My son wants to learn how to program games. What would be a good way to start?

look into Flash. Good easy programming. Most online games are made in Flash, and you can mess with some cool animation, so it's more fun than other core languages.

How old is your son? I ask because you’re the one asking the question, and not your son. There’s a lot of resources out on the internet, and it’s expected that smart, potentially successful programmers will Google out those resources. So not only has your son not Googled, but he hasn’t even bothered asking the question himself. If he can use the internet, and has acceptable English reading comprehension (native speakers can achieve a respectable minimum at 4-5 years old), he can start reading materials for himself, if at least with your help.

A big question is what kind of games does your son want to program? If it’s those internet Flash games, there’s no real choice here. He has to start with Flash. If he’s played games on the Xbox, or PC titles like Quake, Doom, Counter Strike, or generally graphics intensive and popular desktop games, Flash is definitely not the way to go.

Yes, game programmers want to program games. But the prerequisite is to be able to have the mentality of a programmer, and to have a solid foundation in computer science. Game programming is merely an application of programming. That’s why it is so important that your son focus on building up these foundation blocks.

Gamemaking programming languages are an option to quickly get started. One of those BASIC languages, like RealBasic, or BlitzBasic, are definitely popular for such a purpose. But for longer time purposes, it won’t cut it.

I recommend starting with Python or Ruby, or in general high level languages. C# is also a good choice, especially if you are on Windows. Otherwise, the next option is Java. The first two I mentioned are ideal learning languages. They are good for beginners and are used by experts as well, making them ideal investments in time. They also can be used to make games. C# is a good language to start with because it opens up Managed DirectX and XNA as an option. But it is Windows only, which may or may not be a concern for you (C# is not such an enticing option for Mac people).

But programming involves a lot of critical thinking. Games are really a tough application of programming. General software design, graphics, sound, input, efficiency, artificial intelligence, algorithmic tricks, maths, physics, and so on can all come into play with games. It’s important to start small and work your way up. I’m saying this to you, but if it’s really your son who is interested, he needs to be reading this himself, and Googling for himself. If he can’t even do that much, he’s doomed as a programmer.

I would say BASIC (no Im not shouting, its supposed to be capitalized). Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Thats what it was created for.

Most serious programmers work in other languages. But any that are actually doing something will usually tell you that they started in Basic. Trying to start in a "serious" language tends to blow people away before they get very far. Basic was created to make it fast to do something fun and get hooked. There are also various other languages meant to hook kids.

There are programs such as DarkBasic which is specifically created for writing games.

Like he said C++ would be a bad option for a new programmer because it is more difficult. I would go with Java programming, it is good for starters, you can download JCreator LE for free, do a websearch which is a Java source code compiler and you can execute the files from there. Then as he becomes comfortable with Java, you can switch on over to Visual Studio.net and teach him how to do J# which is visual Java and you can make more complex applications with it. Even before java make sure he knows the basics of programming, for example pseudocode which is like instructions to get a task done, doing this before attempting each project will make things easier.

Good Luck.

If you can afford to purchase Adobe Creative Suites, your son will have great software for every aspect of creating his games, including Flash, which as mentioned above is one of the most common programs to create games and other interactive programs.

You might also want to check out this site, which has tons of information on getting starting as a game developer: www.gamedev.net

That's tough.... You could start with those crappy number games in C++ but there are Game Making programs out there, my little brother actually discovered one and started making his own games.... usually these Game Making Programs have some type of program control structure understanding of loops and such... i would go with one of those... sorry i cant help more but... i think it's cool what you're tryin to do

it seems like you know something about programming. They say that Blitz is the best one to use for beginners(I started out using blitz, but I was learning from a poorly written book, Game Programming for Teens, but you might do better if you know something about it). C might also be good.

I suggest you first teach him about JAVA Language...