Game Maker 7 - An extremely popular program that's used by many indy developers to create games. It's extremely easy to use, and is great for those of you starting out. Cost: Free!
Adobe Flash CS3 - Newest version of Flash and the first to be published by Adobe. This is the ONLY program that Armor Games supports for games on the website, unless you have another way to create an .swf file. Cost: $699 (30-Day Free Trial Available HERE)
First you will need to get your hands on adobe Flash or Director.You can download a free 30-day trial, but that won`t get you far so you will probably have to buy the real version later.The price of the newest version of Flash is 699$ for more details refer to www.adobe.com.
Now you will need to learn atleast one of the three game development branches and as far as money goes here is how they are layed out music>art>rogramming.To do that you can search the internet for tutorials my suggestions: www.cartoonsmart.com(programming and drawing) www.flashkit.com(programming)
You might also need someone to help you.If you choose art you will need to find a programming partner and if you choose programming you will need an artist.Learning both will be very helpful since you can get the whole profit from the game.Music is not as appreciated so if you choose that you will probably have to lok for solo projects.