Well, I just finished Sams teach yourself C++ in 21 days, (in under 21 days might I add, I whizzed through it), and yes, I took all the tests, tried out the examples, blah, blah, blah. I was just wondering where I should go next. I have basically just been working out of the dos console, and I know pretty much nothing on elaborating dos to it''s fullest extents, and so forth. So, I am asking you this: What book do I buy next?

Hey,

If I were you, I would try to make some simple text based games. Like Tic Tac Toe, or even simpler guess my number...I know it seems simple and you can do just about everything with cout and cin. But make the games well orgainized, then implement them. Once you have done that, get a book on Win32 programming. Make a simple pong, space invaders, etc with the gdi. From there look into a Graphics Api such as OpenGL or Direct3D (DirectX). Hope this helped

Assuming you program for windows:

Windows Programming from the Ground Up

I hear thats a good book and I plan on buying it also.

Artificial intelligence is the devil... resist intelligent NPC''s

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster... when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you..."~Friedrich Nietzsche

Well, I have already made a lot of games, including a roulette game, number guessing game, a mystery adventure, a trivia game, etc. So, I guess I''ll look into that book.

I didn''t even know c++ when I started DirectX(even though i do know it now). The first book I bought was Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus byt Andre Lamothe because it had a neato cover and my friend let me look over the first chapter. It is a good starter but it is LONG. It took me all summer to read it and actually do stuff with it. I then bought another book called The Zen of D3D programming by Peter Walsh. The only problem was that none of the examples ran on my brand new computer. Hmmm... Then I bought Isometric Game Programming in DirectX 7.0 and boy was it ever worth it. It has the best way to load and place bitmaps I''ve ever seen. GREAT source code. Learn the basics of WIN32 programming and then learn the basics of DirectX and then buy the isometric book. Even if you don''t like isometric games or arn''t interested in them, the book also has good AI algorithims and all the money I spent on the book really came from the source code. Good Luck!

Actually, I was just about to reply asking if I should in fact get that Isometric book becaus I am interested in making iso-based games.

Definetly get it.It is worth every single penny of it.

kmsixpence:

That method worked for you... thats really good. You definately got lucky and must have been extremely devoted to not give up.

I would not suggest that method to someone who wants to take things slow and learn in order of increasing importance.

Do the Windows Programming book, and then you could get into Visual C++ if you wanted... then Direct X/OpenGL. Eventually you may want to learn Assembly. You should stick to the method that 75% of succesful game developers have used.

I know that I would have given up reading Tips and Tricks without knowledge of C++.

Do whatever seems right in your mind just make sure you can do it.

Good luck.

Artificial intelligence is the devil... resist intelligent NPC''s

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster... when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you..."~Friedrich Nietzsche

Well, maybe when you read a few more books, try reading Tricks of the Windows and Isometric Game Programming. I didn''t mean that you should go right to them. Sry bout that. I also said i didn''t know c++. I had read an old C book before so I didn''t mean to give the impression that I started from scratch. I fully agree what the person before my post said.

I think we all have had a little misunderstanding here.

I just meant it would be on my list of books to buy. I''m only 13, so I don''t even have a job yet. I have been trying out windows the last couple of days and has it ever been confusing, so I would definately get a windows programming book before starting with isometric games. I need to save up some money though. (I was lucky enough to find a cpy of C++ Annotations and some other resources on the web).