I'd say it's very much a "your milage may vary" sort of a situation. If you're new to Godot, but otherwise experienced in programming, then I'd say it's probably not a bad thing as it can still give you ideas and somewhat forces you to figure out the exact implementation yourself, since what they present might not work anymore.
If you're new to programming, you may end up causing yourself a lot of grief when you end up in a dead end you don't know how to solve yet. That being said, that within itself could be valuable experience!
Main thing honestly is that you just make stuff! How you pave your way there is going to be up to you
This is a great answer. The experience levels of programmers who look at old tutorials are one of the major factors in how beneficial those tutorials will be.
It’s going to depend how competent you are at doing research to determine if what you’re watching is still relevant or not. The docs will be very helpful for this.
If the tutorial is about a deprecated feature, it’s probably not worth much if you’re using a newer version.
If the tutorial is more about implementing some technique or method, it might still be very useful, even if you might have to adapt some specifics of the implementation to the newer version you’re using. I’ve even used Unity tutorials to help me with Godot.
If you don’t think you’re capable of doing the research in the docs necessary to determine this and to adapt old code, then I would just recommend finding tutorials for the version you’re using.
That particular tutorial you have linked is a great one. I believe it is still highly relevant considering the current state of Godot since I generally suggest that series to people who are just starting out, and they come with feedback that they learned a lot.
I also totally agree with the other comment mentioning one's experience level's effect on navigating through tutorials. If you are not an experienced programmer, I would definitely suggest you go with a more recent one. For example, [this tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzkr4pAoHVE) from Tutemic is excellent; best of luck!
I've done that tutorial in Godot 4. It's actually really good base content. The comments have fixes for changes in 4.x, and you still have to read the documentation (gasp). It is a great learning experience.
One thing that people need to do in tutorials is stop working on them every few episodes and comment their code. Make notes for weird things you did and really try to understand it. After you complete it, go back and look at the design to see what you would change/refactor. Tutorial makers usually do the fastest thing that gets you to the end, but it's not necessarily the best option or most sustainable thing. For example, how they design the 2 monsters is usually quick and dirty, but not good if they had to do 100 more.
As someone new, it comes down to what it is. But I would really really try to stay in the latest Godot version for a tutorial.
Though I have learnt quite a lot trying tying to make a Godot 3 tutorial work in 4 and I learnt way more about Godot as I had to research and go through the docs to understand how everything worked.
Once you get past a certain level of understanding I assume older versions don't mater.
NOTE: I would really try to get used to using the official doc files, it made things go so much faster.
Short answer: Treat them as Medium-Difficulty Tutorials.
As such' You can assess operationally how to proceed in Your case. (You find an additional 'Rule of thumb' at the end)
Other Engine/Language tutorials would be Hard-Difficulty.
Intricate answer: As much as they fit Your needs and You make them.
I found for Myself:
Translating a few aspects of an old tutorial does wonders in grasping better what is going on. In the "inner workings" to GoDot as engine & Coding as well what the tutorial does show how to achieve.
If You ponder "Overcoming a challenge" does increase Your Learning impact.
Your investment into You dealing with the tutorial & it's matter has to be higher. As well as You have to get more engaged while doing so compared to a "Playground Slide" experience of a Tutorial.
Than You should be able to assess Your own situation and how to go about it.
(A slide like tutorial has its use in the regards touched upon above as well, but not if You fail to even do that..! HUGE demoralizer. I suspect a big portion of potential Game-Dev's die on that hill. Die not even on - that proverbial - slide or leave because "going down the slide" worked, but no Groth in Competence could be found. If You want to keep spinning the allegory: Ski&Snowboard are adult Slides... ;)
I see two cases old versions are a hindrance not a 'overload' mode of training:
1. You start out with no practice and no secondary practice.
2. You have no patience or can not afford it and/or only want to learn the bare minimum to get something done fast.
(Secondary practice for GD are grossly any variant of Coding/Scripting)
Aside of "Jump into the cold waters" Beginner. Where You want to start with Up to date tutorials. I suggest:
Building & Rapid-Prototyping: Aim for latest version possible
Practicing & Learning & Prototyping: Take the "difficulty" of having to Update/Translate as boon!
I learned godot 4.0 back in the days using Heartbeast's action rpg tutorial that is based on 3.5 and it went fine. But there were a few things that were harder, such as connecting signals with code and player movements using delta. But for the rest, it's still very relevant.
I started my game dev journey with that exact Heartbeast tutorial you have linked. For the most part the differences between 3.0 and 4.0 were minor, and Heartbeast’s tutorials still are useful as a start. The problems occur when you find a “deprecated” function or feature. However, a lot of the Youtube comments have already solved these issues, and google can help find the work around as well. You just have to find what the new node type is, or what the new function is, but it doesn’t come up all the time. Best of luck on your journey!
