60 Day Learning Challenge: GameDev, WebDev, and Japanese
I'm starting a new learning challenge! These learning challenges keep my brain from rotting away. This write up is all the research I did before starting. The challenge runs from July 6th 2025 to September 4th 2025.
Strategy (Interleaving vs. Blocked Practice)
The overall strategy is to set up a routine with the same daily schedule and incrementally work toward checking off every item on the list. The day is broken up so that many skills are practiced for smaller chunks of time per day. This concept is called interleaving.
This contrasts with blocked practice, which involves long stretches of time on a single subject (e.g., spending a week straight on a single item). Interleaving content over a longer period creates more durable learning than cramming it into a short timeframe. This should result in completing all measurable goals (listed below) closer to the end of the 60 days.
Areas of Study
1. Game Developement
Making my own games is something I've always wanted to do, and this will be the biggest focus of my learning challenge. I've cut down the scope of what I want to learn because if I left it as "Game Development," it would be hard to measure improvement. More specifically, I'll be learning to make 2D games using the Godot Engine and primarily focusing on exports for the web (as opposed to desktop games that would get put up on Steam or something).
Resources
My requirements for learning resources are:
- Must updated for the most recent version of Godot (4+).
- Only focused on 2D games.
- Must include project-based learning.
While researching, I noticed a lot of people had an aversion to paying for learning materials. I understand why: if there is a free option that is just as good, just use that instead. However, because of this, people don't give much consideration to paid materials. My thinking when researching is this:
If all resources were free, which one would I use?
With all this in mind, I've settled on Learn 2D Gamedev from Zero with Godot 4 as my primary learning source. While that course has many projects to build, I'll also be using The 20 Games Challenge to supplement this area.
2. WebDev
Web development is a skill everyone should have. Many things in our lives revolve around the internet, yet few people possess the skills to create even the simplest websites. They take steps, intentionally or not, to overcome this trivial obstacle. For example, Linktree generates a link for social media bios, allowing multiple links on one page since platforms usually permit only a single link. People may pay a monthly fee for this when it's one of the simplest web development projects you can do! While I have no intention of working as a web developer, it's such a fundamental skill that I want to improve over time.
Resources
This is an easy one. I've already finished the Foundations course of The Odin Project, so I'm just continuing where I left off. My previous 30-day challenge was finishing the Foundations course (along with a few other things), and overall I really liked it. So I'll be continuing with the Full-Stack JavaScript course.
3. Japanese
This one is a wild card. I don't have strong conviction to learn Japanese specifically or even a language in general. However, I've been learning how to learn for many years, and the best information about effective learning always comes from polyglots. I assume it is because there is so much material to get through, and even minor efficiency improvements would substantially save them time. I chose Japanese because many of my friends are interested in anime, so I thought it could be interesting to learn it. My goal here is not to become a fluent Japanese speaker but to see how far and how quickly I can learn through immersion and spaced-repetition flashcards.
Resources
Comprehensible Input
The best resource I've found for comprehensible Japanese input is a website called Comprehensible Japanese. This website has multiple native speakers who actively engage in comprehensible input, and from what I've seen so far, it's the most comprehensive, well-structured, and easy-to-use resource. I'm using this resource primarily for two main reasons.
- I'm brand new to the language, I don't yet have the skills to determine the level of comprehensible input I'm listening to. They can determine that for me.
- I don't want to spend a lot of time searching for comprehensible input. They have a library of over 1200+ videos (according to their website).
Comprehensible Japanese also provides transcripts of all the input so I can make accurate flashcards.
i+1 Anki Cards
Anki is a spaced repetition flashcard application. I don't want to go into too much detail about the software because there's a lot. Basically, as you successfully answer flashcards, the interval between seeing that card again gets longer, reinforcing long-term memory. "i+1" cards are flashcards that have only one new piece of information on them. Here's an example in English:
She became garrulous after a few drinks.
If you're a native English speaker, the only word you may not know in this sentence is "garrulous." If you see this card and have to articulate what garrulous means, it's easier because you understand all the other words in the sentence. Here's another example:
She became garrulous after a few potent tipples.
Effectively, the sentence is the same, and it's still asking you about the word "garrulous." However, "potent tipples" might not be a phrase many native English speakers (and especially not English learners) encounter. This would not be an i+1 flashcard because there are multiple points of knowledge the learner doesn't understand.
Remembering the Kanji
Remembering the Kanji is a book by James W. Heisig. It describes a methodology for systematizing the process of remembering 2,200 different kanji through stories. I have already created the 4,400-card Anki deck. 2,200 of the cards are identification cards and the other 2,200 are construction (writing) cards. Memorizing these should expedite the slow beginnings of learning Japanese.
Measureable Goals
The social media and reflection sections aren't necessarily areas of study, but still key parts of the progress. It's important to me to practice sharing my work in a low-stakes environment. I've done many of these learning challenges before and have always regretted keeping it to myself.
-
Reflection
- Internal Sharing: analyzing my own thoughts, interpretting how the day went, looking for ways to improve.
-
Social media
- External Sharing: discoveries, setbacks, connecting with people.
The entire 60-day process will be timed using Toggl.