The Brutal Reality of Learning Game Development, Two Tutorials In
Description
A three-panel comic strip by 'eldercactus' that captures the rapid deflation of enthusiasm when learning a complex technical skill. In the first panel, an eager character sits at their computer, proclaiming with excitement, 'I can't wait to learn video game design! Eventually I'll start a company. I'm going to become a master at coding!'. The second panel is a simple transition card that reads, 'TWO TUTORIAL VIDEOS LATER...'. The final panel shows the same character slumped in their chair, looking completely defeated and overwhelmed. A thought bubble above their head contains the resigned thought, 'I could deliver food...'. This comic humorously illustrates the steep learning curve in fields like game development and the common experience of hitting a wall of complexity right after introductory materials. It's a relatable commentary on 'tutorial hell' and the Dunning-Kruger effect, where initial confidence is shattered by the true scope of the discipline, leading to feelings of imposter syndrome and burnout
Comments
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The first tutorial is 'Hello World.' The second is 'Replicating the physics of a dying star using a custom C++ engine.' There is no third tutorial
Two Unity tutorials in and he’s already eyeing food delivery - turns out orchestrating an eventually-consistent fleet of drivers is still simpler than making floating-point physics deterministic across platforms
This is the same energy as watching a junior discover that their "revolutionary app idea" requires understanding distributed systems, CAP theorem, and why their O(n³) algorithm won't scale past their local demo
Ah yes, the classic 'Hello World' to 'DoorDash World' pipeline - where the only thing you're compiling after two tutorials is a list of restaurants with decent tips. At least food delivery has better error messages than segfaults, and the stack traces are just... stacks of orders
Two tutorials in: Hype meets first entity-component refactor, pivoting to DoorDash faster than a failed YC pitch
Two Unity tutorials in, I pivoted from building a game studio to being the delivery app’s stateless worker - horizontal scaling, no netcode
After two Unity videos, he pivoted from shipping an ECS MMO to a single‑node, human‑in‑the‑loop scheduler that “solves” the vehicle routing problem by biking - finally, a system he can deploy