lectricpharaoh

I'd go with C#, myself. This will allow you to use GDI+ with minimal effort, which is fine for simple games (Tetris, Tic-Tac-Toe, Scrabble, etc). You can also use XNA/managed DirectX, and it's a lot easier than doing native DirectX stuff in C/C++. For those that claim you need the performance of C++, I'd argue that for the types of games you'll be attempting as a novice, it's a non-issue. I mean, you're not going to be writing the latest first-person shooter for your first game. Besides, if XNA is good enough for the XBox, it's probably good enough for you.

Bear in mind you're going to need to learn the language basics before you even attempt writing a graphical game. Your first game will probably be 'guess the numbers' or something similar, but with practice, you can move on to Tetris and the like.

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