Best project ideas for beginners?

[fanatical]

Hi everyone.

I figured it was never to late to learn, so at the tender age of 29 I picked up C++ because I had a book on my shelf about it that I bought when I was oh, 16 or so and nothing really materialized from it.

Now that I'm older, more patient and my interest has grown, I've started fiddling with C++ again and I thought I'd give it another go. However, programming pretend-ATM machines and the like will only take you so far. I was hoping someone here had some tips or ideas to how I can use SFML to make my learning a little bit more enjoyable.

My general idea was that I will undertake a project. Say, snake or something like that (because what else right?) and whenever I come across a problem I don't know how to solve, I have to look things up and learn it. My approach may not be as structured as a regular class, but I've usually found that this is how I work best.


So after that tedious introduction, this is my question. What are truly good beginner projects for someone who's very fresh to C++ and SFML? Is snake a good idea as mentioned? What other little projects do you guys think would be good for a beginner like myself? I hope I'm making myself clear. I just want to know what  you guys would consider "easy" projects that a beginner might be able to squeeze through.

Eventually I want to make a classic point and click adventure game, but so far I'm content with just putting something down and getting some experience. So fire away if you have anything that might help. I don't need coding help as of yet, but I'm sure I'll get to that eventually :p

[G.]

I think breakout and small shoot'em up are good games to start. Do you want to learn game programming, or only general programming?

You can read several other suggestions on this gamedev.stackexchange question.

[zsbzsb]

Since you are very new to programming and if the only C++ book you have is from 14 years ago I recommend you pickup a newer updated C++ book. That one is probably outdated and probably teaches old styles of programming (manual memory management and other things).

As for a game I suggest you start with one of the simplest clones of a game known as Pong  Or to get even simpler you can try Tic-Tac-Toe or Rock-Paper-Scissors. 

[BaneTrapper]

 I suggest text based game.
Set the amount of graphics to 0, as in just text display so you know something is happening.
The point is to get back the feel of how stuff works and how you should put it together.
Good luck!

[lulle]

A really great source for getting ideas are old games. The oelder the better. Take a look at 8Bit games for old consoles like the Atari 2600. The games are simple but got quite funny ideas in