thanks taehl for the links they are much more helpful

i managed to do the hamster tutorial but i went to the Lua site to read the guides there and i was COMPLETELY lost. i think i want to learn how many of the functions work first and save them all as a refrerence on my computer to look up later. good idea? any other suggestions?

But i want to learn. where do i start? I've been reading a bit in the forums and i want to build some games one day but i don't have much programing knowledge.