If you're an absolute beginner, go with a modern engine like unity, game maker, cocos, ...
If you're an average dev and knows js, phaser is very nice. (But do you only want to target browsers?)
No, no, no. I started on Game Maker about 12 years ago. It taught me a lot of crummy programming practices, and often took care of too many of the underlying aspects, to a point where I was often doing things without any understanding of how they worked.
Unity is free, and offers something much closer to a proper IDE. It's usage of C# also encourages newer developers to learn the fundaments a language they can very much apply elsewhere if and when they need.
No, no, no. I started on Game Maker about 12 years ago. It taught me a lot of crummy programming practices, and often took care of too many of the underlying aspects, to a point where I was often doing things without any understanding of how they worked.
Unity is free, and offers something much closer to a proper IDE. It's usage of C# also encourages newer developers to learn the fundaments a language they can very much apply elsewhere if and when they need.