pdq "whether the tutorials are too difficult "
I'm afraid youv'e picked the wrong people to ask that question.
It's like asking a driver how hard can it be to drive?
Not only are the people you are asking already programming but their perspective is on programming and not teaching.
As a qualified trainer, assessor and internal verifier for National Awards I can give you a quick answer.
The monster hunt is far too advanced for anyone as an introduction to programming.
That is exactly why Lee Bamber provides hundreds of small examples to get you started. Everything from how to create a matrix, moving an object on a matrix and getting a camera to follow that object etc.
To bypass this basic foundation and leap straight into a full blooded program introduces far too steep a learning curve.
The result of this will be widespread copying of other peoples work by at least 75% of the student body.
I witnessed this at first hand when I myself was a student.
The educational emphasis these days is not so much on learning knowledge but rather learning how to pass an exam.
Even the moral implication of cheating can be subverted by a moral right to have the same fighting chance as others in the class that nature might have gifted more than yourself.
You could end up with a whole group of people who's only ability is to type, cut and paste.
As to whether the monster tutorial is a bridge too far, test the students. Ask each one to step through the code and tell you exactly what's happening. If they can't do this then it will prove beyond a doubt that the tutorial is too advanced.
Doing this now means that you can revert to the small examples I mentioned to give the students a programming foundation.
The 'monster hunt' tutorial is after all just a combination of all the small examples brought together.
The test difference however is that if each student has to learn all the small examples and then bring them together each program will look slightly different as it should.
Better to have a simpler program that each student can complete by themself than a more complicated one completed by a handful of students and copied by the rest!
mpc