Hello All, I am a senior CIS student and I am just coming to realize how much of the programming world I am still ignorant to. I come looking for incite on how to catch up so that I can start to build my portfolio.

I currently know C++ and I've tried just Googling, but their is literally so many different routes that pop up that I'm not even sure were to start.

I'd really like to develop my own apps and video games but I'm having trouble visualizing how I would turn something that I typed in Unix into something as simple as a 2D adventure or something.

Thanks for any advice.

Firstly, I would suggest getting a beginers C++ book. It's much better IMO to learn from a book than from following tutorials online to start with.

Once you're kind of comfortable with the basics of C++ (types, control loops, arrays, functions, structs, classes), then I would recommend to start learning a library that will bring you closer to you game goal (SFML or SDL for example) or to start learning a game engine that allows you to build games. If you want to build your own apps and games, I would recommend the game engines learning, but really, learn the basics of C++ first of all. It will set you up very well for all that lies ahead.

byronflds wrote:
...I am just coming to realise how much of the programming world I am still ignorant to. I come looking for incite on how to catch up so that I can start to build my portfolio...

I'm not entirely sure I get your meaning, so forgive me if I go down the wrong path. It sounds like what you are missing is design skills. Start by looking a software design on Wikipedia^[1] and see if that sheds some light on what you are missing.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design

@Mats thanks man. I just checked out SFML and think im going to focus on that.

@Canis lupus yeah thats pretty much what I was saying.