I found C++ very complex and difficult to work with, though it is very powerful in terms of performance. There is also several years of libraries available in C

I found C++ very complex and difficult to work with, though it is very powerful in terms of performance. There is also several years of libraries available in C++ that is difficult to leave behind. If you are looking for something like C++ in terms of performance and has a nicer syntax, you should try the D programming language. It's very nice to use, as fast as safe C++ code (you can write unsafe C++ that is faster), has stronger typing, templates, mixins, and can interface with C /C++ libraries. I've moved my personal projects over to D, I've started writing a game with OpenGL, SDL, ASSIMP, Devil and it's much easier than C or C++. Some links for those who are interested: Main website: http://dlang.org/ http://dlang.org/ Package manager: http://code.dlang.org/ http://code.dlang.org/ Some interesting documentation pages: Interfacing with C: http://dlang.org/spec/interfaceToC.html http://dlang.org/spec/interfaceToC.html Interfacing with C++: http://dlang.org/spec/cpp_interface.html http://dlang.org/spec/cpp_interface.html Templates: http://dlang.org/spec/template.html http://dlang.org/spec/template.html Inline Assembler: http://dlang.org/spec/iasm.html http://dlang.org/spec/iasm.html