Complete beginner to game development here. Need help with proceeding,

[rattusrattus]

So, I've been dabbling around in rpg maker and now AGS for a little bit. I followed some tutorials for both. Rpg maker was fairly easy to get a grasp on of course, but the type of game I want to make isn't an rpg. I've followed this series of tutorials so far https://youtu.be/0juPIF41vbM?si=sCdpaGV3Grb6iRpj and have kind of just followed along with what the guy is doing. I don't really understand any of the coding aspect. I have only ever coded in school and I've forgotten almost all of it. What would the best way to go about learning this program be? Is there an alternative that would fit me better? Thank you so much!

[eri0o]

Uhm, so basically RPG Maker uses it's own concepts that are attempting to describe a specific type of game, JRPGs, and as so it will have it's logic geared towards those, and using things like map with tiles, events and charas, tou have a screen where you configure some things like the curves for the stats, you plan the battles and stuff like that, standard things that you can expect in classic JRPG games, but it also gives two additional layers to add some logic, one in it's minimalist logic and other in straightforward Ruby or JavaScript - depending on which RPG Maker you are using, the really old ones didn't have this second layer.

AGS on the other hand, uses concepts that are familiar to classic Adventure games, you can have characters, inventory items, and instead of maps with tiles we get rooms that use an image to set the background and you can put objects in these and the walking uses walkable areas to set them and the like - concepts that existed in the original engines in classic adventure games.

Like RPG Maker, AGS is old, but it hasn't been redone as much as RPG Maker - it's been open source and has been maintained by volunteers.

Anyway, it depends on what type of game you want to make.

The manual has a tutorial, you mentioned you played around with AGS for some time, perhaps try following the tutorial here: https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/acintro2.html

I would recommend trying to make a small adventure game, just to play around with it.

In regards to scripting, there's no escaping it in AGS, you will have to when you use it, the manual also has something on it, here: https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/index.html#scripting

I don't particularly like the tutorial there too much, so don't hang up on it, but I would say it's easier to learn it by making some game so that you focus on what you need and have some motivation and then as you go you would get more experience.

[ThreeOhFour]

A good approach is to break down your goals into individual pieces, such as "Make a character walk", then "Make a character take an object", "Make a character open a door and walk into another room" and then when you get stuck ask for specific help on your exact problem. Eventually the script language will start to make more sense as you accomplish your goals!

[Danvzare]

Following tutorials is a good way to familiarize yourself with a new tool, so you'll know where to find everything when needed. But they're not a good way to learn how to use said tool.

A good way to learn for me personally (each person is different), is to follow a tutorial as a guide.
If the guy is showing you how to make a character pick up a key and use it to unlock a door. You instead make a character pick up a gem to open a portal which take you to a room where you find another gem which changes the portal to yet another room. It's the same lesson that the tutorial taught you, but your own take on it, expanded to kind of repeat itself.

As for learning to code, I find inspecting other people's code to be a great help.
I remember being confused about how to do certain things, but remembering seeing them done in a template. So I'd open up that template, look at how they did it, and then attempt to copy it over.

Lastly, make sure to look at this forum. Any question you want to ask, has probably been asked a dozen times already. So all the help is here if you're willing to look for it.
That being said, if you can't find an answer, don't hesitate to ask for help. 

Of course you'll need to start a project yourself, so you actually encounter the problems that you need to learn to overcome. A nice little goal to work towards is always a good start in learning something new.