So let's say I want to make simple games

[evilsoup]

My end-goal would be to make a clone of metal marines, which is a relatively simple game from the mid-90s... a sort of really, really limited RTS. This is purely as a hobby, mind: I'm not looking to get into the games industry, and I don't really care about learning bad habits or whatever.

So, what would be the best (easiest) programming language to learn in order to make 2D games? I will also want to use internet play, if that affects things. Oh, and cross-platform-ness would be preferred.

[thatguruguy]

pygame (http://www.pygame.org/news.html), maybe?

[PaulInBHC]

Go here and see if your game is already made.

Linux game database | Database for native Linux games (http://www.lgdb.org/)

Also the tools section has links to game making programs.

[forrestcupp]

pygame (http://www.pygame.org/news.html), maybe?

+1. Probably the easiest place to start if you don't have any background.

[evilsoup]

Well I have a pretty good working knowledge of bash, but no actual programming languages.

Alright, I've looked at Pygame, currently familiarising myself with python... IDLE doesn't look very intergrated with the DE (it looks like something out of windows 2000() - is that a limitation of python, or can python/pygame stuff be better integrated with GTK3?

[donkyhotay]

I use python/pygame for most of my limited coding of games. It may not have the power of C++ and it's easy to pick up bad habits but if you don't care then it's relatively easy.

[evilsoup]

Well it's not like what I'm intending will require 3D acceleration or anything :V

OK, thanks for the recommendations, I was worried I'd have five different suggestions from four different people or something.

[juancarlospaco]

blender.org and ninja-ide.org