A common tip given to game deve beginners is:
Try cloning an existing game first
It makes a lot of sense. You are still trying to figure out the how, its nice to not have to think about the why. The design is already there.
The 20 games challenge makes this even easier by providing you a list of games to clone, ranked by difficulty. Usually there are even multiple games for each tier. For example the first game is either pong or Flappy Bird. They also give you benchmarks and a “definition of done”. When making a game, its hard to know when you’re done. In this case, you get a list of assertions that, when met, mean that you have completed the game.
There is also a lively discord community that is happy to share in your joy and playtest your game. I highly recommend you check it out.
The 20 games challenge was started and popularized by this SDG Games on YouTube.
I myself have tried and failed to follow this challenge many times. Currently I’m trying to build a Pacman clone in PICO-8.
Visit the site here!