Just start coding and learn as you go. I know that sounds daunting but I feel like there’s not really another way to learn on your own that actually works. I wouldn’t worry about a specific language at the start, whatever you learn will transfer pretty easily. I would start with thinking “What would be something cool to program?” And just seeing if you can do it or maybe a simple version. ChatGPT is amazing for learning to code as well. If you get stuck somewhere and need clarification or need help interpreting why your code is giving an error just ask ChatGPT and it can explain - just be sure that you actually understand what it is saying and why instead of just copy and pasting its code. This is how you actually get better instead of just “vibe coding.”

In my opinion, you’ll never get good at coding just going through “code academy” or similar gamified services. It’s more about practice and getting some experience under your belt. It’s like trying to learn how to be a good baseball player from reading books if you don’t go out on the field and play some baseball, or trying to learn the guitar without a guitar in your hand.

MIT has a really good beginner’s course for free that helps a lot with theory and background but IMO it’s based too much on theory for most people to actually build skills just from following it without work outside of the course.

https://ocw.mit.edu/collections/introductory-programming/

For games I recommend just learning to mod first or learn how to make a simple game first and follow along learning exactly how it works at each step. I learned a lot digging into garry’s mod, TF2, and Minecraft mods back in the day.