   How to start ?
  Hi all.Im a beginner C++ programmer (about 6-7mo) , and i would like to start writing games.I did a search on google , and i found this site & forum. After having a short look at your tutorials , i confused.So im asking kindly from the community , to guide me to the right path.What im asking: -How to start ?-Should i start with OpenGL or SDL? Wich is the easiest and newbie friendly?-How long it will take until my 1st game ? (ummm i know how it sounds )Thanks to whoever read my noobish stuff :)[Edited by - vman on June 11, 2006 2:19:25 AM]
  If you are taking your first go at graphics I would suggest either SDL or Allegro. Both are easy to get up and going and each have active support groups. I wouldn't worry about the 3D stuff (OpenGL or D3D) until you get the basics of making a game down. Welcome and good luck. Also, you might check the For Beginners section here at GameDev.net. ;  Wow , that was fast! ;)Thanks for the usefull link , i will read it , and if i get into "trouble" i'll post again :)   ;  After reading tutes, you might want to get yourself some game sources. There's lots of them, to mention but a few here, here and  here.As for how long is it gonna take...This has taken me 5 months of part-time coding...and still not finished...So be patient Rome wasnt built in a day :-);  Moving to For Beginners.   ;  if you don't mind crappy code you can take a look at this:http://www.clandct.com/simpleSnake.cppjust ignore the assembly parts at the top, i threw it together in around 20 minutes. its a very very simple snake game, its not the best way to do it but it works you need an old dos compiler to get it to compile properly though (modern systems don't allow you to access the hardware directly like i did for that one).the functions using assembly can be replaced with functions avaliable in SDL.the draw functions are just putting a series of pixels on the screen and could be replaced to draw bitmaps or textured quads or whatever. it should give you a decent understanding of the basics of game programming though. (only 213 lines of code, including some crappy comments etc so it should be fairly easy to look through);  Sorry for posting in the wrong section , i thought the right place was the general.Anyway , after reading the "Beginners" intro , im going to write a simple game, i think tetris or snake.Now , where can i find some SDL tutorials ? (well organized - indexed)And what about the graphics ? should i use photoshop only ? or there's a more complex graphics design tool ?Thanks :);  I found this excellent tutorial (lazyfoo's sdl tutorials) , and im posting it here in case someone needs it :http://lazyfooproductions.com/SDL_tutorials/index.phpI just finished the 3rd tutorial! its easier than i thought , and it reminds me the first time i started programming.!Thanks lazyfoo !PS) I'll post my 1st creation here! , dedicated to gamedev community!   