The software used on the Game Design course is a brilliant peice of software called Game Maker, written by Mark Overmars. It is the perfect tool for beginning programming and game design.

Download the newist version of Game Maker here:
Download Game Maker 7.1

Visit the official website:
http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/

Flash is the most popular animation package for online content, it is used to create games and animations. You can download a free 30 day trial from the Adobe website, after that you must buy and register the product. If you are a student you can get it a lot cheaper than retail price.

Download the free 30 day trial here:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flash

http://www.spriters-resource.com/
A great collection of game sprites, probally the best.

http://sdb.drshnaps.com/
Sprite Database for console games.

http://tsgk.captainn.net/ (shy guy kingdom)
One of the best sites for sprites with a good search engine.

http://www.panelmonkey.org
Large collection of sprite sheets, mostly non animated.

http://www.gsarchives.net/
Loads of sprites from all different games and consoles.

http://www.geocities.com/cyberfenrir/
Afew sets of sprites, mostly Final Fantasy, Mega Man and Goeman.

http://www.retrogamezone.co.uk/
Small collection but has a lot of decent sprites.

http://www.mslugdb.com/main/gallery/sprites/
Best site for metal slug sprites.

http://www.purezc.com/
Massive collection of Zelda Sprites/Tiles/Music

http://www.mfgg.net/
Lots of good Mario sprites from all games, custom ones aswell.

http://sfghq.emulationzone.org/sprites.php
Large collection of Sonic sprites.

http://www.geocities.com/cyberfenrir/monsterreserve.html
Lots of good Final Fantasy sprites, monsters, characters, objects and maps.

http://pages.cthome.net/mnoni/webpage/spritesheets.html
Has some really good Mega Man sprite sheets

http://www.spriters-resource.com/other/namco/nxc/
Brilliant set of Namco and Capcom character sprites.

http://tales.namco.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14580&start=0
Lots of sprites from the, tales of... RPG series.

http://www.odinsrealm.com/tatakau/
Good fantasy sprites, monsters ect

http://www.gsarchives.net/
Lots of good icons of items and weapons.

http://www.themysticalforestzone.com/Sprite_section.htm
Despite the horrible looking website, some decent game and dragon ball z sprites.

http://www.rpg-icons.com/main/frames.html
Loads of RPG sprites and icons, good for fantasy zelda type games.

http://www.videogamesprites.net/
Collection of sprites from mainly final fantasy games.

http://www.emugifs.emuita.it/home.htm
Small set of animated sprites from console games.

http://www.gamingw.net/resource/
Lots of resources, including sprites and backgrounds for RPG Maker.

These sites are good to get backgrounds for your level from,

http://www.mslugdb.com/main/gallery/sprites/bg.html
Brilliant set of Metal Slug backgrounds

http://www.gsarchives.net/index2.php?category=backgrounds
Good selection of backgrounds.

http://www.panelmonkey.org/backgrounds.php
Good site for full level backgrounds.

http://bghq.com/
A few level backgrounds from console games.

http://bmf.rustedmagick.com/smwdr/smwdr.htm
Collection of Mario World tile sets.

http://www.teamanti.com/rmxp/tile_sets.htm
Large collection of custom made tile sets.

http://www.purezc.com/
Massive collection of Zelda Sprites/Tiles/Music

http://www.molotov.nu/?page=graphics
Collection of custom RPG tiles.

http://www.vgmusic.com/
Very large collection of video game music from nearly every console.