I went without a scripting language for my current project, and I found I was wasting too much time doing things an artist/level maker should be doing. Just like you would never rely on programmer art, I would never trust artist programming, so the scripting language I choose for my next project will have to cater for their needs. Ignoring which is faster/smaller/more powerful, which languages have fewer pitfalls for the uninitiated? A good error reporting mechanism also helps :) [Edited by - hh10k on October 10, 2004 10:28:49 AM]

If you take the time to really make it good, Lua can be your best friend. Its syntax is simple, readable, and teachable, and the metafunction capabilities of the language mean that you can tailor the language exactly to the needs of your engine. Python is also very good, with a richer syntax that may at times confuse your artists but with less need for you to customize the language yourself. Neither of these languages have many "nasty surprises" at all (that's the nice thing about scripting languages), and both have good error reporting (although Lua's errors are at times difficult to decipher).

You should also consider AngelScript. While I haven't had much experience with it myself, I'm led to understand that it has very easy syntax.

I think that almost any scripting language will be ok as long as you write a decent interface for your objects. Work with your artists and designers to see what sort of features they need and use the most, and attempt to encapsulate that sort of behaviour in predefined functions or objects. For example, if they often apply an action to a group of objects, don't make them have to write an explicit loop each time.