Any distro that provides video drives, a compiler, and a text editor. After you have those you can build a game. If you're not interested setting everything up get a distro like Ubuntu. If you want stability go with Debian, and if you want to mess around with everything in your OS then use Arch.
Don't get caught up with setting up VMs and doing a lot of stuff for setting up a distro. Write a game. Work through a series of OpenGL tutorials, compilers, and a few other game-related topics and then build something.
I think the real nugget of wisdom in this comment is to make sure you're solving the problems that matter.
If your goal is to build something, you want tools and an environment that make that task easier or more efficient, and then get out of your way. You don't want to get lost in a myriad of system config/tweaks, or to get overwhelmed and find yourself fighting the tools most of the time.
For some, that's part of the fun. For others, they want an environment that just works, and stays out of their way.
Don't get caught up with setting up VMs and doing a lot of stuff for setting up a distro. Write a game. Work through a series of OpenGL tutorials, compilers, and a few other game-related topics and then build something.