Ok, so I am a 15-year old who wants to make his own 2D RPG. I don't have a lot of knowledge on the subject, but I have dabbled in C++, Java, HTML/CSS, and Ruby.

In the most basic sense, the game would be almost like a crossover between EarthBound and Brave Frontier. It would combine the art style and simplicity of BF while also having the battle system and deep story similar to EB.

What languages should I learn before diving into this project? I plan on releasing the game on WIN/OSX.

Any (preferably free) guides or e-books I could get my hands on? I don't really have money to spend.

Thank you all for reading this to help me out!

The easiest route would probably be taking a look at RPG Maker VX Ace (or whatever the latest RPG Maker is), and seeing if it'll work for your game's needs.

If that doesn't work for you, then you should look into a full programming language.

If I were you, starting now, I'd probably look into Javascript and HTML5. I don't have experience with either of those myself, but it'd be the initial direction of my exploration.

As far as "guides" or "e-books" go, just use free online tutorials and free online videos.

Welcome to the community, and good luck on your programming journey!

You should definitely get a good grasp of a language.

Whatever language you like, although C/c++, c#, and Java are most commonly used. I'm a java man myself.

The easiest route would probably be taking a look at RPG Maker VX Ace (or whatever the latest RPG Maker is), and seeing if it'll work for your game's needs.

Seconded.

I absolutely agree with Servant of the Lord.

Of note, though, if you are interested in learning more about how to put something like that together, this book is supposed to be on the horizon. I don't know how it's going to be, but the same guy wrote C# for Serious Game Programming (or something like that), and I thought that was pretty decent (I actually use some of his code for really rudimentary things in my "engine").

Ok, so I am a 15-year old who wants to make his own 2D RPG. I don't have a lot of knowledge on the subject, but I have dabbled in C++, Java, HTML/CSS, and Ruby.

In the most basic sense, the game would be almost like a crossover between EarthBound and Brave Frontier. It would combine the art style and simplicity of BF while also having the battle system and deep story similar to EB.

What languages should I learn before diving into this project? I plan on releasing the game on WIN/OSX.

Any (preferably free) guides or e-books I could get my hands on? I don't really have money to spend.

Thank you all for reading this to help me out!

You are the first one I've seen with this question and a reasonable goal. Luckily the battle systems of the two are fairly simple.

Given you are completely new to game design. If you wish to learn programming to reach your goals... start with pong. Then make either a mario, final fantasy 1, or a pokemon clone. This becomes pretty important in learning how the game loop works, as well as making games with more complexity behind them. Pretty much the entirty of these two games sprites are available to you.

And seeing your end goal is an RPG. I'd recommend this order. Pong, Mario, then Pokemon or Final Fantasy. There aren't any tutorials that I know of for those two. But half the fun is figuring out how it works.

I would recommend you Unity as it is not too hard to learn. The language is c# or javascript, but I would recommend to do your stuff in c#. I really like the learning section on unity3d.com/learn is very big and perfect for beginners. It also looks like the unity community is still growing from year to year, so it wouldn't be bad to get in touch with this. Its just that I had the experience that it isn't too hard, I can't tell you much about other engines, you should know this reading my answer ;)

Another benefit is the possibility of building on many different platforms and mostly without many problems.

But for getting into the stuff, wheter you use unity or another tool, you have to think about your game idea, break it into many several peaces and plan it as good as possible at the beginning. You will have to try to implement your ideas with stuff you read or maybe by asking people, but as long as you keep focused on doing little steps and not beeing sad because you maybe lost again another day without doing anything visible ( for other people ) you can have a lot of fun!