Update.
I still havent talked to noone knowledgeable eough of game programing... (yet i have to try better and harder) it seems they arent like us artists, that you pull a rock and we crawl from under in a horde screaming "gimme a job!, gimme a job!!!!"

Initially, artist wise, i tought of jupiter or copperhead as engines... (they claim almost full maya integration+loads of cool features) but them costing twice the money i could get to make the project per seat kinda settled me on my place again...

Sooo, doing some research, im allured by the price/performance of torque (essentially cause im afraid i wont find noone skilled enough to reinvent the wheel only with a c++ compiler + directx9sdk...)
Torque is there for only 100$/seat... (and they say it can be expanded)
Now, i have read some of the things it can do, but im more interested on the things it CANT do... any hints?