I’m not sure why people still recommend C++. You can do the same things in C# with a tenth of the code. There are debates about performance between C++ and C#, but with the highly increased productivity of C#, I would take a slightly lower degree of optimization any day.
C# with XNA Game Studio would be my vote.
But you should be really serious about learning this stuff. Game programming is as hard as programming gets. To make something even remotely good will require expert programming knowledge. You will have to learn about graphics and audio as well.
[quote]RebornTN wrote:
With regard to Pony, I would rather learn something I can use in a career now, since I can absorb information very fast. And I always have a lot more free time now then I will ever have again I think.[/quote]
If you are really motivated, learn C#. XNA as mentioned a couple of posts above, is a good argument.
C++ will still be too tedious, and C# is definitely usable in your career later on.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn C++, you definitely should sometime within a few years if you want to become a good (game) programmer. But it is a bad choice of first-language.
If you know programming in C#, or any other similar language (Java, Python, etc.) you will have to spend much less time bending your brain around all the different stuff in C++.
You will thank me in two-three years when you take a peek at C++ and understand why I said what I just said. Learning C# (or something similar) now will NOT slow down your career, it will rather speed it up.
(Btw, to you other guys: Assembly is fun. Fuck abstractions, when you can have POWER! :D)