   Proposed Starter Kit: GameMaker, XNA, Pygame, Flash, etc?
  Greets.Impressions on choosing the right starter kit on the path of game development would be welcome. Factors like cross-platforming, running performance, learning curve, reusable knowledge might also get some aspects. I know a little bit only about Python and Pygame, easy-fast 2D games development, runs at a moderate speed on win-linux-... But as I heard 3D and fast routines are not supported natively, only by implementing lower level codes (C,...) Changing from Python & Pygame to more professional, efficient languages (C++) & Libs (Directx,openGL) might also take much time.Xna game studio, Game maker, Flash, etc.:Would they be more favorable choices for a starter on a short-term (1-3 years) basis?Megathanx if thou also contribute. :)   
  XNA is a very good choice for a "starter", while you are locked to Windows (and Xbox 360), it will get you creating games quite quickly. I put starter in double quotes as you will need to learn C# to be able to use it competently but that's a "hurdle" that most libraries have.   ;  I think Unity would be the best choice now, because it will handle all the back end stuff, and asset loading, and you can just focus on scripting the custom behavior you want.XNA and C# is great (and it's my preferred environment right now), but you have to know a bit more to get stuff working, and it won't handle the animation and advanced asset loading out of the box like Unity will.   ;  i think best what you can get is XNA   ;  Oops, also, Panda3D is a good library for Python, some big games were made with it. Not sure if it runs multi-platform though.   ;  You can also combine PyGame with PyOpenGL to get 3D. Though personally, I'd recommend sticking to 2D for your first few projects. The extra third dimension adds a lot of complexity without changing the fundamental aspects of game design that you need to learn to handle.   ;  It depends on what you want to learn. If you want to focus more on design I'd go for UDK or Unity. If you want to focus on programming, I think XNA is the best place to start. The language is ok, but what's really great about XNA is the community and documentation. There's tons of high quality tutorials and a bunch of people willing to help out there.   ;  Aye, aye sirs, my approach would be more design oriented. Would have never thought a complete Unity like tool would be free. They want to have market share against UDK?One of its tutorials presents it can also work in 2D mode.   