First off, get Flash. Get the 30 day trail to start with and if you like it, buy it.
http://www.stickpageportal.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41444
You can get it for a discount of less than half the price it originally is with proof that you're a student.
http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=798267&qk_srch=adobe+flash+cs3[/QUOTE]
Now that you have Flash, how do you make a game?
Well you need to learn how, it can not be taught in one simple thread. But I can show you the resources to make games like the pros, given time.
Now you need to understand how to animate on a relatively good level for that I would suggest our Flash tutorial section right here at SPP and if you can't find what you're after there, Google is always a good option
http://forums.stickpage.com/forumdisplay.php?18-Flash-Tutorials
Now that you know some decent animating skills you can apply that towards a game. But how do you turn animations into a game? With Action Script, it is what takes animations and turns them into games or nifty little parlor tricks. But like I said before it can't be taught in just one thread. So heres a couple links to get you started.
Actionscript.org is a good resource for beginners and pros.
http://actionscript.org/
Our Flash tut section has several action script threads in it, look around
http://forums.stickpage.com/forumdisplay.php?18-Flash-Tutorials
The Tutorial Index has guides for making a variety of games, including platformers and snake games
http://forums.stickpage.com/showthread.php?32381-Tutorial-Index
Newgrounds has a wide selection of tuts.
http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/flashtutorials
Flash kit is good if you use Flash 8 or MX, I learned alot of what I know from here.
http://flashkit.com/tutorials/
Kirupa has been suggested by Raffi and has alot of neat tricks
http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash/index.htm
Pacothegreat suggested tutorialized and has a LARGE amount of tuts.
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Flash/1
Check out Pixal2life's Actionscript and Game interfaces sections. Thanks for the link Apples!
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/adobe_flash/
This dude has a blog where he teaches you how to make clones of popular games. Thier not exact, but close.
http://www.emanueleferonato.com/
Now there are several "tuts" that tell you exactly how to make a game very easy, its as simple as copying the code, adding a few movieclips, and you're done. I like to call these Copypasta games. You will never get exactly what you want from them, you don't learn anything, and it won't earn you any respect, so do us a favor and don't make them and pass it off as your "hard work".
Once you know a good variety of codes and have made a few basic games, try putting a lot of different techniques together, I once took a technique I learned from making a fighting game and turned it into a awesome platformer. So one technique is not limited to just that type of game.
FREE ALTERNATIVE TO FLASH
Flash gives better results, alot of awesome games have been made in Flash, more than any other program for public use. However there are free alternatives if you don't have the cash to pay for Flash.
Game Maker is a free game maker [hence the name] its free for download and anyone can use it. You won't get the same quality results you would get from flash in game maker though. Another downside is that when you make your games they are published in an exe format, that means their runnable programs instead of ones that could be shown on a web page. Meaning that your players must download your game in order to play it.
Heres where you can get game maker:
http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/
You have to register to download but I believe but the download is free [I think registering is also free, I honestly didn't check].
Theres a list of tuts on the bottom of the page to get you started.
NEED MORE GAME MAKER RESOURCES
And last but not least, if you are stuck and can't find what you're looking for, Don't come to general help to make a thread. Try Google, its faster, easier, and less trouble on us. And if you still can't find what you're after once you've tried Google, come here look around to see if someone else has the same problem. If someone doesn't have the same problem make a thread and carefully type out your problem and don't say something along the lines of
"omg ths code won'tz wrk cn u help me?!?!?!11??"
Type it out like
"Hey, I can't seem to get this code to work
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If you guys know of more resources than the ones I gave, lemme have em ^_^
I'm not the only one tired of all the how do you make a game tuts am I? Sticky?