1) Read what industry veteran Tom Sloper has written about a career in games design and development. It is the ultimate source for getting started.
2) Start by making at least one 2D game, so you know what the game development process entails.
3.1) If you are more used to Java, ActionScript 3.0 is a good language to learn in; it is forgiving; and deployment is very, very easy and deploys to nearly all platforms through desktop/mobile/web. You do not need to buy Flash Professional or Flash Builder, you can get a free IDE like FlashDevelop instead. The difference between Flash Pro and the others is that Flash Pro is a bit like Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign in that it you can use it to draw vector graphics you'll use in your game. But this is not actually necessary. And yes, ActionScript is the central language supporting Flash development.
3.2) PyGame is another option, if you are more used to Python. I have used Python briefly, but I find it to be a sensible and concise language that does not restrict the user unnecessarily. I don't doubt that writing games in Python is good fun, but I would suggest to you that there is without a doubt more reference material for Flash/ActionScript. Python is generally for desktop apps.
4) During development, when you get stuck, use this (this!) Q&A site for good questions that you can't answer through googling, or one of the forums I list below.
5) (Optional, really) Get yourself some good books on game development, preferably specific to the language you choose. Amazon ratings are your friend.
Read what industry veteran Tom Sloper has written about a career in games design and development. It is the ultimate source for getting started.
Start by making at least one 2D game, so you know what the game development process entails.
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If you are more used to Java, ActionScript 3.0 is a good language to learn in; it is forgiving; and deployment is very, very easy and deploys to nearly all platforms through desktop/mobile/web. You do not need to buy Flash Professional or Flash Builder, you can get a free IDE like FlashDevelop instead. The difference between Flash Pro and the others is that Flash Pro is a bit like Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign in that it you can use it to draw vector graphics you'll use in your game. But this is not actually necessary. And yes, ActionScript is the central language supporting Flash development.
PyGame is another option, if you are more used to Python. I have used Python briefly, but I find it to be a sensible and concise language that does not restrict the user unnecessarily. I don't doubt that writing games in Python is good fun, but I would suggest to you that there is without a doubt more reference material for Flash/ActionScript. Python is generally for desktop apps.
During development, when you get stuck, use this (this!) Q&A site for good questions that you can't answer through googling, or one of the forums I list below.
(Optional, really) Get yourself some good books on game development, preferably specific to the language you choose. Amazon ratings are your friend.
- gpwiki.org (generally good info on game development, across languages)
- gamedev.net (forum and their many, many articles)
- gotoandplay.it (good forum for flash game developers)
- actionscript.org (good forum for flashers)
- kirupa.com (good forum for flashers)
- senocular.com (good site with articles for newbs to ActionScript 3.0)
