Hello everyone! I am an aspiring video game maker, like many others on this site, but I guess you could hardly call me aspiring because I am very new to this subject. I am a sophmore in highschool and I only have 1 year of &#106avascript/HTML experience but ever since I took the class I have wanted to jump into the world of coding and being a gamer myself making video games. Even though I am new, I realize that making games is insanely hard and takes a lot of hard work and experience. But I am willing to work at it if it means I could acctually make a game. Before reading my questions I wanted to say that I have read the FAQ on Beginners at this site but I still have a few questions. What language should I use? Now, I know that know one can tell me a definite answer but theres a couple I am thinking about. I started doing C++ but I haven't learned much, just loops and strings and condition statments and all that noob stuffso maybe I should continue there. I could do Java but I am going to learn that in school next year. I could do C# because of the XNA program but I'm not sure if thats really a starter language and I don't own an XBOX 360. One more thing, The more I do tutorials for C++, the more I'm confused on how these apply to video games. I learn these lessons but all im getting is Numbers and phrases in a command prompt. I know you can't expect to deal with graphics so quickly but I was wondering whether there are any good tutorials out there for any of these languages pertainng to game development. Thank you very much for any help I can get. I look forward to being a member here and getting to make some fun games!

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One more thing, The more I do tutorials for C++, the more I'm confused on how these apply to video games. I learn these lessons but all im getting is Numbers and phrases in a command prompt. I know you can't expect to deal with graphics so quickly but I was wondering whether there are any good tutorials out there for any of these languages pertainng to game development.

Most of todays games rely on the system API and other APIs, such
as DirectX and OpenGL for hardware performance. These APIs can be
used to create both 2d and 3d video games.

You can also a)Use low level C/C++ to create graphics yourself (Not
recommended for games--very hard), or b)Write your own software renderer
(Very hard, but alot of games have this)

Basic C/C++ concepts--loops, functions, pointers, classes, varables, enums,
constants, strings, etc.. are used almost everywhere in games. If you want
to understand where or how they apply to games, search the forums! Seriously[smile]
Alot of members here use C++. Looking at their code should give you some ideas.

From C++, your next step is choosing an API or an existing game engine.
I personally recommend learning an API, such as DirectX or OpenGL. Keep
in mind these APIs are quite complex.

There is also SDL and Allegro, Although I dont have experience with them[smile]

Thanks, yea I have heard of SDL but the tutorial isn't very...accomodating to newbs. I couldn't follow it. Made me sad :(

But I havent read it a while so maybe ill get it now.

Ok, I'll give them another shot.

Recently I have been going through the tutorial on cplusplus.com but once it got to arrays I started to fall off and when I got to classes I kinda gave up. I really need a good tutorial that is easy on newbs. Also pointers make no sense to me as well. Any one know of a good one?

pointers aren't that tricky. If you can give common sense answers to the following questions about the windows file system then you can understand pointers:

do you know how to make a shortcut to file?
do you know how to double click on a shortcut to open a file?
If you delete the file and then double click on the shortcut will the file open?
If you delete the shortcut does that delete the file?
If you copy a file and then modify it, and then you double click on a shortcut to the original file, will you see the modifications?

Now the only tricky thing is the syntax. C++ inherited some counter-intuitive pointer syntax from C. You'll get used to it in a few months.

I have time to spare, so this may help you with arrays and pointers.

As you know, all programs must be loaded into memory to be executed.
We refrence memory cells by "addresses", where each address represents
a byte in memory.

Address 0 is the first byte in memory.

Because your program is in memory, each of it's routines, varables, etc.
can be refrenced by a memory address - Where it is located in memory.

Because of this: Every function and varable has an address.

In C++, you can print the address of a varable or function to find
where it is at. You do this with the Address of (&) operator:

   int i=0;   std::cout << &i << std::endl;   // prints address of i

In C++, If you declare two varables next to each other, they are litterally
next to each other in memory. Your program can access any memory allocated
to it by the OS.

A Pointer is a varable that stores a memory address. This might not
seem to usefull, but it is. Coinsider video memory. In order to draw a
pixel on screen, you need to access video memory directly. How do we do this
using normal varables? We cant.

The only way of accessing memory is by knowing an address for it to "point" at.

In C++, A Pointer is denoted by the Pointer ("*") operator.

   unsigned char a;    // normal varable contains data   unsigned char* p;   // pointer varable. Its data is a memory address.

In the above, "p" is a pointer. Using the Address-of (&) operator, we
can make it point ("Store the address of another varable") to 'a':

   p = &a

Now the pointer p contains the Exact address of varable a.
This means pointer p points to varable a.

Now, because they both referr to the same address, you can indirectly
modify 'a' using the Indirection (*) operator:

   *p = 0;   // Because p "points to" a, this changes the value of a!

In short and sweet:

   unsigned char* p=0; // p points to address 0 (Indicates bad pointer)   p = &a             // get address of a, store in pointer--pointer is good  *p++;               // increment the data pointed by p (The varable a)

You can assign absolute addresses to pointers as well:

   unsigned char* p = 0xA000;

In the above, the pointer points to address 0xA000... The beginning of
video memory.

Linear Addressing

Remember that two varables placed one after another is litterally right
after each other in memory. Linear Memory just means that varables
in memory is right after each other.

For example, Lets say you have 3000 vertex points to store. One way of
handling this is creating varables right after each other:

   Vertex v1;   Vertex v2;   Vertex v3;// etc...   Vertex v10000;

This is ALOT of typing. Because these varables are right after each other
in memory, This is an example of Linear Addressing.

This is ALOT of code to type! An Array is just a Pointer.
An array is just another way to represent Linear Memory, like the
above.

Because creating 10,000 varables is bad, we can create it in an array with
alot less typing:

   Vertex array[10000];  // This is the same as the above code!

This code (And the above) are both linear memory. Because of this, They
both are the same.

They provide us a better solution then typing and working with 10,000 of
the same type of varable.

To refrence, lets say, the 1st vertex, use the Subscript operator:

   array[0];   // The first vertex

Computer memory Always starts counting from 0. Its not a C++ "thing".

The actual name of the array represents a pointer (Hence, It stores an
address of the First array element.

Hope this clears things up a bit[smile]

Download the Java Sun Tutorials and read the OOP section.

I know your not learning Java yet, but those tutorials explain OOP very well and the syntax for classes and such is almost identical to C++ so you should be able to follow the source pretty well.