Quote:Original post by AckertC
Start with a book. Read C# books then XNA books. This is what I am doing at the moment.

Do you have any suggestions of a C# book for someone who has never programmed before and that focuses on creating console applications as opposed to .net windows forms?

Quote:Original post by deadstar

Quote:Original post by Stowelly
i would heavily recommended getting visual c++ express from the Microsoft site, as i suspect your course will heavily involve c++.

Agreed. Take a look at the course descriptions for all the Universities you're applying for, if the majority are teaching C++ then start learning C++.

I'm at University of Salford, and they do C++, but after a recent deal with Microsoft a whole load of 360's have just been installed and I think C# and XNA is on the cards for next year's new recruits.

It might be worth looking into a graphics API too. See if your University will teach OpenGL or DirectX, and get stuck in.

EDIT; And kudos for looking into this early on. A lot of the people on my course are really struggling with even the basics. I'm glad I started learning C++ through college before starting Uni, it's helped me so much.

In the UK, is there a difference between "college" and "Uni"? I thought i had the jargon down, but now im a little confused.

I would highly recommend learning plain old C first... It's probably the best "gateway" language. Once you know C, which is already very powerful by itself, you'll be able to catch on to any language really fast... I don't know if learning an OO language without pointers first is a good idea, because you'll be skipping a lot of what you could learn about what goes on under the hood. But maybe I'm just getting old :P

Also, Computer science degrees are ridiculous... They make you learn Java in one year, you know, stuff that anyone with a brain and google can learn in a matter of weeks by themselves... When I started CS, I was just this kid who had googled around for tutorials since he was 14. There were classes I got As on that I never even attended. And I am definitely no genius...

Personally, if I had to do it all over again, I would not even have gone to university... I would have stayed home, working day in, day out in my parents' basement to learn useful skills and build up a portfolio... Cause ultimately, it's a portfolio that'll get you into the game industry... The degree is just there to justify your salary.. On its own, it's pretty much a worthless piece of paper that many thousands of other people have too, and won't land you a job.

So yeah... Expect to be bored and depressed. You're welcome :)