EddieV223

You should also have c# on that list.  I would suggest c++ or c# if you want to make games.  C++ is without a doubt more challenging but provides you with a lower level of control.  You have to know more about computers and code to write c++.  So if you learn c++ then you can pick up any language after that pretty easy.  And yes SFML2 is very good.

Also c#/xna is pretty good.  C# as a language makes programming easier and it has great OOP design.  XNA while no longer being developed is still a good library, monogame is good for 2d as well.

Lau, python, javascript are some of the most common.  There are others too.  Some companies make their own.  Even Java ( as in not JavaScript ) is going to be used for scripting in Arma 3.  And c# is used as scripting language in Unity.

There are 3 major reason people use these in games,

1 Increase speed of development ( easier and faster coding, don't have to recompile when you make small changes, often you don't even have to close the game to see the change to a script in action )

2 Less bugs ( it's pretty easy in c++ to make a bug that compiles, and even easier to make errors that don't compile )

3 Seperation of game logic and low level engine code

I suggest using SFML, it will teach you nice OOP style of code.  This is what c++ is all about over c.  Check my sig for more info.

If your vector owns the object pointers, use a unique_ptr<Object>, then cleanup happens automatically.

SFML is what you want, of the top 2d libs it's the only one that is OOP.  Check my sig.

Just finished my first book (beginning c++ through game programming), and I was able to make games like Zork and a blackjack game (which is the last program in the book), but I know nothing about making any sort of graphics/interface, so I was just wondering.

 

I was going to get Game Coding Complete, but it seems like it uses C# and LUA codes, and I'm trying to stick to C++, but if it's the right book for me now, I'll get it. So can someone give me an advice about that? What should I do next?

Game Coding Complete does not use c#.  Though it may have a chapter or two on scripting using lua, it really is a c++ book.  However I would imagine it's way over your head right now.  I suggest you pickup a library like SFML and start cranking out some 2d games.  I suggest SFML because it is object oriented.  Get the nightly from the forums for pre built version SFML2.0 binaries.

You should probably stick with 2d unless you feel you understand the math fully ( from other posts it seems like you don't ).  If you do then you can step up to 3d, however expect that you won't make anything like a real "Game" for some time.  You'll have to make small basic demo apps and a lot of them in order to learn certain things.  

As far as the openGL/DirectX question.  There is 1 major difference between them, openGL is cross platform, while directx is Microsoft platforms only.  So if your not on windows you have to use openGL.

If you are working only on windows then you get to choose, I would still suggest openGL but it really doesn't make much difference on windows only programming since the API's have similar features and perform the same tasks.  

So I suggest openGL because you will learn an api that you could run anywhere, and also Valve has said openGL runs considerably faster than DirectX, as they ported their Source engine to openGL and it runs better.  Plus if microsoft goes belly up DirectX dies with it.

1.

You have to choose how low level you want to go.  c++/openGL/DirectX is the lowest you would want to go.  OpenGL being cross platform.  If you don't want to do that kind of low level engine coding you can use c++ with some other Graphics API like Ogre3D or Irrlicht.

However for newbies, it seems like the sweet spot is really C# and XNA/MonoGame, and building up to Unity.  C# is easier to learn language but doesn't give you low level control over your code and is not built for speed over anything else like c++.

However it is a great language and if you learn C# not only will you be able to make games but also any other app you wish and making GUI's is really easy in that language.

2.  Visual Studio 2012 Express For Desktop supports c++ and C#, it is also FREE.  http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads

3. Math, OOP design, theory, ect...

4. Difficult but not to hard.

Start with a good book in your chosen language, learn that language like it was your gospel.  Once you know how to program get a book about game programming in your chosen language, and probably a Math book as well.

Try Unity.

C# and unity would be my suggestion.  C# is one of the easier to learn modern general purpose languages.  Unity is a 3d engine that runs on all major platforms, and uses c#/Mono as a scripting language.  

Get on the sfml forum, search for "nightly" you should find a thread with sfml 2.0 built from the repo, there is a package for vs2012.

If I were you I would use SFML, since it's object oriented.  Will be good for you to see a well designed object oriented library.

As you loop through the array, you don't have to go back wards, for example test the first one against the ones after it, then test the second one against the ones after it, but you don't have to retest the first one against the second since you already know the first one failed the test.  If you make it to the second to last one, ( only 2 left ) and you haven't found 3 matches yet, you don't have to test the last two since there is only 2 left there can't be 3 matches in 2 objects.

I'd like to know what you think you learned so wrong, and what book you read.

SDL is pretty good, especially the new one.  Also you may want to look into SFML 2.0, it does the same jobs as sdl but its object oriented, and very well designed.