Tusky is my current preference, but have tried Megalodon, Mastodon and Fedilab. I couldn’t get with Fedilab, the font sizes in particular were never right.

I have a feeling this may backfire. I really want to join this subreddit. Is there a Fediverse version?

I’d suggest Löve, which uses Lua. It’s a powerful language but equally easy to learn. You could also try Pico8, which is also a version of Lua. It’s presented as if it’s an old 8-bit microcomputer with a built in sprite and tile editor. I find Pico8 much more approachable for beginners. Python is another good starting point for low end hardware.