Short answer - since you have no experience at all with anything, use [RPG Maker]. If you can't afford the retail price, wait for a Steam sale - it goes on sale quite often. For a longer answer as to why you should use RPG Maker, read on.
In the words of the inestimable Gin Rummy from the Boondocks, we can divide all knowledge in the world into one of three categories:
- Known knowns - things we know
- Known unknowns - things we realize that we don't know
- Unknown unknowns - things we don't realize that we don't know
The process of learning is the conversion of the known unknowns (e.g. how to code) and unknown unknowns (things you probably didn't realize you'd have to do) into known knowns. The best way to do this is to start small with as limited a scope as you can, and then gradually increase as you level up and learn to do more things.
A toolset like RPG Maker does a lot of the lifting for you by providing a map editor, event editor, and content editor to allow you to work with a bunch of common systems that already exist in 2D RPGs. You'll learn a lot of the things that go into a video game from just having those tools and playing with them. There's also a lot of assets right out of the box, so you don't have to build a bunch of them on your own. If you want to expand past that, there's a lot of documentation and tutorials available online for making all kinds of additional features and content. As you get used to building things and creating content, you can slowly expand your scope to see what else you can do beyond that.
As for the project to do - build something very simple - a single story, with a handful of characters, that has a beginning, middle, and end. I suggest something simple like an episode of your favorite TV show. If you're feeling frisky, make some branching storylines for that episode. Whatever you do, don't try to make your magnum opus epic whatever for your first project. You're learning how to make stuff first. You're going to make mistakes, you're going to learn new things, and you're going to improve your skills. Most of all, you'll start turning those unknown unknowns into known knowns and known unknowns so that you can make a plan to start figuring out what else you need to do in order to make what you want to happen. Level up, improve your skills, and then start tackling bigger challenges. Good luck.
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