The Shining Source

Tell us about what language you're using and why.

The one I've been getting into is Java, tutorials starting here.
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

The downside is that people have to have Java on their PC - the good thing is it can run Operating System independent - so the game doesn't need to be "ported" again and again.

I'm currently using a mixture of languages, but Blitz Basic is my main language at the moment. I know from experience that a lot of people see Basic as a "lesser" language, that's their loss. Blitz isn't a perfect language by any means, and I really miss object orientation, although with a bit of effort you can emulate some of the nicer features.

It's not cross platform (although the newly released BlitzMax is), but BlitzPlus has stupidly low requirements, so will run on just about any Windows PC.

The default IDE is poor at best, so I use Protean, which has made a real difference in my productivity.

I've started using PHP as a "glue" language, and I use it from the command line to autogenerate certain source files. I use it almost exclusively for all my web programming, so it's quite nice to be able to use it to automate dull programming tasks.

Java. Because thats what they feed me at Uni.

Yeah object orientation is handy when the game develops - but it's a pretty daunting thing from the perspective of the novice huh.

That's sort of where I'm sitting at the moment, on the precipice of either understanding just how it all fits together, or giving up and smashing my guitar.

Understanding OO is one of the things I didn't get for a while. It took about two months of university before I even knew what it was, and I don't think I truly understood it until, oooh, graduation. It's important not to get too caught up with the technology though, and I'm trying to stick to the KISS principle where possible. Some things are just nicer with a sprinkling of OO though

I'm using C++ simply because when I wanted to start creating games this is what everyone said is the standard. I like writing in it, but I wonder what benefits Java would have over it, if any?  I saw that you said Java is platform independent which is one plus, are there many more?

The support for it is pretty large, libraries and such, which is great - however I wouldn't know how to compare it against C++

You might have seen my post on building a shop system around here.  Learnt the language over about a week so it isn't hard, and if you already understand classes, then it will be heaps easier for you.

What I do  know is that C++ is faster.  This alone could make it the winner.

From what I have heard though, it seems like the multiplayer and networking end of the job might be easier with Java, although I never got into it.
Multiplayer games spring up all the time in a Java environment, but only the most professional games made with C++ seem to have support.
This makes sense, since Java was developed with multiuser across the internet in mind(if not for games).

Sorry I'm not more help!

C++ also has a lot of support, and a ton of libraries. I would of thought that was a advantange it had over JAVA, but I didn't know JAVA also had that too!

Actually lately I've been wondering if it's better to now create games in C# - since it might avoid some pitfalls of C++. But, since I've already started my game in C++ that's what I'll stick with.

I'm using C#. C# is a language developed by Microsoft for their .NET platform. It is based on C++, Java, SQL and Delphi. Like C++ and Java, it is object-oriented. The differences to C and C++ can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_(programming_language)#Features

I enjoy programming in C#. I learned C when I was 11 years old and thus know the syntax of C very well. C# has some features which make it easier to program in than in C. Moreover, C# is the language for which the XNA Game Studio has been developed to run with, which I'm currently using as it simplifies some essential things about game programming. But XNA has also big disadvantages such as a lack of portability and compatibility problems, so I'm considering to abandon it. Even if I won't use XNA in the future, I'll stay with C# as it has proven to be very effective.

If you want to stick with C#, you could try the Mono framework instead of the official Microsoft one. It's not perfect, but it runs on Linux and OS X as well as Windows.