Good question! Condemned to explode was created using the LÖVE framework w/ Lua (Criminal Consequences was also written in this framework). I highly recommend it for hobbiest projects since it is simple to learn/use and is very flexible.
I'd say my only advice would be, "Just do it!" That and read the wiki. There are a LOT of really useful functions in love2d, and they are all pretty well documented (except shader stuff).
