I want to be a programmer as a profession, what do i need to learn?

well really what is the salaries, but also, what courses should i be learning, i know i need to learn c++, mainly i want to go into video game programming, im 16 going on 17 soon, is there anything i could do now to help me? im almost positive this is what i want to do

I want to be a programmer as a profession, what do i need to learn?
You need to learn to program some of the gaming engines out there, among other stuff. You will probably want to specialise in one area.
Reply:There are a great many roads programmers can take that will make the successful in life. Game programming is just one of these roads that has a very "Hollywood" feel to it because of its high profile. Every different road has a selection of ways to walk it as well. Take the web development field, for instance. You could go the open source route with PHP or the proprietary route with ASP.NET or ColdFusion. Programmers come in many styles and there are careers out there for each one.





As for the game industry, you should check out the University of Advancing Technologies out of Tempe, AZ. www.uat.edu is their website. They have software engineering degree programs with a focus in game development. As for languages, start with C++ or Python. A lot of new games are moving to Python - Civ IV for instance.