do i need photoshop pro or will photoshop elements be enough or does contruct 2 come with the built in ability to do layers and pixel art how much investment do i need to make with regards to external software packages such as photoshop etc.
You can use any program you like..
There are many free programs to make images, so your investment could be $0..
Use Gimp and Krita. They are both free to use.
The latest indie game dev Humble Bundle includes ProMotion, which is also a great pixel art editor and animator.
And it gets you a copy of Spriter, and Sprite Lamp to light your sprites. And loads of assets.
https://www.humblebundle.com/
For drawing pixel art "on the go", try Pixly (which is free, and frankly quite amazing):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ixly&hl=en
Develop games in your browser. Powerful, performant & highly capable.
Adobe is offering Photoshop CS2 free of charge (it does have limitations compared to CS6). Just search Photoshop CS2 on Google (can't post a link due to reputation and post count being low). Plus I wouldn't worry about extra plugins. Photoshop CS2 should have everything.
thank you so much for your reply`s