What i just said.

A good place to start would be to look through some of the other posts, where people have asked simillar questions. Also, try looking in the Beginner section of the forums.

Other than that, one good place to start would be torque engine... I haven't used it myself, but lots of other people seem to be trying it.

Download Dev-CPP.
Download SDL.
Start Here.

You could always check out flash.

I’m going to quote myself from another thread:

Quote:

What you may in fact be looking for is Game Maker. It is a 2d game-producing tool that is flexible and supported by a huge community. There is an in-built programming language that allows the tool to adapt to your needs as you learn and advance. Game Maker is a very good introduction to game development. As a C++/DirectX programmer I give it the thumbs-up.

Hope this helps,
Jackson Allan

Of what you said and since you post in 'Game Design' I asume you primary want to learn how to design and bulid a game.. If so I highly recomend you to try Game Maker. Loacated here

Game Maker is a Very well written and visual game design tool, and it will teach what you need to get started in game development. Many people don't know how good Game Maker really is and its potential for learning Game Design, simply because they have not tried it. [smile]

However when you get more advanced you can play around with its built in programming language (C/C++ alike) with which you can control every thing.. and I can asure you that it's more than enough.

[edit] as mentioned in above post to [smile]

Good luck!