If you want to dive into the gameplay and implementation aspect without having to worry about what is going on under the hood I advise you to start with something like Unity.

They already have a lot of video tutorials (here is one: http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/survival-shooter-project)

That will make you familiar with what it takes to develop a game when you have a game engine and all the tools.

Since you are no stranger to programming, I would recommend learning SDL(API) with C++. With SDL you can add 3D rendering with either DirectX or OpenGL when you are ready for all that jazz.

I would also recommend a copy of Jazon Yamamoto's "Black Art of Mulitplatform Game Development", as a starting point. He covers SDL quite well, even throwing in a chapter for transitioning from 1.2 to 2.0.

Good luck on your venture into games development! ^_^