What's the best language for game development?

What's the best language for game development?

This is an impossible question to ask because most platforms have specific language requirement! The best language for game development is simply whatever works best on the target platform.

 If you're want to develop iPhone, iPod, iPad games? You're going to want to use Objective-C. That's the language Steve Jobs brought with him from NextStep when he came back to Apple. It's the language for development on all things Apple, so if you want to write Apple apps, you're going to want to learn Objective-C.

 For anything Microsoft, your best bet is going to be C#; the language Microsoft invented that's based on the best of the Java and C programming languages. It's what's used for Xbox, Windows Phone 7, and of course, Windows. Although you can work with other languages on all of these platforms, Microsoft has really gone out of their way to make things easier on you if you use the tools they provide.

 Android devices are easiest to program with Java, as that's the underlying technology. If you're going to do Android game programming, you're gonna need to learn Java. Which is fine, since it's a very popular language and considered one of the better languages to learn when starting out.

 For Windows PC games, C or C++ are undoubtedly the most popular choices. Other languages are possible, but nowhere near as popular.

 For 3D, you're going to need to learn a graphics programming language like Direct3D (for Microsoft platforms) or OpenGL (for all other platforms).

 Game programming is extremely complex, and you're not likely to start completely from scratch. There are so many different tools for every platform, that it'd be a monster task to write about them all. You're going to need level design, graphic design, sound, etc... There's a lot more to game programming than simply choosing a language to learn!