Kev5688, as you are a complete newbie at this you might want to look at Philip Bennefall's BGT, Blastbay Game toolkit, as it has the documentation you'll want to begin building games. Plus was designed for the blind programmer.

That said, what you propose is by no means simple or easy. Before you can create a side-scroller you'll have to learn a programming language such as C++, Python, or BGT, learn how to use various APIs, and learn how to implement various common mathematical formulas to make things work. If your not a very good student of math then writing a game will be rougher for you as side-scrollers and other interactive games require quite a bit of math and sometimes some physics to make it work correctly.

The point I am getting at here is that there are several steps involved in the game writing process. First, pick a programming language and various toolkits you want to use. Two, learn how to use them. Three, write several practice applications and games. Finally, once you know enough try and write something bigger and better. There is no way to go from absolute newbie to writing something as advanced as a side-scroller without several steps in between.

Yes, in bgt, you don't really need much math to code a sidescroller, at least not the basic framework of one, which so far is all I can really do.