As an added note, my preferred method of learning a language has to be learning the basic syntax with some tutorials, then diving in with a project just beyond your comfort zone. From there work out how you would do things and whenever you run into a snag, search for alternate methods. Almost inevitably you will end up with a mess of code, but that's when you should revise and rewrite. I find it a nice hands on method.
If you decide to go with C++, chose an IDE you like (I use Code::Blocks. It's what I started with, and I now that I'm used to it I probably won't switch anytime soon), and give
SFML a shot.
It's primarily a 2D graphics library, and should be fine for everything you want to do.
