Hello everyone, I'm looking for some advice on where to go now, and what to look for. I've reposted my stuff from the user stories thread to give an idea about where I am at the moment. A pretty good introduction of me, if I do say so myself (I posted this in the thread about user stories):

Quote:Paarth, age 16. usually lazy but extremely obsessive about things he's interested in (Game programming, AI) currently knows Java fairly well, is learning Lisp and C++ (C++ he is decent enough at to do most console based things, is looking at OpenGL) so far he's been lazy and uninterested in programming small practice things since he can write the whole program in his head and doesn't want to type it out. But, he got off his ass and did some work one day, and created Pong, Conway's game of life, and a small breakout clone. After that day was over he went back to his sloth-like ways and over the weekend set up gentoo, and then configured his apache, mysql, php, and mediawiki implementations to not bitch at each other. it took the whole weekend. The wiki was for collaborating on game docs with two friends of his, who can also program. He has been obsessed about games since he was 5, and he learned to program at 12. unfortunately his school work/life takes up a significant amount of his life (11 hours a day spending time at and getting to school, which happens to be an hour away, and then 1-5 hours more on homework.) This leaves him with an unacceptably short amount of time for goofing off, and then he catches his 4-6 hours of sleep. Paarth uses linux, but does not sneer at the mention of windows like some of his friends. He is not very interested in DirectX, but might decide to learn it some day if he can get his windows mysql server and his wiki database on the gentoo partition to play nice. He has big dreams, the guts to dream them, and the rabid compulsiveness of making his programs insanely awesome to achieve those dreams. MMOs are his thing. He currently has the skills (or skillz) to program one in Java (except for OpenGL, which he feels he can learn in less than 3 months) to create an MMORPG in Java. (He has, conveniently, been using photoshop for 4 years and is somewhat competent). However, he is convinced Java is extremely slow (example, USACO gives 1.5x the time to Java programs) , and so is learning C++. Paarth has a tendency to pick up things and leave them for other projects, leaving him with a working knowledge of Java, C++, and Lisp, along with a partial knowledge of haskell, x86 assembly (linux), python, bash, actionscript, LOLCODE, php, and perl. He plans to have an alpha of his game ready by the end of the summer, and a beta by christmas. (Sometimes being obsessive about something can help, and also the fact that he will be a senior next year). He also has two lackeys, sorry, friends that might help him code his game. He thanks you for your time <and then he turns around and steals some more> Paarth is very passionate about character building, and achieving a high standard set for yourself. So, he tends to like Ayn Rand books and his owning at games. A major portion of his ideal game (which he plans to make) is building up your character in both status and... everything else. Build your empire, spread your influence, become your g0d (and everybody elses)

That should give the backstory :) more specifics: I use kate/vim and g++ when I'm on linux, and I have VC++2008 for when I'm on windows (like now) -uses eclipse for java on windows, and sometimes uses that on linux. (also likes javac) One of the big problems is that I don't really have much free time. the intro should give an idea of where I am in terms of what i know so far, but this is all in Java. I am learning C++, but am not quite as good with it yet. Anyways, I'm here looking for places to go to learn. I've found antiRTFM's video tutorials on youtube for C++, I've been to NeHe's site (which is just great), and seen the tutorials on spacesimulator.net. I visited here once before but never signed up. I'm asking if some people could tell me of some good places to look next, some good places where I can learn what I need to know. A problem I often have is that I don't bother programming things because I know HOW to program them, and don't really feel like taking the time to do so. (I did that one day that I mentioned in the intro). I know that I should be doing it and earning "valuable insight" through working around errors, but something like Tetris is just not one of my interests. (I'll probably make it anyways as practice, but it's not something I like) I'm really sorry if this is choppy and sort of hard to understand. Those 4-6 hours of sleep a night really get to you. Any advice on what to do now would be appreciated Thank you

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not ^^

School only has things in Java (except for AI, Lisp territory)

I agree with going to school. There are plenty of schools that offer different languages. When I went to a local school called South Hills they had VB, C++, Assembly, Java, and C. When I went to Penn State they had C++, Assembly, Java, C#, VB,and I could have sworn I remember seeing a python class but I could be wrong...and now I go to DeVry (I learn better at tech schools I have found) and we have C++, C#, VB, Assembly, and Java. A good thing is to see what kind of learner you are because after my three colleges I find that it is easier for me to focus at a tech school because there are less gen ed classes and I focus more on what I am interested in. Some people learn better with a break from all the core classes and prefer a 4 year college.

One thing I can advise you though if you pick a school is to make sure you do your own homework and not just trust an advisor. Every school I went to I have had some bad advice from advisors. (PSU telling me C++ isn't a popular programming language, DeVry telling me Assembly is for beginners even though I knew better, things like that).

I'm still in high school

It's hard to tell you where to go to learn things if you don't give us an indication of what you want to learn. What kind of knowledge are you interested in picking up? Do you want to learn more programming languages, more libraries, how to write more complex games... give us a direction, and then we'll be able to provide resources.

Even though your still in high school its smart to start looking at college early. Start deciding what you want to go for and where you want to go. It'll make things a lot easier because in a sense, "tomorrow evening" you will be graduating.