Summer break is starting up. With that, I’m encouraging our kids learn something new or get better at their favorite activities. It wouldn’t be fair for them to do it, but not me. I want to set a good example. So throughout the month of June, I’m committed to learning more about game development every day. To do this, I’ll be dedicating time each morning to working through LinkedIn Learning courses.
The 30 Day Challenge
I want to try doing this in a 30 day challenge. Those work really well for me, personally. It’s a short enough time that I don’t get overwhelmed, but not so long that I get burnt out. Who knows? This could become part of an ongoing series of different 30 day challenges.
Good planning and consistency are important in any project (not just game development). And my habits are…not good at the moment. This challenge will be a small step to change that. In this challenge, I want to accomplish 3 things:
- Go to bed earlier
- Wake up earlier
- Focus learning for 30 minutes (minimum)
My sleep schedule has been all over the place. I’m trying to get back on track. My goal is to be in bed by midnight and up by 7am. This will give me a full 7 hours of sleep (hopefully). From 7am to 8am will be my focused learning before my normal job starts.
Each day, I’ll be logging my sleep time, my start and end times, and what course I’m actually working through. At the end of the 30 days, I’ll release the list (and yes, I’ll be completely honest if I missed a day). And of course, if I learn anything particularly interesting, I’ll be sure to let you guys know.
LinkedIn Learning Courses for Game Development
LinkedIn Learning is an online resource that offers free videos, courses, and learning paths that can help you learn or improve skills. Recently, I found out there are several game development and game design courses. Some of the courses include:
- Game Design Foundations: 1 Ideas, Core Loops, and Goals
- Game Design Foundations: 2 Systems, Chance, and Strategy
- Game Design Foundations: 3 Pitch, Propose, and Practice
- C# for Unity Game Development
- Unity 5: 2D Movement in an RPG Game
- Unity 5: 2D Building an Adventure Game
- Unity 5: Build a Character Dialogue System
- Unity 5: 2D Level Design
- Unity 5: 2D Pathfinding
- Advanced Unity 2D: Platformer Player Movement
And there are a fair amount more. Some of these actually look pretty good. My plan is to go through them, learn what I can, and review them. If they are pretty good, I’ll let you know about them.
LinkedIn Learning is, technically, a paid service. However, our local library offers it for free to all library card holders. Check with your local library system to see if this service is available to you.
Conclusion
This 30 day challenge is important to me. Right now, game development really is just a hobby for me. But I really want it to become more than that. This challenge is a small transition towards making game development a more structured part of my life. By adjusting my sleep schedule, I’m creating a sort of trigger with the focused learning being the end goal. And with that, I think there’s a pretty good chance it will be successful.
If you’ve done a 30 day game dev challenge like this, I’d love to hear about it. Let us know what you did and how it turned out in the comments below.
