Hello everyone! My name is makinggames i have 1 year of experience in C++, an extensive background in WIN32 programming and i just bought a new iMac

I bought my new iMac 2 months ago and i can't wait to start programming on it!!
But there's a couple of problems: I don't know what programming language it uses, where to start, what to use, etc.

So please anyone: How do i get started programming games on a mac? What programming language does it use and what websites/books are good to teach you at said programming language?

Please help me

Thank you VERY much in advance, makinggames

First thing to do is go to developer.apple.com and go to the Mac dev center and sign up for a free account. Then you can download the free developer tools.

As far as languages, you can use many different ones, some more easily than others. C/C++/Objective-C are the high performance native languages, so any of those will be fine. Objective-C is sort of like the Mac equivalent to C# in Windows, except it doesn't run through a virtual machine like C# does, which makes it faster. The usage is similar in that it's used for accessing the modern Mac system API, called Cocoa. There is another system API, called Carbon, but that is the older one and not recommended for new UI development.

If you just want to jump into making games and don't need to worry about OS windowing and menus, then look into using GLUT for basic OpenGL learning, and then SDL, which is a cross-platform windowing framework for games. Using either of those you can skip needing to access Cocoa and can focus on game programming -- and C/C++ would be great to use with either.

If you would like to look at a few more options, I wrote this for people in your situation: How to Start Making Games

C[++] + SDL is a good option though, and I think ThemsAllTook is working on something that would work as well.

Thanks for the huge help guys!

So AnotherJake let me get this straight: I could use C++/C to make the basic Mac window then to make a game inside that window i could use SDL, OpenGL, Cocoa or Carbon?

Thank you very much everyone, makinggames

Easier than that. SDL (or GLUT if you prefer, for learning, which is easier than SDL) makes the window for you, and you program your game inside that using OpenGL and C/C++, and not really ever have to touch Cocoa or Carbon at all.

Thanks heaps guys!

Now you wouldn't know where there are some good tutorials for OpenGL and GLUT would you?
All the tutorials i find on the internet are either for Windows or expect that you have past knowledge of GLUT/OpenGL!! It's so annoying!!!!!

Thanks guy, makinggames

Try this tutorial.

Thanks AnotherJake! I'll be sure to check it out!

Wow!!! Thank you SO much AnotherJake!! This is certainly one of the best tutorials i've seen/used i've only been on for 20-30 minutes and I already know heaps of useful things! Thank you so much, makinggames

OneSadCookie is a pretty amazing writer

Too bad he's left these forums

*EDIT*
nvm....he's back! ^_^