First of all, how did I get here?
September 2022 - 7th graduation anniversary (BS in Healthcare Administration) and 8th year working in the healthcare industry desperately wanting to transition to the field I've been wanting to work in since I was in middle school...
October 2022 - Enrolled at Coding Dojo and began a journey to learn 3 full stack languages which were Python, Java, and JavaScript.
June 2023 - Graduated from Coding Dojo!
July 2023 - As Java has been my favorite programming language, I began growing my Java skills with courses on Spring Security, jUnit Testing, and other Java concepts.
August 2023 - Wanting to prepare myself with a well-rounded and thorough skillset I decided that once I had Java down I would then learn C++ and after that I would learn C#. I typed up a checklist of goals and actionable steps.
So... Unity?
"Java and C++ and C#, Oh My!" If you guessed game development, you guessed right! As a problem-solver, I have always wanted to improve systems I used in the healthcare industry and government sector which is why Java has been my go-to since the bootcamp. However, when I took a month off from coding after graduating from Coding Dojo I also thought about what I saw myself working on. I knew I wanted to be a developer, but where exactly would I feel the most happy and fulfilled? That was creating immersive worlds in the gaming industry. Stay tuned for a separate post on the specifics of "Why gaming?"!
My goal is to be highly skilled in Java, C++, and C#. That said, many companies use the Unity game engine instead of building their own which led to me downloading it this week and starting their learning path!
Learning Unity Pathways
I am currently in the Unity Essentials path which will lead to the Junior Programmer path and then the Creative Core path.
The learning pathways in Unity are beginner friendly with clear steps and have a good progression speed. In the Unity Essentials path, I finished a few sections already and am currently learning the essentials of real-time 3D. Before starting this section, I completed one of the handful of microgames they provide which are template projects that have built-in tutorials to learn the Unity game engine's interface. Below you will see a portion of the tutorial I chose which is from their FPS Microgame.
The rest of the Unity Essentials involves learning programming, audio, as well as 2D within the interface and much more. I am passionate about gaming and the gaming industry so I hope to keep you all posted as I navigate this journey!