Yes, Flash CS#, you'll ned 600 USD and approximately a year to produce any half-decent core mechanics, then you've also got to make art and animations.
You could produce a good game in under two months. You don't need a monstrosity to have a good game.
Flash is pretty much the only program you can use for AG. Look up tutorials on the internet, but make sure they're for beginners, or you won't understand a thing they're saying.
The only right answer is flash, of course, but if you're completely new to making games, I recommend starting off really easy with scratch (like I did), so you'll understand the basic structure. I know, everything will look rubbish and you can't submit to armorgames, but you'll have to start somewhere. Then if you feel you can make anything you want in scratch, you can start with learning actionscript. At first it looks really hard to understand, but if you have the right tutorials (don't start at activetuts, it's way too hard if you don't have any experience, I learned actionscript here: ) you'll start understanding more and more. If you finished a tutorial, it is very important to try doing it again without a tutorial, and after that you must set your own challenges. If you feel you know the basics of actionscript, you can start making your first game with this tutorial: .
