I'm looking at Torque XNA solution , they have combined it with the game builder , som videos on Youtube are awesome
Troque XNA

or that one is funny
No code , to change all the design of a shoot em up
shoot

You can bring up 2D games very quickly , with originality , imagination
you can do great things.

If you can mix shaders with 2D sprites(squarre polygons) you can achieve lot of great things.

I 'm seeking for some 2D very fun solution like that one
i wnat to make some reamakes of old school platform games i had on my Amstrad