   A Question about a Book.
  Hello everyone,I'm just confused that's why I want to ask that question.First of all I'm 15 years old. I want to learn about Game Programming. But I don't know anything about programming too. From GameDev.net's For Beginner Resources i started. I read an article which is written by Dave Astle (Game Programming Beginners Guide)He said if you want to start you'll need some books and he wrote "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus" which is written by Andre LaMothe is good for beginners.When I read some comments about that book in amazon.com some people said that this book is nice but others said that that book is disgusting and just for old games.Now I'm confused. I want to start from somewhere but i don't know what to buy to learn and start.As i said before I'm beginner. If you know that book could you tell how book is it? If you don't know that book but if you know another good book could you tell their names.Thank you.Kevin.   
  Before you even start to think about game programming, you need to learn a language.Let's say, for the sake of the argument, you decide to learn C++.The vast majority, if not all, books specifically about game programming in C++ will assume a certain amount of knowledge about the language and will not be a good resource to learn from.If you have chosen a language, find a good text book about the language generally and expect to spend a lot of time writing temperature converters and address book managers until you are comfortable with the language, then start looking for books about game programming.I am genuinely sorry if this sounds negative. It is meant to be realistic. Personally, I had been learning C++ for about three years before I was in a position to attempt a "game" with DirectX or whatever. Assume I am thick and it will take you a tenth of that time. That is still 15.6 weeks learning the language.   ;Here are some reviews of that book by GDNet members. They may be a bit outdated at this point though.   ;  I'm not suggesting this, just saying this is how I started with books and such.I created an extremely simple RPG game in VB6 back when I was in high school.  Went on to college for two years (up to my current state; between year 2 and 3) and had countless books and learned about C#, Java, HTML (though not really a programming language), VB 6, VB .NET, PASCAL (bleh), COBOL (bleh more), etc...I went out (around my first year of college) and bought the book 'GPU Gems.'  Although being a nice reference for mathimatical equations and how to apply them, it's one of the most advanced books I've seen lol.  So in reality I bought a $60 useless book.Thinking about it I've had around 3 years of programming in different languages and am now just starting C++.  Though it would have been beneficial to learn it back in high school, I've spent mucho time learning concepts rather than syntax.Personally, I think syntax can come and go; concepts and how to apply them stick with you much much longer.The point?  When buying books make sure you buy something tuned in to your level and something you can understand.  No one writes these thousand page references to have people say 'This book sucks.'  They wrote it how they see it.  If the topic is advanced and people say it's good don't just go buy it.I only say this because programming books are some of the toughest to sift through because (not understanding the concepts within until after research) makes this book look the same as that book when in reality they could be teaching the same thing in complete different code ways.Whew that was a lot.(Oh yeah as for book, (knowing nothing about either programming or C++) look at 'Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days (5th Edition)'; for between $20-$30 for this massive volume it does some pretty basic core stuff though nothing applied to gaming)   ;  As an moderatly experienced java programmer I tried to learn game programming from, "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus."  I'd say it retarded my development more than anything.  The book assumes you are proficient in C/C++, and if you aren't it will chew you up and spit you out.  Not to say it's a bad book, but if you try and follow without knowing C/C++ inside  and out, your already going to fail. The other thing is, you don't want to start with graphics programming.  Start with the console (text apps) till you get the basics.  heres a much better place to start IMO http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592002056/sr=8-6/qid=1154033811/ref=sr_1_6/102-7505337-2112956?ie=UTF8.Char   