Good afternoon, hive mind.

I want to learn to program in order to create a video game. I don't want to learn how to use Game Maker. I recently uninstalled all of the software that I knee-jerk downloaded so I could start from scratch.

From looking around, it seems that python and C# are the way to go for what I want to do and how I want to do it and the larger lessons I hope to learn along the way. I have one semester of C++ in a community college. I didn't learn much there beyond an appreciation for the craft and that I am not scared of it.

I feel like aiming for The Dream Game I want to make out the gate is dumb. So, for my first exercise I am aiming to create a program that lets me have an icon on my desktop to start it. Upon starting, a start screen with art is shown. A start button is clickable, and clicking on it starts "the game" which will simply be a black screen. I feel like if I could execute that, it would be a massive personal achievement for me and a great motivator to continue.

I don't want anyone to give me that code, I don't want anyone to even help me with writing that code. Right now, so I have the best foundation going forward, I would just like to know what software to download before wasting time on 30 tutorials only to realize I am going the wrong way. Someone told me Visual Studio one day, but man I swear there are 30 different versions of that thing (hyperbole), and I was hoping some detailed guidance regarding specific software to download would clear the murky waters for me a bit.

To be clear, the ultimate goal would be a 2D JRPG 'style' game. I do not intend to create an actual JRPG, but that is the closest term I could use here to convey the capabilities I wish to create. Final Fantasy 6 for example, specifically the coliseum. I only mention this last paragraph to color your advice with more relevant software suggestions. Really, I just need to know what tools I should acquire in order to use python and c# with a mind on 2d JRPG style mechanics.

C# tutorials:

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/csharp/

http://www.sololearn.com/Course/CSharp/

Python tutorials:

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/

http://www.programiz.com/python-programming

PyOpenGL( Pyton under OpenGL )

http://pyopengl.sourceforge.net/context/tutorials/

It sounds like you're asking about IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of which there are indeed a gazillion, and narrow it down for support of both C# and Python.

It is possible to compile C# code from the command line without using and IDE. Python, on the other hand, does not need to be compiled to run. You could write your code in text files for either language, in which case you would download a text editing program, a C# compiler and Python.

According to MDN, there is a plug-in available to develop Python within Visual Studio IDE.

My understanding is the Visual Studio Community IDE is 'free', and it is likely you can download and install the Python plug-in on that version.

[edit]

So, with this set up, you would download:

1. Visual Studio Community (installation)
2. Python (installation)
3. PTVS plug-in (installation)

Secondly, since you plan on making a 2D tile based game, you may want to consider a tile map editing program, for example Tiled. If you do, you will need a library to reference the tilemap files in C# and/or Python. This is not needed to complete your proposed project, just something to consider.

Python comes with its own IDE, named "Idle". Depending on what you are looking for, this may suffice for you.

For 2D games, you likely want to use Pygame.

No idea about C#, but others seem to have covered that already.