Metroidvania Toolkit: Make a 2D Action Platformer in Unity (Udemy.com)

First of all, I want to say that the course is not bad, but certainly not for people who are not familiar with code. The instructor creates the code very quickly. In my perception, there was a lack of patience to explain what was being done. Another thing that really displeased me was the insertion of text in the video to correct or to make you notice something. If you want to follow the video programming along, you can't always look at the screen and with this format you might end up missing something. Another thing that displeased me and that I recently saw in the video, was in the middle of the video the instructor undoes several things he had done in the walljump to put another better solution, he asks me to correct it with him and ignore the parts of the code that he will show that have not yet been explained. However, there is a function that he even changed the name and is not explained. I stayed a while until I figured out which function he was talking about. For me, this could be avoided if the instructor re-recorded this part with the best solution, I felt laziness on his part. And finally, this thing about refactoring code after you've written a ton of code can even happen in real life, but in a course I think it's really bad. It feels like wasted work. Why not do it the way you already knew to be the best the first time? Why did you make me do it the worst way and then give me the best way? In a course I want to learn the best form the first time, if I wanted to know the worst form I wouldn't have bought a course.

As someone with a couple decades of programming experience (albeit in other languages), minimal exposure to game development, and a love of metroidvania games, this course was definitely worth the money. The instructor uses a lot of best practices for C# with things like [SerializeField] private variables instead of making everything public, which are lacking in some other similar courses. They also have been very responsive in the Q&A section, which allowed me to fix some issues without having to ask my own questions. Some things that caused me to leave a 4 star review instead of 5: - A lot of the time anything related to Vector2/Vector3 methods came up, the instructor stated that they didn't understand the concepts behind the code being used, but that it "just worked" and to type it and move on. I get it, I don't like math either. But literally everything in video game development involves math. At some point you have to bite that bullet and obtain a basic understanding of the concepts, especially if you're trying to teach them to others. While not math-related, there's a part where the code is using a ternary operator to convert between integers and bools, and the instructor straight up says they have no idea why it works. Ternary operators aren't exactly an advanced concept and it would have been better to learn what they are before using them in the video. - As others have mentioned, there are a lot of text-only corrections to videos, which are easy to miss if you are more focused on listening and typing your own code. There are some video edits to interject voiceover corrections as well, and the combination of the two creates a feeling of inconsistency when trying to fix issues caused by the original recordings. A re-recording of the course with the fixes in place would greatly benefit students, especially given that it's now a couple years old and feels a little outdated. - Most of the content in the "Supplemental Learning" section is just from the instructor's YouTube page without any edits to make it more relevant to the context of the course. While it's nice to have more generic solutions provided toward the end of the course, it's a bit jarring to switch gears to 4 videos that aren't based on the work you've been doing, then going to the final video (character switching) which does expect you to be using the course project. A re-recording of those videos within the context of the project solution would be actual added value for the course, whereas right now there's a false perception that there's more course-exclusive content than there actually is. - While the instructor does have a high level of engagement in the Q&A section, there are a lot of recent answers that can be summed up as "I don't know what's wrong, go download the final project and copy my code and it'll work." That's the least helpful thing a new developer could hear as a response, and does not set them up for future success in the same way that asking probing questions and providing more targeted responses can. I get that you can't be expected to answer every inane question people ask without doing their own research, but telling them to copy/paste isn't the way to go either. Overall I got what I expected out of this course even with my minor frustrations noted above, and it put me in a good position to expand my knowledge further now that I know the right questions to ask.

Just finished the course. Overall the course was good and the instructor was effective at helping someone code out the core elements of a metroidvania. He uses bone-based approach for character and I was able to follow along uses sprites for my character. There is problem that other reviews have touched on: the lectures in this series have become a bit of a hodge-podge. 1. He goes back and splices in corrections to the videos 2. Sometimes he will just overlay text. So if you aren't looking at the video, you may miss the text. Sometimes there is a comical number of corrections, I think one lecture it happened 4+times (~10 - 20 min videos on average). This problem gets worse as the series goes on, and in the last sections I noticed some errors with the build that he did not address (likely because he is trying to address things retroactively with a complete solution build), so I had to figure those out on my own or ask a question. This makes for a somewhat frustrating experience, and Brent would greatly benefit from biting the bullet and re-recording this series with updates (such as what GameDevTV does). If he does do that, I would suggest putting more effort into the visuals to attract more students , fleshing out the AI section (bosses), integrating melee combat into the core lecture series, and having a lecture or two about adding art assets and maybe lighting. I don't regret my purchase, it is a good course.

I have found this course to be amazing. I appreciate the straight-forward teaching method that the instructor uses. I was a little concerned in purchasing this course after reading some of the prior comments regarding audio, but I found it to be a non-issue. This course is very thorough and covers topics that most courses do not cover. I am grateful that the instructor has taken his time to put this course together, money is obviously not a reason as this course is dirt cheap, yet he still is willing to offer support when able. I highly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in creating a metroidvania genre game, or any game for that matter. Thanks Brent! I have really enjoyed and learned a lot through this course.

