C++ probably isn't going anywhere for core game development. Big parts of games today are written in other languages, like Lua, python, C#, Java, Javascript, that are more productive and can sacrifice top-tier performance where they are used to glue together low-level parts of the engine, implement game logic, and scripting events. D is interesting, and among those you listed is probably the only viable option to usurp C++'s role in game development -- but its young, doesn't have broad support, and doesn't have the momentum or legacy that C++ has.

At the same time, C++11 in a lot of ways makes C++ itself more productive, and it may actually reclaim a little bit of ground from the productivity and scripting languages. If your interest is in writing the low-level systems of AAA games (rendering, memory management, task-systems, AI building-blocks), then C++ is a necessary skill, and perhaps D might someday be viable. For gameplay things and non-AAA games, C# and Java are common, and Javascript, LUA, and python are viable in their own environments (Web Browser, Love2D, pygame, respectively), and are a good skill to have.

The other scenario that C++ excels at is cross-platform logic. If you write your android game in Java, or your iOS game in Objective-C, or your Windows Phone game in C# its difficult to port to the other platforms -- but all of these platforms support C++ in some way. The common pattern for cross-platform mobile games is to write the engine in C++, using something like LUA for scripting and maybe gameplay code, and then the platform's preferred language to deal with "platform stuff" like User Interface, filesystems, networking, and input.

Hi all! I'm new here and I expect to make friends and learn from you guys

I was reading this article here : http://t-machine.org/index.php/2013/10/21/what-programming-language-should-aspiring-game-developers-learn-in-their-free-time/?utm_content=buffer4611f&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

It was quite interesting to me since I want to become serious in game dev and here the author proposes that C++ may not be the game development language that is now. Do you people think the same? Which one else could be? Java, C#, D perhaps?

Cheers

It depends. For AAA engine code C++ is likely to remain dominant for another 5-10 years atleast (There is no decent alternative available and the language most likely to replace C++ is a newer version of C++)

For game code however C++ have allready lost quite alot of ground to higher level languages (Allthough it is still being used in some areas).

If you are going to be serious about game development or programming in general you will have to learn multiple languages(C++ is one of the languages you should learn, but its not the only one you need to know and imo its not a good language to learn programming with), if you're just starting out i'd recommend going with Python or C#, they are both popular, reasonably easy to get started with and will remain highly useful regardless of what path you take in the future. (They're both used in everything from web development to AAA games)

Assuming we're talking about PC-space (and earlier answers have covered other platforms quite well so it seems OK to limit my contribution to PC-space here) there are a number of quite fundamental technical requirements that a game (engine) development language must have:

• It must be able to link to OS libraries, and these OS libraries - for legacy reasons - are more often than not implemented in C. This requirement generalises to "it must be able to link to C".
• It must be COM-aware. Despite the current OpenGL resugence (and we still don't know that the full effects of that will be) and despite Microsoft's best attempts to screw things up, Direct3D isn't going anywhere in the timeframe you specify. Microsoft have announced D3D11.x as the XBOne graphics API and therefore using D3D11.x gives you portability between XBOne and PC.
• It must be able to compile to native code. Managed code is great, but native code will still be the preferred choice even in 3 years time.
• It must be compatible with code being written today. Code being written today will still be in use in 3 years time; very few people are totally willing to throw out perfectly good working code and start over without good reason, and switching to a different language "just because" is not a good reason.
• It must be well-supported by middleware. Physics engines, audio engines, etc will still be used, and if no options are available for the language-of-3-years-time, that language won't be used.
• Compilers must be available for the new consoles as well as for PC. The new consoles will still be current in 3 years time, and unless something totally unexpected happens, PC gaming is still going to be in the minority.
• I could go on but I think I've covered enough now.

Of the language options currently available, I don't honestly see how it could be anything but C++, and the weight of legacy (which should never be underestimated) means that it's highly likely to stay that way.

The other scenario that C++ excels at is cross-platform logic. If you write your android game in Java, or your iOS game in Objective-C, or your Windows Phone game in C# its difficult to port to the other platforms -- but all of these platforms support C++ in some way.

<offtopic> It saddens me that after years of promising "write once, run anywhere", our best bet for cross-platform development is still the language designed to be an extension of portable assembly language... </offtopic>

Whilst games might not be written in C++ as much now, it is still used for plug-in development for 3D packages such as Maya. And on the same note, many 3D packages now use Python for scripting. So I wouldn't dismiss learning C++ too soon...