Q: "I'm new to game dev, how much does it cost? Are paid tools better? how much do I need to spend to learn?" You don't have to spend any money (other than a computer), money does not automatically == better Blender is free and a lot of people swear by it, I'm not a 3D modeller myself but I don't think it's limited in any serious way compared to something like Maya/3DSMax. Unity/Unreal/Godot are all free, all excellent, all capable of building any game you can imagine. GIMP is free and works mostly as well as Photoshop. And in terms of learning there is a mountain of learning content for free on YouTube. Courses can be helpful if you're looking for a guided multi-hour path but if you are self-taught you can learn everything just from YouTube. I learned myself by a ton of trial and error and frantically googling for answers, there was no YouTube or paid courses in my day, so it can be done and is much easier nowadays. My advice is stop looking for the "perfect tool" and just get started. You learn so much more by having actual experience as opposed to overanalyzing and being paralyzed waiting for someone to tell you the secret tool, there is no secret, just get started and keep at it.

@UnityCodeMonkey This is good timing for me, I'm using a bunch of different software and I wonder what's best to use. I want to get better with things I'll keep using, but then I wonder which ones I'll keep using. It's circular, I just need to explore and I'll find what I like when I get there!

@UnityCodeMonkey Couldn't have said it better myself. Here is a list of some of the great free things I use in game dev and design. Software - Blender, Gimp, Inkscape, Pureref, Audacity, Cakewalk, Libreoffice, Unity, Unreal, Godot. Sites - Trello.

@UnityCodeMonkey Awesome response

@UnityCodeMonkey I completely agree. You can even learn something on your phone. For instance, I learned the basics of C# using a C# compiler on my phone.