I was hoping one of you could help me find a good software package to build games. An add-on toolkit or good level editor for a game might be fine (like Oblivion or Thief) but if you have any ideas for software to build games from scratch, I would be very grateful.

This is for a 12-year-old who would like to design his own games. He has RPG Maker, but he says it is too limited for what he wants to do. He would really like to learn Flash, but my concern is that it's too complicated for him - and blowing all that money for a dust-catcher won't make me happy. What are your thoughts on Flash? And does anyone have experience with XNA?

I'm looking for "starter" software...not too complicated but still gives a slick product. Something that will help him learn the technical basics without going over his head. I thought an RPG software would be a great start for him, since it's also about writing the story - but you all know more than I do about this.

Are there any (relatively inexpensive...that's an important feature) software packages that are kind of like Flash but not as sophisticated? A toolkit or level editor might be good, but he'd like to share his games with others after he's made them.

I'm hoping there might be one or two people here who have ventured into that area. Let me know if you have any ideas!

Thanks bunches!

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Take a look at The Game Creators. Quite a few years ago I bought the 3D Game Maker from them which is a very simplistic wizard like program to create 3D games and I really enjoyed it at the time. However, they create a range of more advanced programs and there might be something you are just looking for on there. Download a few demos and give the software a whirl and see what you think.