[quote name='ifthen' timestamp='1353094167' post='5001616']You will need a lot of time and patience, but after a 5+ years, you should be able to program almost everything you wish (but be aware that the time needed to do it will still be in years).

5+ years, That's ridiculous. I started programming not much older than him and I picked up C++ in a year, a year later I was writing full blown 3d games in C++. My advice is skip C# and spend a while getting to know C++ and you should be able to program almost anything in 2+ years if you work hard.
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I totally agree with this. I'm a HS sophomore and taught myself the whole C++ and made my first game over the last summer.

I taught everything myself the whole about C++ in about a week and have working on AAA titles about 1-2 months later then. That's ridiculous!

all are good i think

So can you say whether this book is good.

If you understand it and are able to learn from it then it's a good book.

When I was first starting out I used textbooks heavily, but these days I use online references and if I want a book I try to get it in eBook format so I can have the actual book onscreen while I'm butchering my code. In my experience its far easier to cuss out the compiler when I have both hands free. (It reacts better when I make the gestures.)

That being said, if you're just starting on a language you should definitely seek out online tutorials before going for a book. This will help you two ways:

• Is this the language I want? (Am I comfortable with it? Do I understand it easily? Does it 'flow' for me?)
  
• If so then is the book/reference I'm looking at good for me/worth my money/download? (...or is it just $30 for the exact same thing I know from tutorials?)
  

Programming is not a single, established path that every person follows. At the very core, a programmer must be an intellectual trailblazer. A programmer is someone that builds a solution to a problem out of thin air and then expresses that solution through the tools available to them.

Find the road that takes you where you want to go.

I learned by reading textbooks. I still read textbooks of course, but I think the most important thing after you've passed the beginner stage is to learn how to read and understand documentation like MSDN and doxygen APIs.

There's a good post over at Game From Scratch with a list of good books for both C++ and C#. I followed it and it helped me get started quickly. Hope it helps.

Roy

OMG! I have the same problem as you! I need to design a NASA-class rocket in only 2 months, and I need easy books now! Are there any "For Dummies" books on the subject? They can't be expensive, as my mommy won't buy them for me. You don't need to know any of that fancy math stuff, right? I'm not good at math, and I'm only 12 btw. LOLZ. here is my email: soontobespammed@regretit.com

All jokes aside, playing video games can be really fun, and thinking up new ideas can sometimes be funner, especially with a kid's imagination, but creating games isn't always the same, and it definitely isn't quick and easy. It is in no means anything like playing them. The first thing to learn and master, however, is mathematics. It is important to have a very good grasp of AT LEAST Algebra II and also Trigonometry for any type of programming, especially if it relates to 2D or 3D graphics, like in games. If you want to learn programming in this day and age, you are truly blessed with modern easy and powerful tools like C# and Java. If you want to dig into older yet still used languages (DO NOT, you have been warned, kiddo), there is always C++. Overall, you could make a game if you really tried to, and had a natural aptitude for math and problem solving, but I would say it wouldn't be even seriously started for another two years, and it would take you probably a year to finish a simple 2D game. If you really want to make one, you are only a child and have nothing to lose by trying, but it is much funner to just play games. Do you want to spend several summers of your carefree childhood fumbling with a keyboard over memory leaks you don't even understand, or would you rather spend it doing normal things and maybe playing computer games every so often and having enjoying your time?

P.S: I doubt it will be a problem on this site, but never put your age and email online. There are two reasons, number one being the safety reasons you see on TV and at school that you probably ignore, and number two being the fact that if people realize you are only 13, they will troll you, like they troll every other kid on the interwebs. They will also sign you up for pr0n emails, which is never good, and mostly nasty screwed up (no pun intended) stuff.