game creating

RPGMaker 2000 and 2003 (RM2K, RM2K3) are *cough* free game making applications. They don't require any coding knowledge (it's very interface driven), but understanding the logic behind programming will make using it much easier and let you understand how to do more complex things in the maker.

As the name would imply, they're best suited for making RPGs, though they can handle other genre type games with a lot of custom coding (though if you opt for this you might as well go from scratch with something else for the satisfaction).

But I guess it depends on your priorities - are you wanting to make a game (programming incidental), or are you wanting to make a program (quality of the game incidental)?