Hey everyone,

After around 5 years of being away from any sorts of programming, I decided to pick it up again and try making something, I'm not 100% sure if I want to do a game, chat app, or a combo of both, but I want to utilize mysql's database properties with it, for things such as user accounts or other things that a table may be less cumbersome to use. Anyways, when I was programming on a more regular basis, I used to use java, c++ or visual basic. Since I havent programmed in a while and have basically forgot all the syntax and fun basic stuff, I figured I'll try to learn (or relearn) a language to use.

So enough beating around the bush. What I really want to know in the end, Is what programming language I should be using for a game or app of this sorts that is going to rely off of a sql database. I am open to suggestions and would love any input.

Thank you in advance. :)

Depends on what your target platform will be but if you know C++ then use that.

For an easier re-introduction into code you could pick up C# as fantastic language that can run cross platform under Mono. C# started as a poor Java clone hut has left Java in the dust playing catch up for years now. The Unity engine also runs on C# so good ease into 3d engine etc.

Most languages will talk with an SQL database, how usually depends on the language/database in question.

Since you've already done C++, I'd say go with that. It will give you the most options overall in the game development field, and it's the standard in the industry.

Well, first question is what are your plans (yes, I have read that you don't know yet... lets work from the assumption you do).

Do you want to program for the heck of it, want to low level stuff and have fun writing renderers and stuff? Do you want to create small 2D games?

If you want to go full DIY, the skys the limit... though I would also recommend either staying with C++, or picking C# for an easier beginning should have forgotten too much of C++.

There are many frameworks that might give you a boost... SDL, Mono and whatnot. IDK if all of them are language agnostic, most will most probably force you to use one or the other language. If you want to do less low level plumbing and concentrate more on your game, keep this in mind.

Do you want to concentrate on your game and work at max efficiency? Pick a game engine, and work with that.

Every game engine will force you to work with its (or one of its) languages used for the scripting part of the engine. I would recommend Unity 5 or Unreal Engine 4, which happen to support C++ (Unreal Engine 4) or C# (Unity). Of course these are rather big 3D engines. They have a lot of options, but also a steep learning curve. There are certainly smaller 2D engine you could use with C++ and C#....

Thank you everyone for the input, I really appreciate it.

Right now I am using netbeans as my IDE because of its versatility with languages, I'll be honest I never thought c++ was good for game design but with that being said, When I was in my programming course everything was command prompt based, no gui. I havent looked into putting Unity on my pc yet, but I think I will look into it. As far as what type of game I was looking at the idea of 3d.

I also just want to double check on this, is c++ cross platform? I know it runs native on windows but do other os' support it? Or would c# be more appropriate for that?

Awesome, Thank you so much. I guess I need to brush up a bit on c++

I also just want to double check on this, is c++ cross platform? I know it runs native on windows but do other os' support it? Or would c# be more appropriate for that?

C++ is platform-independent. There are compilers and APIs for every platform you can think of, not to mention tons of sample code and people and forums to look for help.

You might also want to look into C++11 since that has many new and useful features.