PHP used to be great for APIs but well it's kinda eh nowadays but worth knowing for the next few years.
In real for your first language you should choose something you can prototype rather quickly in out having to basically do the whole ignore learning technique like you have to do with well Java etc.
Basically the thing with those languages is that you have to ignore most of the functionalities with them when you first start then have to try to stop with the habit of ignoring and try to learn them.
Python basically forces you to write readable code which is a good thing, it's really easy to setup unlike other language say PHP which you will notice in the later end will become a pain to test etc.
Specially for your own game, PHP isn't good at those things without huge hinders and you shouldn't focus on that to start off with.
http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ if you want to learn the basics of Python.
By the way, you want to download Python 2.7 not 3, get Sublime text after installing that, remember on the python installer to press the little add to path on the feature screen.
Then when you have sublime basically just make a new file, call it (something you want to name it).py save it, write
print 'Hello world'
and press ctrl + B to see if it works, it should show you a log of what has happened and say "Hello world".
If it doesn't work
http://lo.lf.ag/s/69c434f798.png do that and try, remember googling the errors is more effiecient than asking and then waiting.
Now what you want to do is install
https://packagecontrol.io/installation ( open the cmd like,
http://lo.lf.ag/s/286b8b9fa9.png )
Now install jedi it will help you along the way
http://lo.lf.ag/s/0a7ebd3608.mp4 if you need help.
And test your way forward, also a good way to learn is to look at others code and try to rewrite it, not copy paste basically like you look at their code and then close it then you try to recreate it and if you get stuck you look at it again but never copy pasting, it will give you a mindset of how stuff is written.
Same goes with PHP but it's a bit harder to start up but it's good to start with a simple language that you can understand before moving onto something that is kinda "eh..." in how it's made to work.
