[FurryFreak]

I have only been programming for about a year, and while I'm not a beginner any more, I am by no means an expert. My aim is to design and program games for consoles, but I have no idea where to start.

I am currently studying vb.net which isn't used for this kind of thing (is it?), so what would be the best language to learn?

Also what kind of job should I go for to begin with? (bearing in mind that my current job is crud and totally unrelated)

Any help would be much appreciated

[BlakeJustBlake]

You should probably be learning C++, that's what pretty much every game company uses, that and probably something like Lua or Python or similar.

Start out with whatever sort of programming job you can get, if you can get one. Their not so easy to jump into if you have no experience and have only been programming for a year. But if you can get anything, jump for it, it doesn't matter what area it's in, programming experience is programming experience at the point you're at.

How old are you?

[FurryFreak]

Thanks for the advice its a great help

I am 23 (I spent a few years after high school not knowing what I wanted to do) does this matter at all?

[BlakeJustBlake]

Not really, but if you're in college going toward some sort of computer science, software development, etc degree then you have a better chance of getting something like a coop or an internship or just any sort of job.

[bflosabre91]

yeah, another thing you can do is look into the XNA framework using c#. that will allow u to program xbox 360 games and pc games. It will be much easier to start out with that to see if you like it or if you can even do it. If you start that and are left wanting more, then do c++ in more depth

[FurryFreak]

What is this XNA framework?

[Core]

XNA Framework is a set of libraries that facilitates game development for Windows and Xbox 360 (as well as for Zune as of XNA Game Studio 3.0).

For more information:
http://creators.xna.com

By using XNA, you can develop games for Xbox 360, however there are a few serious limitations (compared to the Xbox SDK):

1. You need a XNA Creators Club Premium account to debug your games on a 360 device.
2. You cannot directly distribute Xbox 360 games - only approved ones on Xbox Marketplace.
3. Your game will always require an active Internet connection on your Xbox 360 to play, even if the game does not use it. It is needed to connect to Xbox Live and verify the account.
4. XNA does not have the best perfomance when it comes to large 3D game pojects.