I have created a game idea over the coarse of the last year, story, some concept art, some physics of the game, and ideas. I started attending a community college to get a degree in programming. I am focusing on C# for windows platforms, I have access to Photoshop CS2, Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate and pretty much any MS product for programming through my school Dreamspark program. My questions are pretty simple:

1. What are some books to get into for game design with C#? I've found like 100 on Amazon and I am trying to narrow it down.

2. I am looking to make a 2D SRPG(Think Shining Force), any good engine choices?

3. If not how hard is it to make an engine?

4. I would eventually like to port my game to Xbox 360/One, and PS3/PS4 will C# allow me to do this?

5. What is some good software for music and sound that is free or cheap so I can play with and learn?

6. In school I have to learn a scripting language, I chose ASP.NET, will this benefit me in any way with game design?

7. I have phenominal art skills with physical mediums, how hard is it to convert to digital? Worth getting a decent Wacom Tablet?

There was like 100 more questions racing through my head before I hit new post. If I think of them I will update this post, thanks for advice in advance it is much appreciated.

I can answer a few of those questions as I have been learning to make games all by myself and have gained quite a bit of info.

I use the Maratis3D engine. It is free and open source and good. It can be used for 2d and 3d, but it has a way to go to be complete. It uses Lua and C++.

If you are making a 2D game, you might want to check out GAMEMAKER STUDIO. It can cost a bit to publish. It uses GML (its custom and EASY programming language).

They guy who made the Maratis3D engine made the engine by himself. He could tell you how hard it is. I asked him and he said you have to have a good understanding of OPENGL and DIRECTX (these are graphics libraries that render graphics)

For music the GARAGEBAND app for the Iphone/Ipad is only $5. Audacity is used for sound editing, but it can't make music.

I don't think ASP.NET will be useful in games for you. If you can check out C++, PYTHON, and LUA. If you want to make web games, JAVASCRIPT.

I had a wacom tablet and I gave it to someone that was getting into digtal art. It is hard to do without it if you are drawing/painting your game assets. I miss it myself.

For help on programming, I have some good posts here. But to learn in a more interactive way, there is CODECADEMY.com

Hope this hleps.

Audacity is used for sound editing, but it can't make music

I disagree.

I make tons of music using Audacity...

1. What are some books to get into for game design with C#? I've found like 100 on Amazon and I am trying to narrow it down.
2. I am looking to make a 2D SRPG(Think Shining Force), any good engine choices?
3. If not how hard is it to make an engine?
4. I would eventually like to port my game to Xbox 360/One, and PS3/PS4 will C# allow me to do this?
5. What is some good software for music and sound that is free or cheap so I can play with and learn?
6. In school I have to learn a scripting language, I chose ASP.NET, will this benefit me in any way with game design?
7. I have phenominal art skills with physical mediums, how hard is it to convert to digital? Worth getting a decent Wacom Tablet?

I can answer a few of these

2. Something like game maker might suit you just fine if you're trying to make a 2D RPG. If you want something more advanced there are definitely 2D engines out there which would be perfect for the job you're trying 2D. You could check out XNA if you're working with C#.

3. It's absolutely not a beginner subject. Engines can be pretty complex to build and its development would only take up precious time you could spend on creating your game.

4. C# together with the XNA framework I mentioned above will allow you to run your game on Xbox 360 as long as you pay a yearly fee (or at least it used to be this way, don't know if they've changed it). Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 are pretty much out of the question since you'll need to get your hands on development kits for each platform. For the new generation of consoles they've become more flexible towards indies, but getting a devkit will probably still require you to have a track record of published games. Also when developing for these platforms you'll have to interact with their platform SDKs and tools which will require a native language like C++.

6. Unless your game will require you to write server side web application code ASP.NET won't be useful in your game development career

7. I'd absolutely recommend getting a Wacom tablet if you're good at drawing. I've bought a more expensive tablet myself a couple of months ago after dabbilng with some cheaper Wacom tablets and I didn't regret it for even a second.

