth it, especially if you're like me and have zero experience in game design.
Here is a screenshot of a short video I took after completing one section.
This section was to do with physics and enabling it for particular objects, or Actors, as they're called within the engine.
We set up this ramp and let the sphere drop and roll down the ramp and off the map. In the details section, we can make changes to the mass of our actor, and also, we were able to increase angular dampening so the sphere doesn't just roll forever without ever slowing down.
After finishing that, we were told to experiment with other objects and have some fun with it. So, I set some cans up at the end of the ramp, lowered their mass, increased the sphere's mass, and let it knock them down.
It was a success, and it got me thinking.
Essentially, just using what I've learned up until now, I could potentially set up a pinball table and allow the sphere to bounce off some Actors on the table, and as long as the details are correct, it should work.
I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but the introduction section has really helped get me comfortable in the engine and has given me plenty of food for thought.
Initially, today, I had no intention of starting the Unreal course and wanted to focus on modelling and building assets. But I came across a video on YouTube talking about controller and player set-up, and I thought it would be a good way to get something started and familiarise myself with the software, but I got into it and was completely lost.
That feeling prompted me to get started with the course, and I'm so happy I did.
I know for sure that no games are on the horizon just yet, but I'm really hopeful about what is to come if I keep at the studying.
What I like about the Zenva course, too, is that after every section, say 20-30 minutes, there is a small quiz regarding what we've just learned, and it's very good for instilling some of that information before moving on.
Here's A Link To Discord. I created a channel with the intention of gathering up some like-minded people interested in getting into game design. Everyone from every skill level is welcome; currently, there are four of us in it.