I've tried to bite my tongue over this post for long enough, but I can't hold it in any longer.
you won't get any easier, more straight forward and pitched and GameDev than Dark Basic
As soon as you move to another language, it gets a little bit more complex. BB3D, GCS, CrystalSpace... all of them, while still excellent at providing an interface to making games are still that little bit more low level. If you're gonna jump from DBP, you will need to learn a lot more. The best you're going to get is something like the SDL, or
CDX. However, these only provide a more straightforward interface to Sound, Sprites and a little bit of 3D. You won't get a "make terrain" command, nor a "set object specular". The general assumption is, that if you're going down the C++ route, then you want 100% control over your engine and you know what you're doing.
There isn't a C++ magic wand dude... if there was, we wouldn't be chatting here.
I think the general thought around DBP is that it provides a nice stepping stone to C++ Game Dev. You get to learn how to implement algorithms and systems without worry about how to animate a character, for example.
My advice is to continue to use DBP until you outgrow it. Use it to make a couple of advanced games (which yes, will require annoying work arounds) and then decice if you still want to invest the time and heartache of committing yourself to a game dev career.
Floats like a butterfly, stings like when I pee
