but I do hope to be able to build at least a prototype of each idea in about 18 months.

Please define what you mean by prototype.

If its only a matter of testing your core gameplay, you can probably do without the documentation and just test the mechanics and iterate until you find 'the fun'.

Otherwise, if you feel you have a full-fledged game ready to be written down, think again. You should probably prototype mechanics individually first and see if they're any good.

No amount of theoretical work can ever beat a simple prototype when it comes to hunting for fun gameplay.

My general advice is to start with programming small games and creating small projects.

You need to learn how to program first, but you can learn programming while making small, simple games.

I recommend making the following games in roughly this order (although this is just a suggestion).

1. A guess the random number game.

2. Pong

3. Breakout

4. Asteroids

5. Tetris

6. Pacman

7. A 2d side scroller like Mario

Guess the number teaches random number generation and if statements.

Pong teaches collision detection, drawing graphics to the screen, making objects move and how to make objects collide with one another. It also teaches basic "AI".

Breakout teaches managing collections of objects in addition to using all of the same concepts from Pong. Breakout also teaches how to have multiple levels (potentially).

Asteroids teaches how to make projectiles, how to randomly generate levels, how to handle the ship leaving the outside of the window, and how to generate asteroids and/or play animations.

Tetris teaches how to use arrays, how to code game logic, and how to increase difficulty level.

Pacman teaches how to construct levels, 2d collision detection, and a reasonable amount about game AI.

Mario teaches scrolling, defining complex levels, and managing game states.

After making these games you will have a pretty solid background from which to start designing and creating your own games.

This is just my recommendation.

Also I will agree with ByteTroll: You will not gain proficiency in programming by reading books. The only way to get good at programming is to program. You must write lots and lots of programs and to really learn things well will take time. It will very likely take you years of working with languages to really get a solid grasp on what you are doing and why.

Turned out my game mogul 1 is an rpg I have made a map and am focusing my design efforts on this one game for the moment meanwhile chipping away at python and taking your guys' advice as best I can.

I think I will need to invest many hours each week in the game design documents alone, on top of studying programming.

if its just you on the project, there's no need to write a 100 page letter to yourself (design doc) telling yourself what you're going to do. you already know what you're going to do, or try, or check into. just make a simple bullet list of features you want to include, so you don't forget anything. and perhaps some notes on how to implement a feature once you figure out how to implement it, so you can refer to your design notes later when coding.