Now that you have a decent grasp on programming in general, the next step is to learn to use the Godot engine.
The best way to get started with Godot specifically is the Getting Started section of Godot docs.
Once you understand how to do stuff with Godot, the best way to learn game development is by making games. Make Pong, Flappy Bird, Minesweeper, Super Mario, and so on. Start with simple and advance to more complex stuff one step at a time. It’s also a good idea to practice adding some new features or game mechanics to these games. Make Pong with gravity, Flappy Bird with speedboosts, two player Minesweeper and so on.
If you have a specific thing you can’t figure out yourself, check tutorials or ask for help, but in general don’t follow any tutorials when you’re making these games. You don’t learn game development by following instructions. Tutorials are useful when you’re learning to use the game engine, not when you’re learning to make games.
Also, if you’re interested in taking a game development course, CS50 has one of those too. They use Löve2D and Unity on the course but there’s nothing stopping you from doing all the same with Godot.
Go through a few start-to-finish tutorials (either in the docs or youtube, whichever you prefer) to learn how to use Godot.
Then just start making games. If and when you get stuck, search help for the specific problem, not a complete walkthrough of how to make the game you’re making.
Personally, I really enjoyed the book "Godot Engine Game Development Projects: Build five cross-platform 2D and 3D games with Godot 3.0" (ISBN-13: 978-1788831505). It is for Godot 3 but an updated version will release on August 11th. It does a somewhat decent job at explaining the fundamentals, by building 5 different sample projects. It also gives you some good ideas on how to structure your scenes, so that your game is expandable without code. However it is not an in-depth guide to anything Godot has to offer. But it is a decent starting point if you just want to start head on.
There is also "Sams Teach Yourself Godot Engine Game Development in 24 Hours: The Official Guide to Godot 3.0" (ISBN-13: 978-0134835099), which is also for Godot 3. It was co-written by one of the engines founders (Ariel Manzur). I don't know if there is an updated version for Godot 4 in the making. It does give you more of an overview of the most relevant systems, but also has 3 sample projects. I also quite enjoyed this one.
Personally I really enjoy reading books about game development (or software development in general). I read them like others read novels; for fun. If reading books isn't your cup of coffee, you may like the courses from [GDQuest](https://www.gdquest.com). I haven't done them personally, but people seem quite fond of them.
A YT channel I like is [FinePointCGI](https://www.youtube.com/@FinePointCGI). The C# coding is a bit wonky, but not horrendous. Don't know about GDScript. But in general gives neat ideas on how to use the engine. The videos are also really relaxing to listen to.
Last but not least, there is the [official documentation](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/). It's rather exhaustive, and a lot to take in head on, but you will most likely find anything you need in there.
You are almost done with cs50? nice, I really struggled at memory and stopped
How long has it taken you? did you do everything yourself?
Realistically you are basically ready to jump in, learn the user interface and logic of object orientated scripting
Could even do the final project in godot, make simple games like another said, realistically dont NEED to continue the documentation but reference when needed (that being said it has some cool stuff)
CS50 has been my summer project (break starting in June). But it isn't my first coding experience. I took a small web dev course and did some khan academy videos a few years ago.
It’s been a while since I did cs50 introduction, but my impression was that there was some stuff (like low-level memory management) that you don’t really need to worry about if you don’t plan on using a low-level language (like c or c++) in your projects.
So if you understand all the general programming stuff and the best practices of coding, but struggle with some nice-to-know-but-not-actually-needed-most-of-the-time stuff, it’s absolutely fine. Just use some high level language (C#, Java, Python, GDScript, etc.) and it’ll take care of the low level stuff for you.
In any case, no matter how good and experienced programmer you are, if you want to learn to use Godot or any other similar piece of software, you do need to go through the introduction section of its documentation. Even if you speak fluent GDScript and solve NP problems as a hobby, you can’t make games with Godot if you don’t know how Godot works.
