i am really into computers and video games i really want to learn and make and do programing and video game design where should i start and how can i learn this kind of things

this is a very difficult topic. it depends on exactly what you want to program. if you're content with games which do what they do regardless then no problem. if you want them to interact with people then you start down the endless path into Artificial life and game theory. I have studied this briefly at uni and only touched the tip of the iceberg. there are some very good books out there though, surf on to a book seller and search for game theory. once you know the theory (how people play games) then you can start thinking about how to make a computer play too. Your first game should be something simple, like tic-tac-toe. then you can move on to more complex ones. I recently wrote a very basic blackjack/pontoon game where you play the dealer, and it was much more difficult than it sounds, the code was like spaghetti, no matter what I tried. you need to be both an excellent programmer and an excellent game theorist. if you don't program yet then you need to pick up a language. C is a good language, but for a beginner I'd go for visual C++ or visual basic. look around for a book with a cd of a cut down version of the language to learn on. (-Sams teach yourself C++ in 21 days- or -introduction to visual basic 6- by scheider are good) are you a student? if you're considering university then go for it, they can teach you everything you need to get going - if you're in England I reccommend Westminster for it's game theory module, but Edinburgh and York/Warwick are better unis generally. the best AI course claims to be Edinburgh. HTH Hayz

C++ you say, well i want to know one more thing what kind of programs do real game developers use exmple for games like GTA3 or halflife what programs did they use C++ or somthing special and thanks for that info hayley

je, I'm not sure about GTA3, but I know that most (all?) of Half-Life was written in C++. Anyone who was/is interested in making a serious mod for that game uses Cc++ to go above and beyond what worldcraft will do for you. Pretty much all games today use either OpenGL (boo), or DirectX (yay!, even though it is owned by the evil empire). I have played with DirectX and C++ over the last few months and the two work quite well together asDirectX is written in C++. Heylay is absolutely correct in saying that anything you start with will be no bigger that tic-tac-toe. You can start up with C++ and DirectX by getting some books from Amazon or wherever, I really like André LaMothe. He is a funny and knowledgable writer and his books start from scratch and work up. You won't re-write Doom, but you'll get a start. The ambition of writing games is one of mine as well. I wish you good luck.

would i be able to get a test version of C++ someware cuz i want to see what its like thank the the info radon

http://www.bloodshed.net/dev/devcpp.html