Here's an update. I've had a chance to become more acquainted with Liquid Studio over the past couple of days and I have to say that the more I use it the more impressed I become with it. So much so that I even bought a license despite not having paid off my Christmas bills yet!
LS is brim full of features. It's reminiscent of C++ with its object oriented structure but is far far easier to use. You might call it object BASIC. You can mix and match graphics and console programming. Graphics include a full array of 2D and 3D functionality including textures and lighting. And don't let the fact that it's a byte code interpreter dissuade you from trying it out. It's one of the fastest I've seen particularly with regard to graphics.
I've barely scratched the surface with all the built-in features and I'll be busy exploring them for a while. It comes with a vast array of informative and entertaining sample programs that show off many of its features. If you want to mix programming and fun then I can heartily recommend Liquid Studio.
