I'm familiar with C/C++/Scheme/Java/OpenGL/TCP/IP.
I need to learn how to build a tile based / platform flash engine.
What tools should I be using?
What books should I buy?
I strongly prefer tools that let me do things programatically rather than through a graphical UI.
Must confess, I only work with Flash developers, so this is a bit second hand. That said, hopefully it'll provide some leads until someone with more hands on knowledge chimes in.
Whilst there are open source tools available, it may prove easier (at least initially) to use Adobe's Flash Professional development environment.
If you focus on ActionScript 3, you'll find you can achieve pretty much everything programatically rather than having to use the traditional timeline style editing tools.
I use TextMate with Simon Gregory's ActionScript add-on for coding and Adobe Flash CS4 IDE for handling assets and for publishing/compiling.
Flex Builder is another option, it is an Eclips based editor, and can be used for Flash/ActionScript development without including the Flex framework in the resulting swf.