Start Game Dev

Gday all

I'm very interested in Game development. I have been working in Delphi and some VB for a few years. Just your everyday Database(MSSQL/Interbase etc) and standalone apps. Some Web apps. I really want to move into game development but not to sure where to start. I have been playing with Game maker 7 and reading here and there about OpenGL etc. Any ideas for me? Should i move to C++ preferably Or any other languages i can Go for like c#??

Thanks!!
J

you should first decide what kind of game you want to make.

some of the first questions to answer could be:
is it a web/browser based game?
should the game be OS independent?
is it a single or multiplayer game?

Here's the standard advice:

Learn a language so well that you don't have to ask for broad advice. Only then can you even possibly be ready.

In other words, if you like C++, learn C++ so well that if you want to make a game and you know approximately what it's going to be like your posts will be asking "Hey, here's some code and for some reason it's giving me a wrong value, what's up?" instead of "Hey, want to tell me how I can go about making a game?"

I use C and program with Allegro.
If your looking for an easy place to start that would be my recommendation.

A book on the topic that can be found in the US at Barns & Noble or a like book store is Game Programming All In One: 3rd Edition It is what got me started and gives you some of the basics on how the library works.

Download my game here that will give you a taste of what you can do with the library.

If this is the way you decide to go you can look at this manual and it will give you a lot more ideas on what it can do.

I also used to use Allegro and C, but that was some years ago. If you already have some experience with C or C++ then Allegro is recommended.

If you want a relatively easy and inexpensive introduction to games development, with virtually zero set-up time and the headaches that can cause (why I simply WON'T use Java unless I really have to) then I would recommend C# and XNA. Both C# Express and XNA are free to download.

Once you've got into that, you can then go one step higher and try Managed DirectX with C#. If you can get hold of Visual Studio and are itching to develop games that you might be able to make money out of (no reason why you can't do that with developing Windows casual games with XNA) then Windows Mobile might be another way forward ... again, using C# and Managed DirectX.