I saw this and though of you....

[Nemo Krad]

Again, mooching about on my lunch I found this series of posts on MSDN forums:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=947086&SiteID=1

What do you guys think of this topic and XNA Rockstars advice?

[mikeschuld]

Well, that seems like the general path that most other sources I have seen put out. It is definitely a good idea to start very small and not to expect much. This is not always the most entertaining process, but it is very definitely necessary to getting yourself up to a real understanding of what is involved in the entire process of game development.

I am an exception to almost all rules about starting slow in almost everything I do, so I did not start with the normal slower learning curve in game development, but it made for learning some lessons far too late that I should have learned much earlier on.

I do not necessarily think that C++ is the more advanced programming language, as the techniques and methods and all of the theory can be applied in any language, and it seems to only be listed in his post because it works with DirectX10. XNA may be said to be a beginners path into game development, but with the ability to extend the content pipeline and do any number of shading techniques, you can definitely go from beginner to professional within the framework.

[siferion]

I agree with Mike on the whole C++ isn't really the advanced language it's made out to be anymore. Personally i've been fond of C# since i learned it, it's much more powerful when used properly imo, but that can just be bacause i find it extremely intuitive and the general structure of C# is how i've always worked in object oriented programming.

Really though, any of the modern languages can be made extremely powerful given the right libraries/apis. Just the other day i seen my bro playing an online game that was written in VB.Net that graphically rivaled commercial C++ graphics in both performance and quality. It's really use the one you feel comfy with these days.