Tools for game development

Hi

I'm familiar with application development but new to game programming.
I'm planning for developing games like hangman, sort balloon shooting
which involves mouse or keyboard activity, and games which involve
interaction with the user. All these games are to be integrated into
one application. The background scenes and moving from one game to
another involves either a picture or some sort of animation. Some of
the games may need database access or reading from files. So, overall
application involves animation, user interactivity and file/db access.
I would like to know which tools are better suited for developing such
applications.
I am familiar with flash, director and other programming languages. I
would also like to know the benefits and drawbacks of using VB.NET as
a tool.
Thanks for your help in advance.
-Radha