OpenGL is probably not the best way to start game dev. It is a bit too low level for that. I mean, OpenGL is awesome, and a great way to learn graphics programming, but if you intend to make a game that is fun to play, it is easy to get lost in technicalities.

When I started with Blitz Basic, not only my productivity skyrocketed, but I also made better games, because I actually thought about gameplay, not about getting the maths right. Blitz Basic is a game-oriented variant of the Basic programming language, very simple and straightforward. You can try it if you want, but it is two decades old, so I don't know how well it aged. But the important part is to have something simple that can free you from technical details and boilerplate, it can be an engine.

That's unless you want to practice with the technical details, but doing that, the output will probably be more demo than game. And by the way, if you are into that you should check the demoscene, it is awesome.

Just start with a framework like Godot. There are plenty of tutorials online.

If you really want to go low level with it, though, my personal sweet spot is C, Lua/LuaJIT and SDL2. Although practically speaking C++ is probably better.

I would highly recommend starting with a fantasy console such as Pico-8 or TIC-80. They remove the temptation to start by building a game engine from scratch, and instead help you focus on actually creating games! Plus they have great communities, complete docs, and simple apis.

Yeah, one of the traps I find myself falling into a lot is that the act of writing code itself can be satisfying enough, and fear (of finishing, complexity and failure) can lead to just spinning your wheels for a long time.

I will keep that in mind, thanks.

My initial research suggest that Godot games are written in C#. Since you use C/SDL2, do you code directly your own OpenGL engine?

> My initial research suggest that Godot games are written in C#

There are a few supported languages (including a custom Python-like language called GDScript). C# is just just one of them.

I don't use OpenGL. I probably should, and this year I'm planning on getting into Blender and 3D (but through Godot) but everything I do in SDL is 2d and sprite based, and SDL handles pushing the triangles/quads on its own.

Also, Godot games are also written in its native scripting language (GDScript) and it supports other languages, although I don't know how well, or how up to date anything is.

I can consult you on that subject if you want to chat.