Heh. Interesting thread. When I was 16 I made a crude bomberman clone using Blitz Max (it's a programming language/IDE which is much easier than C++). After that I moved to Linux for 10 years and now I'm on Windows 10 so I can finally use my Blitz Max license again. I've also got Jazon Yamamoto's book "The Black Art Of Multiplatform Game Programming". The example code in Yamamoto's book is really good and all examples come pre-compiled (.exe) for Windows. I'm reading through Yamamoto's book as of recently and I'm not sure if he gives a guide on how to use OOP (class type). I'll have to read more and find out.

I'm 25 now and I'd agree that C++ is a terrible first language - I struggled even with Blitz Max. I strongly dislike things like Pygame because the documentation is scattered all over the internet and their website is trash. As annoying as C++ is, at least you can get a book on C++ and SDL (from Yamamoto). Blitz is nice if you have money. I wouldn't bother with things like Cocos and Unity, I'd rather do the fundamentals even if it takes forever.

You can also get a book on Python + pygame, in fact,it's a free download: https://inventwithpython.com/pygame/

Yes I skim-read that a while ago. If you look up chapter 8 "squirrel eat squirrel" you'll find this: "Python does have OOP features, but they aren’t covered in this book" - eeeek!

Oh thanks I'll surely read it.

s

You can also get a book on Python + pygame, in fact,it's a free download: https://inventwithpython.com/pygame/

I am just now learning C++ and want to go that way. I started as very young (at 8) with Basic with just rewriting simple code from book. Then around 12 I started with C (in "kids club" with teacher). It was for me very easy to understand basics of programming in C. After 2 year course I left it becase there was nothing new for me. Then I just "stagnated" for more than 10 years. And few months ago I started to learn C++. But what I wanted to tell is that with knowledge from C and some basics about OOP I was able to do "entrance exams" to University which was in Pascal, I was able to understand java on University, I can do modifications to php on my server. I thing C is basic (but it's not usable in todays game development) and C++ is future. Maybe somebody will complain that development of C++ is too conservative and is slowly implementing new features but it's still most used language. And if you'll know it you will easily understand programming in other languages. (a lot of them is based on C/C++)

And next point with game engines. At some point you'll find that engine don't support feature that you want. It can be some small function in some class and you'll have three options:
1) do some terrible workaround
2) don't use it in your game
3) programming it yourself
Easiest and least time consuming is 3.

That's why you should understand language before you start using engines. Otherwise engine can be very restricting.