To protect the TS! I'd spend on C++ about 3.5 years and still learning it.
GameDev programming is just another branch in programming. So you should learn it as another one. And if you start learning it on 1st year of learning the language, then you will more skilled in it on 2nd, 3rd year.

I wish to TS a good luck and be patient.

PS You do need a challenges to learn anything. There is no other way.

3-4 months...hmmm.

Okay, its good you have stuck with programming long enough to know you enjoy it. However, there are two main ingredients required to become a confident programmer: Knowledge of your language and software development.

As you have discovered for yourself, its not too difficult to learn your chosen language, or at least well enough to write some "Hello, World" programs. You've taken care of that part and now its a case of looking up in reference books. However, your programs will grow in size and so its going to become quite challenging to keep a project under control and in a focused direction. Also, as you learn different languages, you start to realise its not so much the language you need to worry about learning, but good programming practices. Software development is something you apply to almost all languages.

Its like your language is your hammer and nails. You know you bang nails into wood using your hammer. Software development, on the other hand, is your plans for how you arrange your wood into a frame. Once you have your plans drawn up and your wood levelled into the right positions, then you can start banging nails into the wood with the hammer. LOL, I suppose the nails would your code and libraries, but lets keep it simple for now...

I'm going to stress something I did, and that really helped me:

Get a large, well written (Easy and amusing to read), reference book.

1) Read it all the way through. Don't use the examples, don't code anything. Read the whole thing without coding.
2) Re-Read it, this time coding all the examples, doing all the practice questions, etc.
3) Start making programs in the console you think are cool. Any-time you have a problem consult your book.

This should take 3-4 months if you are really focusing (Reading the book in detail, doing ALL the examples, and writing your own console-code for at least a month.)

Then, pick a Graphics API and download the documentation.

1) Read the documentation. Remember this: Use every chapter / new thing to do something with it that wasn't in the tutorial.
2) Make knock-offs of classic game, consulting the documentation constantly. The reason you make knockoffs is so that you focus on learning programming rather than learning game design.
3) Embark on your own project! Also, remember to pre-visualize! Here's some articles I wrote to help you along the way:

Pre-Visualization is Important!
Stop the Catch-Alls!
Instant Gratification (And Why It's Important)!

Have fun!

I have no plans on giving up. Making games is what i want to do and making games is what i will do. I am just getting frustrated at school seeing other people understanding programming better then me feels disheartening.

I guess it just a part of life and how my brain is wired. Going to have to put in a lot more work then the average person.I didn't do to well on my mid-term but thanks for the confidence boost guys. I know i wont be happy doing anything else in life then making games.

Ryan,

The tenacity is exciting to me! You will reach at least some respectable level of success from such determination.

Let me share with you a secret which is largely unknown, forgotten, or unappreciated. Formal education with all its advantages is no indicator of your future success. I know that some academic people will condemn me for making such a statement, but history has proven it millions of times.

Albert Einstein, Eric Hartmann, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, some of the greatest in their various fields, and many a successful achiever such as musicians had nearly or completely washed from formal training or performed very lack luster early. As a matter of fact, approximately 1 of 4 billionaires were failures in classes, for example as high school or college drop-outs!

By all means, finish your education! However do not be discouraged because it is training and not the future determiner that many claim it to be. Don't let all that testing and comparing to other students be a judgement on you. Instead see it as a series of stepping stones to possible high achievment later in life when you are free to create your own research and development of games.

Your tenacity is more important than the classes. The reality of you being in school is enough proof of your future programming skills. Some people don't do too well in school because of being more complex and not because of being stupid. Your ordinary looking school performance just might actually be a sign of greatness, as many great ones have demonstrated throughout history. In time you will fulfill your control of the course of your life if you remain tenacious.


Clinton