Aaron86: Also, Google uses Python. So yeah.

HiPhish: I don't like refering to myself as a developer of anything, since I did not have any game finished and my non-games were just exercidses I did at university.
But I have been working on a game for quite some time in my free time. i want it tobe a commercial release and earn me money. There is nothing to show now, it looks ike an Atari game, the levels are just generic worst-case scnarios but it plays like gold. i want to get the whole concept working, before I start filling the game with actual content (levels, graphics, music, menus)

What i learned from my experience is not to rely on other indy game developers. The reason is that most of them simply suck. Most are just self-proclaimed artists who are not struggling to make quality entertainment for the masses, but to entertain some niche groups and artsy gamers.
If you are serious about it you need to get your hands dirty. Learn programing (not that hard actually) and start out small. An online collaboration can be good enough for some little game just for fun, but if you are really serious you will need a proper team.

As for the prgraming part, I use the Unity 3D engine, which comes with a great editor. It's not really programming, It's rather scripting, so it fits my level of proficiency. You can export to PC and Mac, browser and with additional licenses to iOS, Andoid, Wii, PS3 and 360. The best thing is that the indy version is for free (only PC, Mac and browser export) and you are only forced to upgrade to pro when your annual revenue exceeds a certain limit.
BTW, it is called Unity 3D, but you can make a 3D game look and feel like 2D.

Aaron86: Also, Google uses Python. So yeah.

Gammix: I don't know if anyone's said this yet (...) MMOs are really expensive to run(...)

Fujek: If you are planning on getting a server involved for your games, which seems to be the case with your second (Paladin) idea mentioning the magical MMO abbreviation, consider server cost in advance.

rasufelle: I figure Paladin would be a much later-produced game, after said group had already proven itself on a few simpler ones (like the mage tower one) and already established at least a little income and fanbase, so yeah, the server costs would at that point HOPEfully be taken care of.

rasufelle: I would be looking for a 1:1 scale city at smallest to start with, maybe New Orleans or somewhere similar

Fujek: I pointed it out ;)Fujek: And got a response...Fujek: Not that I think the OP really is aware of server cost involved on a project of such a scale really...Fujek: But hey, I figured it's rather unlikely that even the first project would succeed (sorry for the 'pessimism', but I just saw too many similar projects fail to be optimistic here), so it's nothing I'd be too worried about ;)

rasufelle: Really like your bright viewpoint there ;P

Honestly? I doubt anything will come of this, but I thought it was worth a shot just to get my ideas out there. I've looked around for game development forums, and most of the ones I've found were either filled with dicks, paid membership only, or so crammed it didn't look like a newcomer would be able to get a word in edgewise. So I figured, hey! This place likes games! And thus this thread was born.

I'm still watching the people who said they were interested in programming, though. Maybe we should have a thread of tech demos and games made by users?

KavazovAngel: Switch to XNA (...) Visual C# 2010 Express

Fujek: Given that I was using Visual C++ 2010 Express anyway, I gave it a try and installed the C# version (with Game Studio 4) as well. Now, would you happen to have any on-line guide as recommendation, given than there doesn't seem to be an official one (or at least I have a hard time finding it)?

Fujek: I was looking for a real guide, not a bunch of distributed articles. I'll provide an example of a guide and how it should look like to avoid misunderstandings.
Abode distributes the ActionScript 3 programming guide on their official web appearance, which illustrates some (more or less ;)) proper use of ActionScript 3.
The same is true for Apple and objective C.

KavazovAngel: This maybe?(...)

Fujek: I found that right on my first search, but unfortunately it's more of a tutorial series for various different aspects than a detailed from zero to hero walk through of the language. I'm less of a guy that copy and pastes different code snippets together and then calls it a game, but more of somebody who likes to learn how and why things work and what would be a better alternative to handle some basic functionality.