Hello,

So I've got experience developing websites: HTML, CSS and PHP, I've also covered scripting in the game Garry's Mod which uses a version of lua.

I would like to create management game, so the majourity of it is menu based, it's essential (even though i'm sure most languages can) i can create directories to store saves, write files, edit and remove files in this directory.

What I'm asking is, what should I use to produce this game? I want something which isn't really hard to pick up and will be ideal for a menu based game. Any suggestions would be awesome, thanks!

While you can write and change files in a diretory using php afaik, it's not really recommended to do this, in web server context, perhaps (you probably have more experience here than me). That basically thorws html, css, and php out of the window.

For Lua to work, you'll either need some C/C++ code, or a Lua library. Plain lua doesn't have much, you're supposed to connect to a (graphical) environment by means of some C/C++ glue that you write. That may be a bit too far for you.

The other option is a Lua library. I am not very knowledgeable here, but Love2D may be usable. I would say, check if it clicks with you.

Other than that, I don't know any other Lua library (but then again, I don't know what lua libraries that exist).

Another option is to switch to something new. Gamemaker is mentioned often here, but no idea what it does.

If you go for a regular programming language, Python will do the job well.