here is an idea don't think about developing your new altcoin just yet.
first try and spend some time educating yourself on subjects such as cryptography, and then cryptocurrencies and how they use it.
then if you are already good at programming as you claim, start picking an existing coin and contribute to its development. it can be a coin that you liked in step one of your educating yourself.
in this process you first become familiar with the whole thing, then you come up with ideas. you see what is lacking, what is needed and how you can improve it. then implement that idea.
I don't want to make my own currency, at least not yet. I'm just wanting to take the first step in learning
how to. I've already learnt quite a bit about cryptography and its implementation. I did my undergrad in IT Sec, so that was a help.
There are several teams I'm following at the moment, so I'll try and contribute to some of them. Thanks for the tips!