Have a look at love2d[0] - (or Löve, as they prefer it to be called) It's a lua-scriptable game framework, where you can at least see results fairly quickly. All you need is a text editor and the lua executable. It's only thought for 2d games, but it's got an integrated physics engine (Box2d) and a bunch of libraries to help with all kinds of things that might come up.

And the community was absolutely lovely last time I checked :)

[0]love2d.org/