Metroidvania

so, I'm completely new at programing... then, what is the best way to make a decent metroidvania game (example: doukutsu, lyle in cibe sector). I'm not saying I want to make a game worth to be compared to konami's games or doukutsu... also, is there any easy way to make good shmups?

I'm making a shmup right now with a B.S. degree in Computer Science under my belt.

If 2D shmup with dinky-ass 1990's style gameplay, yes it's easy, at least for me.

If a modern shmup with 3D models, 3D backgrounds, scripting language, and thousands of bullets on the screen with the goal of minimal slowdown like I'm (slowly) working on right now... no, it's NOT fucking easy.  There's so many more layers of both coding and across-the-board theory you have to get by to get just about every piece of it implemented, it isn't even funny.  I agonized about 4 or 5 hours yesterday trying to "get" how interpolation works in keyframing animation at the algorithmic level before that fucking light bulb over my head finally turned on, but that's one baby step out of many more.

Still, when I finish this, the shitty GPA won't be as relevant to company interviewers as having a completed project to my name, so that's good enough motivation to keep at it.

If you're super-new to programming I suggest something very elementary.  Try an ASCII-based Othello game in C or C++, that was what my freshman-year project was.