And don't forget Garagegames, idevgames (for mac), and gamasutra. http://www.idevgames.com/ http://www.garagegames.com/ http://www.gamasutra.com/ And these are the urls I've kept around for game engines; http://www.tntbasic.com/ http://www.rapideuphoria.com/hotnew.htm http://www.iit.edu/~sarimar/GDS/metal.html But really, the best place to start messing with games is with custom levels and assets for an existing game. Many of the well-known games have level editors and other ways (and communities dedicated to) expanding and changing the game play and graphics.