[eropple]

I'd strongly recommend starting at a lower level than MonoGame. OpenGL isn't conceptually difficult (at least through vertex buffer objects) and encourages you to understand the actual process of what you're doing. I find it enlightening and it makes me better able to work in higher-level systems as well.

[nsxwolf]

After the 100 millionth time in my life of staring at a black screen and wondering where my triangle is, I switched to higher level frameworks and never looked back.

[CmonDev]

...or we could make actual games.

[girvo]

Depends on what your goal is.

When I was 11 years old, I was using GameMaker 3.5 (man I miss GML scripting, its what got me into programming in general) to build games, and get my ideas out. That was fun!

I'm 23 now, and am currently learning how to build games... this time, using C, SDL, and Lua embedded for scripting.

I also happen to have Unity3D installed on my computer, which I use for my actual game project, but I'm doing things the hard way and building my own engine and game on top of it as a learning process.

Just another perspective :)