Where to get started as a C/C++/C# developer?

Question

Hello everyone,

I've been a software and game developer for well over a decade, and I feel very at home with C, C++ and C#/.NET. I've done a lot of programming with DirectX SDKs and Unity, as well as desktop and mobile development. However, I don't really know much at all about the web and networking. But now I'm becoming very interested in what kinds of things I can do with AWS in game development, as well as with blockchain, AI/ML and cloud computing power. There seems to be more AWS services and packages than I can count though, and I'm really not sure which ones I should be pursuing and trying to learn more about and which ones are irrelevant to me and my job. The list of services, SDKs and packages is as impressive and inspiring as it is overwhelming and confusing!

I'd like to be able to deploy some .NET applications to AWS to provide remote APIs for games and applications. To start with and get the hang of it, I just want to make a little minigame that lives on a server that a Unity or Unreal game can interact with through http requests. And I'll incrementally add some features to it as I start to get the hang of it. I'd also like to do some experimentation with blockchain software and services and see what kinds of interesting things can be accomplished with it. And beyond that, I'd eventually like to get into using AI/ML to accomplish goals in games and apps, harness cloud-based CPU/GPU processing power for heavy-lifting and even setup some real-time multiplayer game servers.

I just don't know what tools/services/packages I need to dive into and start figuring out. I've found [the Visual Studio 2022 AWS package here](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=AmazonWebServices.AWSToolkitforVisualStudio2022&ssr=false#overview), as well as [this AWS GitHub page](https://github.com/aws/dotnet) for .NET. I've also heard about Lambda. I really have no idea which ones are relevant to me or where I should start with this. To begin with, I want to run a .NET application on a server that applications can query and interact with and have it store and supply data for them, offer some remote APIs and requests, etc. I'd also potentially be interested in running some native C/C++ modules on servers.

Can someone point me in the right direction and tell me what I need to set up and dive into first? I'm doing this in my free time when I'm not working on projects for work, so my time is very limited and researching and learning the wrong things would be a big setback for me. Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated!

Answer

As you correctly say, there are lots of AWS Services to choose from.

My role is a Sr AWS Technical Instructor, and I advice customers to start with the "Essentials". 
One way to do this is register (free) with https://explore.skillbuilder.aws - this is a your  learning centre to build your cloud skills. Start off by searching for the "Cloud Practitioner Essentials" online course. This free online course will describe the basic global infrastructure of the AWS Cloud, describe and provide examples of the core AWS services, including compute, network, databases, and storage, help you 
identify an appropriate solution using AWS Cloud services with various use cases, as well as talking about Security and Cost management.

This will give you the basic skills to (e.g.) spin up a Windows Server and build software on it, or host a web site.

Then you can progress to more advanced topics such as "Serverless" (using AWS Lambda). And if you want to get into AI/ML, you can look into Amazon SageMaker. The "Skillbuilder" portal is a suggested go-to starting point for looking into any of these.

Then, if you want to dive deep into specific AWS products, have a free browse to https://aws.com/products This gives you a breakdown of product by categories, and links to the home page of each product including documentation, and other free resources.

Hope this helps - Enjoy using AWS Services !

Where to get started as a C/C++/C# developer?

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