Since you didn't mention any programming language, I assume you don't know any yet, so you have two choices.

Either you try to learn a programming language yourself, or you use a programm like GameMaker.

Since you want to do a text based game, you could go with Php or Python, since both are relatively easy to learn and use (I'm not shure about python, but you can run a script to output it's std::out to the console).
-Python
-Php

If you've decided which way to go, then we can help you further.

I would see php as an introduction into the programming world. Php is mostly used in web environments, but since it comes with a standalone interpreter, it can be used to create a text based game, but nothing more fancy (on its own).

Php is used for alot of browser games and supports a great range of features (mostly related to web development), but can be used in conjunction with that interpreter. So you would start the programm and run the script with a command (propably a commandline argument) and the script would output whatever it desires.

There are countless of great tutorials about php on the web, just google for it and maybe start with a hello-world programm ;)

Php however cannot be used to create a more advanced game (with fancy graphical effects, IMO). But in my oppinion it's a great start to something like c++, because the syntax is very similar, and most functions even have the same name (printf, etc..).