So I actually learned different courses about Unity game development here and there (other paid courses and Youtube videos ofc) and some teacher out here are quite good but...... I'm utterly speechless about how easy you explain the whole thing. I wasn't even interested about the introduction because it's all (Okay, mostly) stuff I knew but the course just started and I just listened to you for 2h30mins. I mean, I cried a bit because it initially took me more time to learn those basics back then hahaha. By far the easiest tutorial to begin with and even for all levels the guy just f*cking explains everything in sooo much details that if you don't understand what he's saying, you should reconsider your career or hobbies. My only regret is not having this course 5 years ago. Thank you x1000 for simplifying my introduction to Metroidvania style game.

So far, (and I am early on) I have found the class is able to get me going Unity and with coding. For the record, I am coming to this as a digital artist interested in game design. Brent's explanations are generally strong and delivered with clarity. And content wise, this course is a wealth of information, and I'm excited that it's coming at it from a high level of managing an entire project, and I have a strong impression that that the methods Brent lays out will make my foray into game design manageable and organized. However, as a learner, I feel Brent leaves some of that structure invisible to student which occasionally leaves me wondering why were approaching something in a particular way. Usually by the end of a segment, or in a later segment, the reasoning is revealed and makes sense. This occasionally feels like wading through a forest, where I'm not sure where I'm going . When you reach the clearing, you can look back and see the path for what it was, but that doesn't bely for segments of the hike I'm feeling lost amongst trees. For example, as I'm learning about inheritance for example, we create a script called Abilities that inherits from Character. In the segment initial introduction, all it does is create a variable that references the Character script. Then in the next segment we create a script HorizontalMovement that inherits from Abilities. I don't think its said what other functions this Abilities script will have down the line, or why its best practice, or that because HM inherits Abilities, it also inherits Character (I'm assuming here because my knowledge of code was little going into this). Most of the explanations so far stay in that vocabulary of coding, and I think more practical game explanations or visual aides would help to further explain concepts. I can assume "-transform.localScale.x" is flipping the sprite on the x axis, but a tacked on sentence reinforcing that would help with instruction, especially as I don't think localScale had been called up until then. Brent does give these explanations, and I can imagine as the course goes on they'll increase as the game design portion will likely increase, its not like they're non existent, but more reinforcement would be great in the beginning of a given section. I feel this is done to keep things moving along at a brisk pace, which ultimately I think is good and if you're not a total newbie to coding or are just looking to copy/paste, the instruction works very well. If you're someone with even coding experience, or have been messing around in unity and looking to tackle something larger, this course is highly recommended. If you're a coding dummy, this could be overwhelming. I'm trying to imagine taking this course without even my own knowledge of HTML/CSS, and I think a lot of concepts would blow over my head. You can fall into the rut of just typing out code as its spoken in the video. But even so, if you're serious about stopping and reviewing your code, and rewatching the instruction, you should still fine. Also at 20 dollars? I would call that a steal.

The teaching style is to the point and explains coding and the interface in a clear and concise way. Bringing the code back to the analogies shared previously in the course is very helpful cementing my understanding. Also the tips given for the interface, cloud storage and best practice are better than some other courses which just skim over these things.

I am only up to almost the third section in this course but I am really enjoying it and learning a lot. I have taken a few courses on Unity and they have all been good but they never seemed to fit the game I wanted to make. I was taking the knowledge from different courses, lessons, and youtube videos and trying to fit it all togther to make the game I had planned in my head but this seems like a really good fit for the game I want to make. Everything so far is really well explained and I am enjoying the pace. If you want to make a simple 2D platform game there are simpler courses out there but if you want to make a Metroidvania style game this is the best course on Udemy.

Firstly, the very minor negatives, there's sound sync errors. To me, this doesn't bother me so much, as I have a pause and rewind feature, but I can understand why it causes frustration. That said. This course has been the best course I have sat through on Game Coding, I've completed 5 on Udemy now, and am completely a hobbyist. This course doesn't slow down or hold your hand like other courses. One course I have is how to make a MOBA, and the first 8 hours are designing ball and pick up games, ball and button games and a flappy birds rip off. I learnt a lot in those projects, and enjoyed them, however motivation was challenging over the COVID period. This course, however, went through the beginner parts to refresh my knowledge (and the first course helping me update my MVS to have unity code shortcuts), and I've made the most engaging ball and pick up game, that also covered UI and different game states. This is a great beginner point for new people learning. Immediately, I have a game that I'd like to show people and is competitive with a highscore feature, not just something that's functional. I further built on this game to make it a bit more competitive and sent to all my friends (so thank you for that). Then you're immediately into MetroidVania topics. The stuff that matters to someone who is not an industry veteran. I'm sure starting with character and not environment is tabboo within the industry. But it's what the player see's first. So it's so motivating to have a character early on. This course does not pretend to be the end point either, you reach a stage (e.g. enemy AI, where the basics are handed to you, but the detail is for you to add.

A very well scripted and fast paced course. I was browsing youtube videos for a particular problem to solve for a day when I found Brent's videos that answered my questions in two short but throughout videos. That is how I found this course and I purchased it immediately. I am a professional programmer and learning unity to help out my daughter who is 16 and an aspiring video game designer. I was afraid that I needed to spend hundreds of hours figuring out things and hunting for relevant information I would need. This course saves me weeks. Thank you Brent, it has been very useful so far!