Other than what's been said...

You can get a free version of Photoshop CS2 from Adobe. I'd recommend getting it and learning how to use it.

You can also get perforce free for personal use, so again... get it. It's the best source control out there and used extensively in game studios. It's also not a total nightmare like Git.

Don't forget to get some mind mapper (i use xmind), wiki system (confluence) and task tracker (youtrack).

You start prototyping on paper, but then you need to organize bunch of notes, and tasks, so this is why it's good to know how to make it clear, otherwise big amount of work can just frustrate you and you will give up.

@OrOd and @nicloay. Thank you very much for your posts. Much appreciated.

This topic i made is doing me the world of good and I have really learnt a great deal from the people that have taken their time to write me a post that can potentially help me in becoming a future game developer.

Thank you all very much.

Hi GameDevCoder,

Are you aware of our product AppGameKit? It comes in two forms, a BASIC script language for beginners and as a set of libs for C++ devs (ideal to use with Visual Studio).

Read more about the C++ solution on the main AppGameKit website.

Good luck with your coding.

Rick