[Discussion] New to game development and need programs

So I really want to make a Pokemon game or something similar, I have a couple of ideas which might become a game. The only thing I really need to do atm is get some programs to make it, I don't really want to spend money on programs since this is just a sort of side project for me, I have tried getting RPG Maker VX Ace lite but I can't really activate it which is a little weird.

Anyways what are some good free programs for a newbie? Thanks in advanced!

Unity, Unreal Engine 4, Game Maker (there are paid versions with more features), etc.

Most of those don't have stuff for Pokemon already programmed in though, so you have a lot of coding work cut out for you. Best bet would be Pokemon Unity, though it's not entirely complete nor as user friendly as Essentials.
RPG Maker XP is only like $5 during Steam sales though (which happens several times a year), maybe wait for that if you want to use Essentials.

Maybe I will pick up RPG Maker XP on Steam if I really want to do this fully and make it look better with the Essentials. Pokemon Unity looks pretty good and I am going to try that first. Thanks, I unfortunately missed the Humble Bundle which had a lot of game dev stuff in it :(

RPG Maker XP is great for beginners (like me) I've downloaded unity and realized that I needed to learn a coding language for the small alpha and felt that the 3-D rendering can wait as I work out the maps in RPG Maker XP and get some semblance of a working pokemon game. When I have the time (or the staff) I'll go back into Unity!

If you're just starting out, seriously Pokemon Essentials is a pokemon game prebuilt for you to tweak, add maps, events, sprites, and a few scripts and you're done versus starting from scratch in Unity.

juliorain said:

If you're just starting out, seriously Pokemon Essentials is a pokemon game prebuilt for you to tweak, add maps, events, sprites, and a few scripts and you're done versus starting from scratch in Unity.

Click to expand...

Dude, trust me. It's no where near that simple. There is a whole lot more work that goes into it than that.

Well it isn't as simple as posting a facebook status. But after a few video tutorials and playing around he'll get it.