3D Game Engine:
Unity 3D or Unreal Engine 4... both top tier 3D Engines with cheap or free options

2D Game Engine:
Game Maker... inspite of the bad name some people gave it, it seems to be a very capable game engine for 2D games

And many, many others. For mobile games, Java on Android is a fairly good place to start, so it's worth mentioning JMonkeyEngine (for 3D) and libgdx (mainly for 2D). Python is good for beginners and that has Panda3D. I don't think either C++ or Javascript are suitable for beginners.

Gimp... the free alternative to PS. Can do almost everything PS can do by now, its rough around some edges but still quite capable

Gimp development seems to be a bit stagnant lately, with things like 48/64-bit colour support and the GTK3 support (needed to make the icons a sensible size on high DPI displays) being long overdue. Neither of these are show stoppers for game development though. There seems to be quite a buzz about a new free image editor lately, called Krita. I think it works in quite a different way, might be worth a look.

Speaking of working in a different way, there's the excellent Inkscape for vector graphics.

Programming:
Depends on the Language and Engine you use. Unity for example is package with the MonoDevelop IDE for C# and Unityscript development, but you can also use a different IDE or Editor.
Visual Studio... the MS IDE, used most for C++ and C# / .net development AFAIK. Quite capable as far as I could tell during my short use of it some years ago. The express version is a free download on the MS page
Eclipse... Industry standart Java IDE AND opensource, thus free download. If you do Java or web development, check out Eclipse first

For Mac there's XCode, but I think you need to be working in Objective C or Swift to get the most out of it. For Java, try IntelliJ IDEA instead of Eclipse. Google's IDE for Android is now based on IntelliJ instead of Eclipse.

Game Design:
Microsoft Office suite, 'nuff said... learn to use Excel, it is your friend. MS now has subs that aren't too expensive, I got my license some years back and it was 3 installs for 100 bucks, not too bad. Of course that install was missing Outlook and Visio, which I now regret as my Thunderbird Mail Client is somehow buggy as hell and Visio is always nice to have as an engineer of any trade...
If you look for a free alternative, check out openOffice... haven't used it in years, but was pretty capable back then. Just be aware that if you exchange documents with MS office users, you will face formatting errors in both directions from time to time (but its not like different versions of MS office are 100% compatible... really, MS just wants to keep their users upgrading by constantly breaking compatibility times and times again... I will get my foil hat now)

OpenOffice was forked to create LibreOffice when there was a disagreement between its developers and Oracle, and LibreOffice has been the preferred option ever since. OpenOffice regained some credibility when it was handed over to the Apache Foundation, but LO is still ahead.

If you guys don't mind wasting your time answering the same old questions over and over again then that is fine by me. I have burnt myself out more than once doing just that (Ogre3D forum)..

I don't like to see you put a lot of work into trying to guess the question and provide a thorough answer when it is painfully obvious that the Original Poster has not done his homework by performing a websearch and haven't put much effort into making a coherent question; go ahead and make his day.

This is the classic Help Vampire Problem:

http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/

http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/19665/the-help-vampire-problem

<edit>

I don't mind taking time to try and answer a question, but in this case the question simply isn't good enough.

You can down vote me all you want, but I this is the truth, guys.

If you guys don't mind wasting your time answering the same old questions over and over again then that is fine by me. I have burnt myself out more than once doing just that (Ogre3D forum)..

I don't like to see you put a lot of work into trying to guess the question and provide a thorough answer when it is painfully obvious that the Original Poster has not done his homework by performing a websearch and haven't put much effort into making a coherent question; go ahead and make his day.

This is the classic Help Vampire Problem:

http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/

http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/19665/the-help-vampire-problem

<edit>

I don't mind taking time to try and answer a question, but in this case the question simply isn't good enough.

You can down vote me all you want, but I this is the truth, guys.

Okay I didn't downvote you, and I have no idea who did downvoted me (Asking a honest question deserves a downvote now?)....

I see where you are coming from, but: the link to this Wiki (which is good to know, haven't heard of it before) should be in the beginners FAQ. It isn't there. Nobody mentioned the link in the thread and it might not be the first hit when googling for "best program for game dev"...

I do wish some people would use google more, but alas, googling such a broad topic can be a bit of a problem when you don't even know where to start (and the OP sounds pretty clueless).

This is the Beginners section of the forum, so if some clueless newb stumbles in, he might deserve a little bit more than just snarky comments... provided he is not an outright troll of course.

I tend to give people second chances, and tend forgive it when they haven't done their homework the first time around...

Yes, I forgive people all the time, when they actually take the second chance.

I could probably have un-snarkified my response but I don't like to see guys like you Gian-Reto put too much effort into answering a question that we are not sure even exist.

I hope that we get to see the OP clarifying the question, so we stand a chance of actually answering him.

Sadly, there are a lot of hit-and-run going on where the OP never returns and where people are busy providing answers in vain.

<edit>

I down-voted you by accident, sorry Gain-Reto - I will make up for it, though. GameDev.net was crawling to a halt..

really a little of all of them, I'll take a look at this link and let you know If i have any other questions.

Er, I don't even know what the actual question is?

What do you mean by "program" ?

Step by step guide?

Educational program?

Software program?

Please elaborate so that we actually stand a chance to answer your question (whatever it might be). ;)

Even if that actually answered your question, it would be nice if you could put us out of our misery, or help us help you.

Thanks.

Yes, I forgive people all the time, when they actually take the second chance.

I could probably have un-snarkified my response but I don't like to see guys like you Gian-Reto put too much effort into answering a question that we are not sure even exist.

I hope that we get to see the OP clarifying the question, so we stand a chance of actually answering him.

Sadly, there are a lot of hit-and-run going on where the OP never returns and where people are busy providing answers in vain.

<edit>

I down-voted you by accident, sorry Gain-Reto - I will make up for it, though. GameDev.net was crawling to a halt..

True that, I guess the energy spent on compiling it from scratch for this thread I should have spent completing a wiki and then posting the link in this thread. I will keep that and the link to the game programming wiki in mind for next time, if it hasn't been added to the FAQ until then anyway.

And yes, I know what you mean with hit-and-run... some people just fire and forget, literally :) ... at least this poster came back once, even though his follow up was not that helpful. Maybe he will be clearer in the future.

Don't sweat it about the downvote... isn't so bad.

What do you mean by "program" ?
Step by step guide?
Educational program?
Software program?

I would consider a step by step guide to be a tutorial. As for educational or software my previous advice still stands.

Also, as a side note to Gian-Reto and jacmoe, if you click on the number in the votes box it will bring up a window that tells you who upvoted and downvoted you.

Considering that the OP never mentioned 'step by step guide' or anything other than just 'program', we simply don't know.

As a side-answer to the side-note: only Crossbones and higher can see who up/down voted. Gian-Reto need to ask to be CrossBoned in the feedback forum. It's not automatic.

In the future, please take discussions about whether or not responding to a particular thread is worthwhile (because the use is being a "help vampire" or otherwise) to another thread, or flag the thread for my attention. Don't derail the whole thread with that discussion.

Thanks.

We are just trying to determine what the question is.

If we are not allowed to discuss that in-situ then I don't think anyone will be able to become better at asking questions and answering them.

And it is impossible to derail this thread since there is no topic.

However, I take note. I am not happy about it, but I will follow the orders from now on, and flag the topic.

Not sure how that will help with making other people aware of the issue, but I accept your authority. ;)