Rookie Difficulty

So there are two things I am new to here.  I'm not a big person for blogs (as you might notice by my one other blog post), and I am new to Game Design.  I absolutely love video games, and I am currently at the beginnings of my journey to making that a career.  What I am asking of you guys, the Gamasutra Community, is what kind of tools you think would be a good place for me to start.  Whether that be level editors, to full blown Game Development Programs (such as Unity).  And accompanied with that information, also what kind of resources I should used to get familiar with the programs and begin producing meaningful projects.  To anyone who should respond with any info, I just want to say thank you (though I'm sure I'll thank you again).