EDIT:

Something I want to add is that you should beware of using products offered by Microsoft's Dreamspark project for any non-educational purposes. The reason you're getting those programs is so you can use them in a school setting. As far as I know you're not allowed to actually sell or publish anything created with tools provided by Dreamspark.

1. What are some books to get into for game design with C#? I've found like 100 on Amazon and I am trying to narrow it down.

2. I am looking to make a 2D SRPG(Think Shining Force), any good engine choices?

3. If not how hard is it to make an engine?

4. I would eventually like to port my game to Xbox 360/One, and PS3/PS4 will C# allow me to do this?

5. What is some good software for music and sound that is free or cheap so I can play with and learn?

6. In school I have to learn a scripting language, I chose ASP.NET, will this benefit me in any way with game design?

7. I have phenominal art skills with physical mediums, how hard is it to convert to digital? Worth getting a decent Wacom Tablet?

I will try to answer some of these questions:

1. As far as I know there isn't any book on game design that uses C#. There are some books that use XNA (and C#). If you don't have much experience in C# it also may be worthwile to pick up a general C# book.

2. You can always have a look at Unity. It is possible to use C# as scripting language for it.

3. How hard it is to build an engine really depends on your skill level and what the engine needs to do. A 3D game engine with support for OpenGL and DirectX is far more complicated than a 2D engines that uses sprites. So it is hard to say without knowing more. One thing I do know is that making game engine is not one of best start projects if you have no experience in the language that you are using.

4. XNA will make possible to run it on Xbox360, the only problem is they abandoned the XNA project a while ago. They haven't announced nothing new yet for Xbox One AFAIK.

6. ASP.NET is not a scripting language. It is framework that can be used to build websites. I don't think it will benefit you with game design.

Regarding Xbox One development, Microsoft has stated that every retail unit can be eventually be used to develop on*, although this functionality will not be included at launch.

My guess is there will be a fee of some sort attached to this, but nothing has been stated (as far as I know, at least).

*http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/07/24/microsoft-to-announce-indie-self-publishing-new-certification-process.aspx

Regarding Xbox One development, Microsoft has stated that every retail unit can be eventually be used to develop on*, although this functionality will not be included at launch.

My guess is there will be a fee of some sort attached to this, but nothing has been stated (as far as I know, at least).

*http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/07/24/microsoft-to-announce-indie-self-publishing-new-certification-process.aspx

Yes the hardware can be used to do development, just like the Xbox 360 can be used to test your XNA games. I'm sure that getting access to the Xbox One platform SDK, their toolset and their review process for publishing an indie title will still require a fee as you mentioned.

It would also seem strange to me if they didn't release proper devkits to AAA studios, as these devices provide additional debugging features and additional memory to run test builds of their games.

Thanks for your answeres, I heard XNA is no longer supported, but I also heard some people developed XNA Mono, so I plan on using that as well.

As far as Garageband goes, I don't own a single Apple product. I have a Win7, Win8, WinServer2008 and WinPhone8. Any good windows programs that does something similiar?

As a student I already signed up for the free Dev account for windows and windows phone. Any idea of dev costs for 360 as an indie?

I just double checked my agreement with my school for dreamspark, doesn't mention publishing or selling, just that my license for all my software expires after 2 years.

Thanks for the Codeacademy idea, I will look into that.

It would also seem strange to me if they didn't release proper devkits to AAA studios, as these devices provide additional debugging features and additional memory to run test builds of their games.

Indeed.

I just didn't see the retail unit info in the thread, so I figured I could share, as it might be relevant in this case :)

About the Dreamspark licensing, you should check out their EULA; be sure to check out section 3.d

https://www.dreamspark.com/Student/Direct-EULA.aspx

EDIT:

Also from the Dreamspark FAQ:

Are there any limitations on the way I use the Microsoft tools I get through DreamSpark?

You may only use the tools and software from DreamSpark to get ahead in school, develop new skills and take steps in research in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.You can review the license agreement for more details.