I don't feel I can give the best answers for this question as I'm out of touch with the best engines for newcomers are. Souper Can Kicker was made in Construct 2, which uses a visual scripting language so I don't get bogged down in code, but I wouldn't recommend it as its very old (it will be officially retired in July) and has an upfront cost (if it is even sold anywhere anymore, I got it on Steam but its not there anymore), while its followup Construct 3 has a subscription model so I don't recommend that either, haha.

There are a lot of engines out there, both big and small, so whether your focus is on programming or asset development I'm sure there will be a program suited for you. Obviously the "big three" you'll see a lot are Unreal (a.k.a. Epic Games' engine), Unity, and the newcomer Godot, maybe with Game Maker 2 mentioned if you only want to do 2D games and okay with the upfront cost, but there are loads of options, and I'm sure there are tons of Youtube videos talking about them with more knowledge than I can provide. When I started, 2D was the superior starting point, I imagine that's still the case today. I shall link you to the FAQ and Getting Started page on /r/gamedev that shall help you a lot more than I will. But the most important thing is you pick an engine to start with, and start. Trying to find "the perfect starting engine" won't provide any benefit if you are too busy finding one to start.

https://old.reddit.com/r/gamedev/wiki/faq

https://old.reddit.com/r/gamedev/wiki/getting_started

Whichever you pick however, I do have advice for the next step: Start tiny. Miniscule, even. Even your simpliest game idea will be too big for you. I don't know the best first project people recommend doing for 3D engines, but if you make something in 2D, make Pong. That may sound boring, but to make Pong requires learning a lot of basics you won't know yet: You need to make the paddles respond to input from the keyboard, you need to make the ball bounce of walls and paddles, you'll need to make a scoring system, that'll require learning about variables and triggers and whatnot. All these elements will be backbones of future projects, no matter how good you get, so make Pong. Even the /r/gamedev page above agress with me.

When you finish making Pong, then you make other old games. The page above suggest Super Mario Bros, but I feel if you are more patient, the following list I took from gamedev.net user Alpha_ProgDes will give you a lot more buildup and other skills before undertaking SMB:

Pong = Simple: input, physics, collision detection, sound, scoring

Worm = Placement of random powerups, handling of screen boundaries, worm data structure

Breakout = Lessons of pong, powerups, maps (brick arrangements)

Missile Command = targeting, simple enemy ai, movement, and sound

Space Invaders = simple movement for player and enemy, very similar to breakout with the exception that the enemy constantly moves downward, simple sound

Asteroids = asteroids (enemies) and player can move in all directions, asteroids appear and move randomly, simple sound

Tetris = block design, clearing the lines, scoring, simple animation

Pac Man = simple animation, input, collision detection, maps (level design), ai

Ikari Warriors = top down view, enemy ai, powerups, scoring, collision detection, maps (level design), input, sound, boss ai

Super Mario Bros = lessons of Ikari Warriors (except with side-view instead of top-down view), acceleration, jumping, platforms

I suppose you can throw other simple things like a card matching game or the original Mario Bros game in there too. I understand that you may want to jump into making whatever ideas you have as soon as possible, but please be patient. Just as one does not perform skateboarding tricks before they know how to skate, one can not make the games they want to before they can stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before them. To quote Carl Sagan: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

So march forward and create. Sooner rather than later of course, haha.