If you're talking generalities WRT to game programming you might check out
http://www.gamedev.net. Basically I think you need to think about how much you know about C/C++ and if you feel you're lacking, start studying up on that.
I think a lot of beginning programmers think in terms of looking at what's on the screen and doing something. The thing to realize is that what you see on the screen is really the visual representation of something stored in the program. Objects, if you will, and date pertaining to their state. This means maps too. As a programmer it's you're function to update the data with the program and then see to it that it gets put on the screen in a format you player relates to.
Lilith, Night Butterfly
I'm not a programmer but I play one in the office