Reading about Moonbase, the best game that never was, made me wonder about skill culmination. I usually try to think about how to apply a concept once I have encountered it, but imagine stuffing bits of code references into your mental bin, pointers to longer examples already written: that steady accretion is a growing allocation in your untested toolbox, but there for composing bigger ideas. Even exposure to the execution might be enough for your mind to refer to it later, even when you have no idea how to make a useful app after learning one thing (like TextArea).
That’s my approach with “Game Programming All in One” for now: finish the book. Finish it, and then look back when a project presents. I may have a better idea of what’s possible after the grind, after the tedium of laying out tiles and plowing through examples. The algorithms are common in many games; adhering to each new concept as needing a new executable would involve a lot of repeat typing.
The other side is the “Art and Fear” side: quantity over quality. This aligns with establishing fluency. I make an exception, because games are gestalt productions: you’re likely to need sound, animation and double-buffering in any of them. Those techniques are universal and just need to be learned.