Howdy, I recently stumbled across XNA and have been playing around with that. However, after doing some research into what the major game companies want in their programmers I've seen that they want C++ experience. I'm 16. Would it be a good idea to continue with XNA for a while and then move to C++ or should I go straight to C++.

Hello ... you have plenty of time to learn C++. My opinion is that you should stick with XNA for now. Do you know C#? If not, you should take some time to learn C# at least at a basic level. After some time you could switch to C++ and DirectX , OpenGL or SDL (whatever API you would like to use)and if you already know C# and XNA it will be a lot easier for you to make the transition.
If you would like to start programming games now then XNA is your best bet.
I hope I've been of help.

Regards.

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Your still young, and have plenty of time to learn more languages. C# is a great starting point for beginners, and along with XNA will enable you to get some games up and running alot quicker than if you started off with C++.

Once you've taught yourself how to program (which is the hard part), you can move between most languages with relative ease - the syntax for each language may be different, but the concepts are the same.

So, my advice - start off with the easier of the 2 languages (C#), find a book on C# which doesn't relate to games programming. Forget XNA for a couple of months and get to grip with the language first. Once your confident programming in C#, get stuck into using XNA.

If you feel like learning C++ in the future it will be alot easier after you've got some experience with C#.

Thanks for the quick reply. I had a feeling that'd be the case, I'll start to learn C# then. Could anyone recommend any good books?

Thanks,
Homicidal

[Edited by - TheHomicidalOne on September 12, 2009 7:57:05 PM]

Have a look through this list, and have a read of the user reviews.
I can't personally recommend any books on C# having never read any, I picked it up fairly easy coming from a C++ background.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=C%23&x=0&y=0

Head First C# by Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene - seems to have alot of good reviews and is aimed towards the beginner programmer, and it has a different style than the regular "dry" programming texts. I believe it uses a mixture of puzzles and diagrams as a method to teach the reader. Some people like that style, some people hate it.

Beginning Microsoft Visual C# 2008 (Wrox Beginning Guides) by Karli Watson, Christian Nagel, Jacob Hammer Pedersen, and Jon D. Reid - Could be a good start for a beginner.

Professional C# 2008 (Wrox Professional Guides) by Christian Nagel, Bill Evjen, Jay Glynn, and Morgan Skinner - This one isn't aimed at the beginner programmer, but could make a decent second book.


Theres a lot of choice in the page linked, I'd say just have a read and make a choice.

Okay, thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into them.