If you want to learn or brush up on c++ "accelerated c++" is a really good book. It's all in the console so don't expect anything flashy but you will have a good understanding of the language by the time you're done with it. After that do a little GUI coding like win32 or QT so you know how to make a program that runs inside a window. Once these two are under your belt you can learn directX or openGL (or SDL, Allegro, SFML which are easier for beginners). Then you should be ready to make games.

It takes quite alot of practice before you can really start developing (even simple) games so keep that in mind. I was coding for years before I finally started developing my little pong-engine. I was quite lazy during that time though so you can probably do it faster if you have the drive.

EDIT: if you're really itching to start today I would read some unity tutorials, read up on gameloops (the beating heart of any game) and maybe find some sample code

Read me.


With some prior programming experience, Unity is a decent place to start. ( I question if its a good place to start without said experience... some say yes, some say no, I say... I dunno ).

Now on the other hand, starting with an RPG... well, that's a step down from the MMO scale in the list of overly difficult first projects ( in fact, I would posit an RPG would be more difficult in many cases ). If you've no prior game experience, start smaller, much much much smaller. Like say... a 6 sided dice simulator or tic tac toe. Finish, increase difficulty, finish, repeat and rinse. Then make an RPG.