twesterm on 17 August 2008
Torque is a great tool and works well with XNA so I hear. If you're looking for free Scrolling Game Development Kit isn't bad and definitely worth the free price.
As for animation tools, since you're making a 2D game you're just going to have to make a lot of sprites. Photoshop is the best but you can use most anything (even Srolling Game Dev comes with a special tool).
