I’ve gone over many tutorials with students on setting up GitHub repositories and accepting GitHub Classroom assignments. However, it’s important to pause and clarify something early on: GitHub is not Git!
Git vs. GitHub
Git is a version control tool. It lives on your local machine and allows you to track changes to your project over time by creating snapshots (called commits). If something breaks, Git lets you look back at earlier versions or restore previous states of your project.
GitHub, on the other hand, is a cloud service. It stores your Git repositories online so they can be backed up, shared, and accessed remotely. To use GitHub locally, you must first install Git on your computer.
You can download Git here:👉 https://git-scm.com/
Command Line vs. GUI Tools
Git was designed to be used from the command line, and many developers still prefer it that way. However, if you don’t want to work in the terminal, that’s completely fine.
Once Git is installed, you can use a Git GUI (Graphical User Interface). A popular option is GitHub Desktop, which provides a visual way to manage commits, branches, and syncing with GitHub, without typing commands.
Download GitHub Desktop here: 👉 https://desktop.github.com/download/
With Git and GitHub Desktop installed, you can connect your local projects to GitHub and start working comfortably.
Git LFS for Game Development
Originally, Git was developed for software development and works best with small, text-based files (like code and configuration files). Game development projects, however, often include large binary files such as:
- fbx models
- textures
- audio files
This is where Git Large File Storage (Git LFS) comes in.
Git LFS is an extension to Git that handles large files more efficiently. Instead of storing large files directly in your repository history, Git LFS tracks them separately and keeps your repo lightweight and manageable.
You’ll need to install Git LFS separately:👉 https://git-lfs.com/
Once installed, Git LFS tracks file types declared in the .gitattributes file, similar to how .gitignore tells Git which files to ignore entirely.
Putting It All Together
After installing:
- Git
- GitHub Desktop
- Git LFS
You can use GitHub Desktop alongside GitHub to manage your projects, submit assignments, and collaborate effectively—especially for media-heavy game development work.
If you need a refresher on getting started with GitHub Classroom assignments, check out my post on accepting and cloning projects: 👉 https://getcreativetoday.com/github-classroom-accepting-cloning-assignments/