Before starting to learn how to program games you need to learn how to program, and this is not much related to wich language you choose. Usually the suggested languages are Java, C# and Python for beginners. My personal preference goes to C# because it is really easy to set up (once you have Visual Studio Express edition installed) and already provides support for DX. Python is nice, but since Java and C# share most of the same syntax as C++, learning one of these will make easier to switch to C++ should you want to go with it (wich is the standard de facto for most AAA applications, though very hard to master).

If you want to start, get Visual Studio and follow the online help. For Java get NetBeans or Eclipse (or do it straight from Notepad + Java SDK) and get Thinking in Java for free.

Best thing to do is grab a free compiler from microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/express/ and start learning a language

It will take some time to learn to "think" in code. Start simple with projects like "print all the numbers from 1-100 to the screen";

then try doing things like, print all the prime numbers from 1-100 to the screen.

Next start thinking in an object oriented way so that you can maximize code reuse and make your code easy to understand.

There are a lot of aspects to game programming.

You don't need to download anything to write programs. A text editor and a web browser are certainly enough in the first few weeks of learning.

I have written a quick tutorial to dive into programming games. I would advise reading it at least to see if you "get" things, try out on your own, and then decide what to do next.

AgentGly,

Everyone has posted great replies so far, but I'd like to take another shot at your question.

Most of the time people will toss links to compilers and suggest which language helps making the switch to C++ easier later on.

However, I was in your exact same shoes about 1 week ago, clueless, new to programming and not sure where to start and what to start with. I had heard Python was easy, fun, and simple out of the languages suggested. Python was stuck in my head for a while.

I finally searched youtube for 'python beginner tutorials' and found quite a few. I chose one tutorial playlist that had 44 videos, all about 5 to 7 minutes long.

I'd like to offer up these videos (I learn WaaaaaaaY better visually than I do reading from a book).



This one starts you right at the beginning with how to install python.

Even if you don't choose python in the end, you might want to do a bit of searching on youtube for tutorials. It should at least get you started and increase your enthusiasm and confidence. It helped me a lot seeing someone do it on the screen while I followed along on my own python window (shell).

Good luck!