Wackidev

Not if your going to do a career in it as he said.

Once again we have interpreted him differently. I took "career" more generally.

It is to an extent, when you considering everything is basically already implemented for you in C#, and more so in Python. I didn't recommend he code an MMO, instead of hello world, I recommended he stick to what he already has experience with.

That is not to say you cannot learn in those languages, you can, but you will be missing the finer details.

Everything already implemented? If you're referencing the standard/.NET libraries: true, many low-level tasks are abstracted to save you from "reinventing the wheel", so to speak. But if he wants to write a web scraper, should he really be initiating the socket connection and parsing HTTP to do so?

As to missing the finer details: If you're referring to pointers/memory management/low-level programming stuff in general, then yes, he will be missing it at first. I'm not objecting to his learning low-level languages down the road. I'm just suggesting they may not be ideal at first.

I disagree, if he already knows basic C++ it would be unwise to switch. Just stick with what you know, C++ may be harder but if your going to have to learn it anyways, and already know some of it, its more of a pain to switch. It is basically a waste of time to go learn something else just because people say its "easier."

Any language is easy if you work hard enough, quit being lazy and put in some hard work.

I think we have gauged his skill level differently. I got the impression that he's just starting to look into game development and hasn't really made a commitment to C++ or coded more than a few console tests. (He says a guessing game is "within his capabilities", not that he's done one yet.)

As to needing to learn C++ anyway: not necessarily. There are plenty of libraries and platforms that can be used to develop games that don't use C++. In any case, learning C++ first is probably not the best way; I'd recommend a more gentle introduction. Learning C# or Python first is not being "lazy." We don't start our careers coding MMOs, we code "hello, world."

As dkrogmann suggested, C++ is probably not the best choice for your first endeavors in programming. Perhaps try something easier, like Python or maybe C#. If you search the forums for "C++ first language" you'll turn up a lot of reasons why.

I recommend Python and Pygame. It seems someone has already told you the typical "do a guessing game and then Pong" suggestion; they're right. Work up from printing "Hello, World!" to making more and more advanced games. You'll get there if you keep at it!

gamedev.stackexchange.com is a great resource, as is this site. I've found books are the most useful learning tool for beginners. There are plenty of good ones for Python; I think I bought some from Amazon.

Good luck!

I'd recommend a combination of the above suggestions.

I started with Python console programs, then moved on to Python+PyGame. I think this is a great way to learn programming fundamentals. Try to start slowly and make sure you really understand how things work before moving on to more complex systems. If nothing else, write a text-based guessing game and Pong before you try a big game.

When you do start coding your sidescroller, I recommend using Unity. It's even easier to write a Unity game than a PyGame game, and many complicated tasks are already abstracted away for you. A 2D game in Unity shouldn't be a problem, but you may have to do some work to get it functioning as expected.

As to the flexiblity of XNA: the average game is not even going to notice the flexibility difference between Unity and XNA. You'll be able to use more external libraries from XNA and do more filesystem stuff; that's about it for most games. Unity is more crossplatform (PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android/Consoles -- latter three if you pay).

Good luck with your project!