I'm thinking of trying to make some simple 2d games, but I've yet to choose a language. A lot of people recommend either C++ with SDL or python with pygame. I keep hearing that developement on C++ is fairly slow, and developement time with Python is fairly fast.
Anyways, could anyone elaborate on this? What exactly makes development in C++ so time consuming? The programs I've made have been Project Euler-style in that they're very short and math-based, so I have no experience in larger projects.
I'd focus more on choosing a framework to build your game on than trying to pick a language.  Unless the goal is to learn how games work inside and out, you're going to want to use a framework.  Try out a couple, and pick the one that meets your requirements and feels nice to you.
Once you've picked the framework, the language choice becomes easy - use the language for which the framework is written.
There are many options for game frameworks in C++ - pygame works for python.  There are many that work with other languages/tools as well (including .NET, Lua, etc.)
C++ slow, python fast? (in terms of development time)