Where can I learn game programing from scratch?

[Deleted]

In a month or so I'll be starting a games design course at a university, I've done research on different types of courses, universities etcetera to ensure I don't land at a dodgy one that teaches useless/outdated methods, or is even just rehashing their computer science course with some graphics stuck on the end (One uni open day I went to demonstrated this, I know it's just student work but all their "Best student work" looked like it was done in google sketchup and coded in notepad and they never said what game dev engines they actually used. Combined with spending several weeks at the start making an MP3 player for no reason I really found said course quite dubious).

Mum keeps suggesting that in the summer before the start of the term (If I even get in, fingers crossed an all that) I should learn how to program. Whilst I'm well aware that it's unlikely I can master C++ in a month it might not hurt to gain some basic knowledge to save myself time and possibly frustration when it comes to the course. That and I'll have a vague idea of what I'm doing instead of just being the guy who played a LOT of video games, heh. Whilst I'm leaning more to the design aspect, from what I gather programming is very crucial for making a game actually work. I'm not an amazing artist but I can just about get by, but I have the programing knowledge of a new-born.

tl;dr: Where/How can I learn the basics of programing from scratch like I'm a five year old with short attention span? In C++ and in reference to game development if possible or reasonable.

[Deleted]

I just kept watching tutorials on how to work in the Unity engine.
The best tutorial I found was a tutorial on 200+ videos on how to make a Hack & Slash game. He explained what he wrote really well, and that's just sort of how I learned it.
So I'd recommend you to either watch tutorials (or go to a website like codeacademy), or find a school where they teach programming.

[NightZero88]

Fullsail is a college that has courses for game design. Not sure what you're really looking for though.

[Deezlar]

I am not a games designer, but I do work professionally as an Application Developer.

I would say you need to start with the basics.. Pick up a book on object oriented programming and learn the fundamentals of application architecture and apply that to some simple applications in whatever language you choose (C++ as you suggest)

I really like the "Unleashed" books. Have a look on Amazon. No matter what you learn at this stage, it will ALL be useful.
Brushing up on your Maths would be a very good idea too..

[Deleted]

To be honest, a quick googling on "c++ tutorial for beginners" or something similar will usually yield a decent result.
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html
I haven't used these tutorials myself, but they seem good in my opinion. Although the cplusplus one seemed like it'd be easier to read and understand if you don't know anything about programming.

Regarding "in reference to gaming", i'd say most things you learn in the start will help you understand better in the long run. Since you said you have never programmed before i recommend going through the tutorials one after another. While i understand that writing out messages in the cmd doesn't seem too interesting, that too is basic knowledge (and something used a lot when trying to find where the heck your program got stuck). Everything from if statements to for loops to classes are used in game programming, so just go through it all.

[zealo]

Start with the basics, going straight to game programming wont do you any good without basic knowledge beforehand, there is a reason they are putting you on coding MP3 players and the likes as your first introductionary projects. Hardcoding a game or writing a simple 2d game engine is more complex and not really a good point to start off with.

If you want to learn C# on your own i recommend Csharp yellow by Rob Miles, it starts at a very basic level and assumes the one reading it have not written a single line of code previously. It is available for free as a PDF here, i'l leave recommendations on C++ and C for others as i lack knowledge there. Python and java is also nice introductionary languages to build on from.

http://www.csharpcourse.com/