C++, as the hitchhiker suggested. Duh! The better answer would be not JAVA

Actually, for your skillset, I think learning Java would be beneficial, as you would have the control of C and a lot more ease of use. There are some tricks with threading and such you will get into later, but JAVA will ease you nicely into the ends. It is supprisingly not much harder than RPG maker code - you just have a lot more to work with. Bantam is gonna smite me if he sees this

Bipper