I am looking to start learning more about doing art for games (I'm admittedly much more of a programmer than artist), but as I'm not planning on getting very deep, I don't want to spend the money for anything really high end. I just want to get a drawing pad/tablet that I can connect to a pc and use to create some art.

Can someone recommend a good entry level device I can use for this purpose? Probably be used to create some beginner quality type art.

Wacom intuos, the small A6.

it has all the important features of larger tablets.

It's very precise for such a small tablet, easy to pack and take with you, has the usual software that you won't use and most important is cheap.

If you buy it and find that you don't use or need a graphics tablet then it isn't a big loss of money, if you do use it a lot you can buy a better one and still use the A6 when you go to classes or lessons.

The largest drawback of the tablet is that it has no screen.

Pardon me if this is a dumb question, but can it import into Gimp or would I have to use the built in software and transfer it to another program for further editing?

Yes it will work with Gimp and any other graphics software.

Gimp like many graphics software has builtin support for graphics tablets, if you find that it isn't properly working restart the application with the pen touching the tablet.

I have used my own intuos with Gimp, Krita, Photoshop, Paint.NET and many other software and found it to work automatically.

If the software doesn't support graphics tablets it will work like a normal computer mouse.

People often dump on Gimp but it can do any thing that purchased software can just with more effort, convenience is what your paying for in software like Photoshop.

Photoshop isn't a magic bullet either, you will often jump from one software to a other.

Before I recommend any particular brand or make, I would first advise that learning to use a tablet is going to take time and effort, and to really consider what your goals are.

If you lack confidence with a piece of paper and pencil or a brush and canvas, I would suggest dedicating some time to do that, perhaps scanning it in and working in vector based software like illustrator or flash if you want to make game assets.

Any tablet will take some getting used to, as you work on coordinating your hand movements to the screen, getting a feel for how the stylus moves over the smooth surface of the tablet, understanding the workflow of using painting or photo editing software to get the results you expect and learning the basics or good art can be overwhelming.

If you are still convinced this is the direction you ought to take, Wacom has been the industry standard for many years, but I've heard the Chinese make some decent alternatives these days, but I don't have any hands on experience with them.

Before I recommend any particular brand or make, I would first advise that learning to use a tablet is going to take time and effort, and to really consider what your goals are.
If you lack confidence with a piece of paper and pencil or a brush and canvas, I would suggest dedicating some time to do that, perhaps scanning it in and working in vector based software like illustrator or flash if you want to make game assets.

Any tablet will take some getting used to, as you work on coordinating your hand movements to the screen, getting a feel for how the stylus moves over the smooth surface of the tablet, understanding the workflow of using painting or photo editing software to get the results you expect and learning the basics or good art can be overwhelming.

Great advice!

If you are still convinced this is the direction you ought to take, Wacom has been the industry standard for many years, but I've heard the Chinese make some decent alternatives these days, but I don't have any hands on experience with them.

Yiynova are a good budget option, and Monoprice actually sells some rebranded with its own marque. Huion are also pretty good; I picked up the GT-220 tablet monitor several months back as a cheap alternative to the Cintiq 22HD. It's not bad, and definitely better value than the Cintiqs sometimes, but Wacom's drivers are far better than any of the competition.

(I'm admittedly much more of a programmer than artist)

A tool limits the skill of an artist, but it never improves his skill (many people think, that they will get real masters with just a golden tool).

I'm a coder , who do art too. A mouse would limit my really decent art skills, but a very expensive tablet or even a tablet monitor wouldn't improve it . So, for me a entry-level wacom works perfectly.

Why wacom ? Because I wanted to avoid time consuming driver/software issues and I wanted a decent tablet. Choosing a Huion tablet montior over a Cintiq is an other issue, because here we are talking about several hundred dollars price difference, were I would be willing to risk some driver issues

Yes, wacom is a good choice. Gimp and photoshop are not very good for learning though. ZBrush is a much better program for both 2D and 3D art production and, especially, learning. There's so many tutorials and books, and you don't have to be an expert to get something going.