Any reasonably priced software is welcome. Software that cost over £200 each isn’t within my budget so please do not post any software with that price tag.
From what I understand I will need software to create models, sprites, backgrounds etc. but I am not sure what else I need.
You’ll usually need (free program-wise, as that’s mainly what I use:
-Blender: 3D Modeling.
tutorial:
-Gimp (or Paint.Net, Gimp is preferred): Texture creation
tutorial: It’s more or less Photoshop, so looking at tutorials for it will more or less work.
other than that what you need depends on what your gonna do. For example, if your going to be sculpting
models than Sculptris is something to look at.
Gimp seems to be the popular choice, but I prefer PAINT.NET (free). It may not be as powerful, but it does everything I need and it’s much simpler to use.
I’m new to game development as you are and I had the same question.
After doing some research I found the following programs:
Free 2d modeling software: Gimp
Free 3d modeling software: Blender3d
Free audio recording and editing software: Audacity
Audio creating software: I’d use a cheap keyboard synth for most of my sounds.
Adobe now provides monthly payment options for their software, if you’re experienced with Photoshop, by all means use it, as Gimp does have a learning curve due to the UI.