Sherry Said:

Best resources for teaching myself programing to create games?

We Answered:

Its been awhile so I'm not exactly sure of some good online resources but I'm sure Google searching that will bring up some good results. But I can recommend very good books!

But before I show you some, the problem with learning how to create games is to first learn how to program regular programs first. Yeah, I know they have courses out there that try to integrate learning programing languages while learning how to program games, but its usually not the best way of really learning how to do all that. So, if you can, try to learn more about how to program certain things in general first, really understanding the language, before moving onto game programming. And even once you know how to code, don't expect to be programming games like Starcraft or MW2 anytime soon as those games require LOTS of people with all different kinds of specialties, not just coding!

And one more thing, if the more difficult programming languages are to hard for you to learn starting off (like C, C++, Java, etc), try learning parts of an easier one, like BASIC. It will help you a lot.

For learning C++, its always good to learn C first (despite the fact that some people say you will pick up bad coding habits from C that'll mess you up a little bit when trying learn how to program in C++ later, but its a more effective way to learn the language. A lot of other experienced programmers will tell you the same thing). These are very, very good books that'll teach you just that:

http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Plus-5th-Stephen-Prata/dp/0672326965/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281998745&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Plus-5th-Stephen-Prata/dp/0672326973/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281998362&sr=8-3

Even though Java is a tough programming language, this book will put everything into layman's terms for you so you shouldn't have to come prepared with anything when learning Java with this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Programming-Java-Dummies-Barry/dp/0764588745/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281998841&sr=1-5

If you want to try tackling game programming from the start as a beginner, try this BASIC-like language specifically designed for game programming (much more feasible to create games with this language than with the others, but games like Halo are never created from BASIC, keep that in mind) Learning this makes it much easier to understand more advanced languages when you decide to make the switch:

http://www.blitzbasic.com/ -- this is actually an online resource.

Hope this all helps!