   Best Place to Start.
  topic title. basically, im beginning work on a new project of mine, honestly im a bit overwhelmed, as this is my first real programming project and wondering if anyone can provide some suggestions on what to begin with, do you begin by writing tools for the project your going to use for making the content development go a bit smoother, the engine, and if so, what procs/definitions would you begin with? i just cant seem to wrap my head around it all at the moment, and would like a little advice as to where to actually begin   
  Start by writing out at least a rough design document for what you want to do; preferably, you will write a very detailed design document.  If you have the entire design "on paper" and all of your requirements described in detail, you will be much less confused.Then you can identify the individual components of the overall project, prioritize them, identify what their dependencies are, etc.  Then you will have some ideas about where to start.   ;  thanks for the quick response, i have a rough document as far as what i want the game to turn out to be like, i have the majority of the content down on paper, and can identify to a certain extent what i need for each.. prioritizing them isnt as easy to me, im still relativley new, so i apologize if this has been gone over a dozen times in some other topic =)   ;  I would identify milestones that you can work towards in succession.  For example, you may want to initially shoot for a simple demo that doesn't do much but which requires some basic infrastructure to be in place.I would sketch out a *technical* design if you haven't already, and identify the parts you will need to get the first prototype working... in other words, if you want to get it running to the point where a character can run around in a simple environment, you will need an input system to work, you will need at least basic ability to render some sort of environment, and you will need some basic ability to maintain the state of a character and render him/her.Your design document should already have everything you need to know about how you intend to store/load level data, etc., so identify the parts of that which is necessary for the first demo and implement it (you probably don't need something sufficiently complex to warrant a full-blown tool yet).You can implement the character graphics to some basic state that just puts a placeholder block on the screen or something.  Baby steps.You might want to think about using a preexisting engine and focus on actually making the game instead of doing it all.   ;  ive considered trying just that, but it doesnt sit well with me, i found i actually enjoyed programming some time ago, it can be frustrating and mentally demanding sometimes, but the satisfaction when you complete a difficult program is like nothing else, it just doesnt compare, the only program, is i need to get past the 'roadblock' in C++ im having as far as actually finding a place to step in start.. in any case, thanks again for the response, i suppose im going to go and take a look at what ive got written out already and try to break it down even further, thanks for the responses   ;  First of all, are you talking 2D or 3D?Have you chosen a programming language?What about 3rd party tools that you are going to need?