Languages/Engines

I wasn’t 100% sure where to put this, but I figured this section would be okay, if any of you read my introduction in the General Discussion that I am attempting general game development before I dive head first into a rsps.

I was wondering which languages/engines you guys would recommend. As of now I am heavily looking towards GameMaker: Studio just because of how easy it is to pick up and also a number of people on their community forum explain how easy it is to transfer from GML to Java. But still I would rather ask the opinion of actual Java devs.

Are you familiar with Java or programming in general? If not, I would really recommend going through at least the basics of the docs before you start with anything else.

For an engine I would recommend Unity just because how easy it is and the amount of resources available. You can choose between UnityScript and C# for Unity. If you can write proper Java / C# the transition to the other language isn’t that hard at all!
I haven’t really touched another game engine so I can’t say anything about other them. However, I do know there is the JMonkey Engine which works with Java.