Hi Caleb - you could give Unreal Engine 3 or 4 a try; it's free to download and you only have to pay if you ship something for sale (5% of gross revenue). There are many tutorials available as well as community support too (https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/support).
A lot of the C++ coders we know use Visual Studio, and we do too (but for C# instead). Good luck with your project!