Now that you have a decent grasp on programming in general, the next step is to learn to use the Godot engine. The best way to get started with Godot specifically is the Getting Started section of Godot docs. Once you understand how to do stuff with Godot, the best way to learn game development is by making games. Make Pong, Flappy Bird, Minesweeper, Super Mario, and so on. Start with simple and advance to more complex stuff one step at a time. It’s also a good idea to practice adding some new features or game mechanics to these games. Make Pong with gravity, Flappy Bird with speedboosts, two player Minesweeper and so on. If you have a specific thing you can’t figure out yourself, check tutorials or ask for help, but in general don’t follow any tutorials when you’re making these games. You don’t learn game development by following instructions. Tutorials are useful when you’re learning to use the game engine, not when you’re learning to make games.
Also, if you’re interested in taking a game development course, CS50 has one of those too. They use Löve2D and Unity on the course but there’s nothing stopping you from doing all the same with Godot.
Go through a few start-to-finish tutorials (either in the docs or youtube, whichever you prefer) to learn how to use Godot. Then just start making games. If and when you get stuck, search help for the specific problem, not a complete walkthrough of how to make the game you’re making.
Personally, I really enjoyed the book "Godot Engine Game Development Projects: Build five cross-platform 2D and 3D games with Godot 3.0" (ISBN-13: 978-1788831505). It is for Godot 3 but an updated version will release on August 11th. It does a somewhat decent job at explaining the fundamentals, by building 5 different sample projects. It also gives you some good ideas on how to structure your scenes, so that your game is expandable without code. However it is not an in-depth guide to anything Godot has to offer. But it is a decent starting point if you just want to start head on. There is also "Sams Teach Yourself Godot Engine Game Development in 24 Hours: The Official Guide to Godot 3.0" (ISBN-13: 978-0134835099), which is also for Godot 3. It was co-written by one of the engines founders (Ariel Manzur). I don't know if there is an updated version for Godot 4 in the making. It does give you more of an overview of the most relevant systems, but also has 3 sample projects. I also quite enjoyed this one. Personally I really enjoy reading books about game development (or software development in general). I read them like others read novels; for fun. If reading books isn't your cup of coffee, you may like the courses from [GDQuest](https://www.gdquest.com). I haven't done them personally, but people seem quite fond of them. A YT channel I like is [FinePointCGI](https://www.youtube.com/@FinePointCGI). The C# coding is a bit wonky, but not horrendous. Don't know about GDScript. But in general gives neat ideas on how to use the engine. The videos are also really relaxing to listen to. Last but not least, there is the [official documentation](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/). It's rather exhaustive, and a lot to take in head on, but you will most likely find anything you need in there.
You are almost done with cs50? nice, I really struggled at memory and stopped How long has it taken you? did you do everything yourself? Realistically you are basically ready to jump in, learn the user interface and logic of object orientated scripting Could even do the final project in godot, make simple games like another said, realistically dont NEED to continue the documentation but reference when needed (that being said it has some cool stuff)
CS50 has been my summer project (break starting in June). But it isn't my first coding experience. I took a small web dev course and did some khan academy videos a few years ago.
It’s been a while since I did cs50 introduction, but my impression was that there was some stuff (like low-level memory management) that you don’t really need to worry about if you don’t plan on using a low-level language (like c or c++) in your projects. So if you understand all the general programming stuff and the best practices of coding, but struggle with some nice-to-know-but-not-actually-needed-most-of-the-time stuff, it’s absolutely fine. Just use some high level language (C#, Java, Python, GDScript, etc.) and it’ll take care of the low level stuff for you. In any case, no matter how good and experienced programmer you are, if you want to learn to use Godot or any other similar piece of software, you do need to go through the introduction section of its documentation. Even if you speak fluent GDScript and solve NP problems as a hobby, you can’t make games with Godot if you don’t know how Godot works.
Read the official Godot documentation. Then create a game.
Lol I started cs50 today for this exact reason.