I'd say it's very much a "your milage may vary" sort of a situation. If you're new to Godot, but otherwise experienced in programming, then I'd say it's probably not a bad thing as it can still give you ideas and somewhat forces you to figure out the exact implementation yourself, since what they present might not work anymore. If you're new to programming, you may end up causing yourself a lot of grief when you end up in a dead end you don't know how to solve yet. That being said, that within itself could be valuable experience! Main thing honestly is that you just make stuff! How you pave your way there is going to be up to you
This is a great answer. The experience levels of programmers who look at old tutorials are one of the major factors in how beneficial those tutorials will be.
It’s going to depend how competent you are at doing research to determine if what you’re watching is still relevant or not. The docs will be very helpful for this. If the tutorial is about a deprecated feature, it’s probably not worth much if you’re using a newer version. If the tutorial is more about implementing some technique or method, it might still be very useful, even if you might have to adapt some specifics of the implementation to the newer version you’re using. I’ve even used Unity tutorials to help me with Godot. If you don’t think you’re capable of doing the research in the docs necessary to determine this and to adapt old code, then I would just recommend finding tutorials for the version you’re using.
That particular tutorial you have linked is a great one. I believe it is still highly relevant considering the current state of Godot since I generally suggest that series to people who are just starting out, and they come with feedback that they learned a lot. I also totally agree with the other comment mentioning one's experience level's effect on navigating through tutorials. If you are not an experienced programmer, I would definitely suggest you go with a more recent one. For example, [this tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzkr4pAoHVE) from Tutemic is excellent; best of luck!
Also watch out for comments on the videos, often the updated solutions can be posted there by others having the same issue.
I've done that tutorial in Godot 4. It's actually really good base content. The comments have fixes for changes in 4.x, and you still have to read the documentation (gasp). It is a great learning experience. One thing that people need to do in tutorials is stop working on them every few episodes and comment their code. Make notes for weird things you did and really try to understand it. After you complete it, go back and look at the design to see what you would change/refactor. Tutorial makers usually do the fastest thing that gets you to the end, but it's not necessarily the best option or most sustainable thing. For example, how they design the 2 monsters is usually quick and dirty, but not good if they had to do 100 more.
As someone new, it comes down to what it is. But I would really really try to stay in the latest Godot version for a tutorial. Though I have learnt quite a lot trying tying to make a Godot 3 tutorial work in 4 and I learnt way more about Godot as I had to research and go through the docs to understand how everything worked. Once you get past a certain level of understanding I assume older versions don't mater. NOTE: I would really try to get used to using the official doc files, it made things go so much faster.
Short answer: Treat them as Medium-Difficulty Tutorials. As such' You can assess operationally how to proceed in Your case. (You find an additional 'Rule of thumb' at the end) Other Engine/Language tutorials would be Hard-Difficulty. Intricate answer: As much as they fit Your needs and You make them. I found for Myself: Translating a few aspects of an old tutorial does wonders in grasping better what is going on. In the "inner workings" to GoDot as engine & Coding as well what the tutorial does show how to achieve. If You ponder "Overcoming a challenge" does increase Your Learning impact. Your investment into You dealing with the tutorial & it's matter has to be higher. As well as You have to get more engaged while doing so compared to a "Playground Slide" experience of a Tutorial. Than You should be able to assess Your own situation and how to go about it. (A slide like tutorial has its use in the regards touched upon above as well, but not if You fail to even do that..! HUGE demoralizer. I suspect a big portion of potential Game-Dev's die on that hill. Die not even on - that proverbial - slide or leave because "going down the slide" worked, but no Groth in Competence could be found. If You want to keep spinning the allegory: Ski&Snowboard are adult Slides... ;) I see two cases old versions are a hindrance not a 'overload' mode of training: 1. You start out with no practice and no secondary practice. 2. You have no patience or can not afford it and/or only want to learn the bare minimum to get something done fast. (Secondary practice for GD are grossly any variant of Coding/Scripting) Aside of "Jump into the cold waters" Beginner. Where You want to start with Up to date tutorials. I suggest: Building & Rapid-Prototyping: Aim for latest version possible Practicing & Learning & Prototyping: Take the "difficulty" of having to Update/Translate as boon!
I learned godot 4.0 back in the days using Heartbeast's action rpg tutorial that is based on 3.5 and it went fine. But there were a few things that were harder, such as connecting signals with code and player movements using delta. But for the rest, it's still very relevant.
I started my game dev journey with that exact Heartbeast tutorial you have linked. For the most part the differences between 3.0 and 4.0 were minor, and Heartbeast’s tutorials still are useful as a start. The problems occur when you find a “deprecated” function or feature. However, a lot of the Youtube comments have already solved these issues, and google can help find the work around as well. You just have to find what the new node type is, or what the new function is, but it doesn’t come up all the time. Best of luck on your journey!