I'll try to give you a more technical answer. As I understand you'd like to mix Python with C++ and that is really great. As I see it, you'll probably wanna build the entire engine in C++ and use Python as a scripting language for AI and perhaps simple events handlers?

I'm not sure about how well you know programming but it'd be wise to get familiar with the Object Oriented Programming concept (if you don't know it yet). Learn about inheritance, interfaces and virtual functions. Basically most of the game engines are a huge set of interfaces and virtual functions - this way it's fairly easy to implement new things or to make changes to the existing objects, without the need to modify each of them. You should also get familiar with the proper use of pointers - you could probably get away with naked pointers for a very simple game, however all professional engines use smart pointers. This way you don't need to worry about memory leaks, which may at some point make your game a real mess.

After getting the basics done, you can eventually move towards proper memory management. How to cache game files efficiently in the RAM and load them before they're needed (if it's a simple game, then I guess you can load everything at once). After that, you can learn some basics about creating your own Process Manager and Events Manager for the engine - it'll be incredibly useful when you later add AI. Of course, you should also get familiar with DirectX or OpenGL (or SDL if you want to make 2D games only). Having this knowledge, you should be able to create a simple engine - keep in mind, that there's more such as Networking or Multithreading etc - however the things I mentioned above is the minimum if you want to make a nice and flexible framework for simple projects.

As for the literature, I'd recommend this book to learn C++ http://www.amazon.co...49271707&sr=8-3

This one for game engine development: http://www.amazon.co...49271663&sr=8-1 (by the way, this book has been recommended to me by one of the users at this forum - I'm currently reading it and it's great!)

You may also need this one for Python: http://www.amazon.co...49271811&sr=1-3

Good luck!

I'll try to give you a more technical answer. As I understand you'd like to mix Python with C++ and that is really great. As I see it, you'll probably wanna build the entire engine in C++ and use Python as a scripting language for AI and perhaps simple events handlers?

I'm not sure about how well you know programming but it'd be wise to get familiar with the Object Oriented Programming concept (if you don't know it yet). Learn about inheritance, interfaces and virtual functions. Basically most of the game engines are a huge set of interfaces and virtual functions - this way it's fairly easy to implement new things or to make changes to the existing objects, without the need to modify each of them. You'll also should get familiar about the proper use of pointers - you could probably get away with naked pointers for a very simple game, however all professional engines use smart pointers. This way you don't need to worry about memory leaks, which may at some point make your game a real mess.

After getting the basics done, you can eventually move towards proper memory management. How to cache game files efficiently in the RAM and load them before they're needed (if it's a simple game, then I guess you can load everything at once). After that, you can learn some basics about creating your own Process Manager and Events Manager for the engine - it'll be incredibly useful when you later add AI. Of course, you should also get familiar with DirectX or OpenGL (or SDL if you want to make 2D games only). Having this knowledge, you should be able to create a simple engine - keep in mind, that there's more such as Networking or Multithreading etc - however the things I mentioned above is the minimum if you want to make a nice and flexible framework for simple projects.

As for the literature, I'd recommend this book to learn C++ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ivor-Hortons-Beginning-Visual-2012/dp/1118368088/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1349271707&sr=8-3

This one for game engine development: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Coding-Complete-Mike-McShaffry/dp/1133776574/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349271663&sr=8-1 (by the way, this book has been recommended to me by one of the users at this forum - I'm currently reading it and it's great!)

You may also need this one for Python: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Programming-Python-Complete-Introduction-Developers/dp/0321680561/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349271811&sr=1-3

Good luck!