Thought I would jump in here and talk really quick about the tools we are using to build Snowferno.

We are using Basecamp for the central location of files and calendar events and to-dos and things of that nature. Basecamp is pretty good, and I think it is a useful tool, but it doesnt blow my socks off. One thing that annoys me to no end is the writeboards.. ack! the formatting is terribly hard to deal with.

To get around the terrible writeboards in basecamp, we use a private install of MediaWiki (the same software used for wikipedia) to handle all our documenting needs. It is much easier (i think) to use than the basecamp writeboards.

As for desktop tools Brent did a post on the sound stuff he is using, so that is covered :-).

I am using Unity3D to build the game. We currently have only a single indie license, but we are thinking of upgrading to pro before we go live (although truthfully, the indie is a very very capable license)

For all the 3D art assets I am using Cheetah3D which is a surprisingly fantastic 3d modeler. I used to have a copy of Maya back during my time in the film industry (still have a seat that is a few versions old laying around here somewhere...) but I find cheetah to be much simpler to use. (and for what we need, Maya is a bit overkill anyhow)

For 2d stuff, textures and whatever, I am using the industry standard Photoshop/Illustrator pair. Although I must say, I love illustrator, but I kinda hate photoshop these days. I really dont like the CS3 interface changes. (I actually just recently upgraded, so I am still getting used to it) but to be honest, I am looking around for something photoshop-like that I can switch to. (while I probably use %15 - %25 of illustrator, i maybe use %5 of photoshop, I could really get away with much less... and before you say "Gimp", I will admit to not having tried it recently (and by recently, i mean in the last 8 years or so) SO I should really bust it out and see how it has changed... but I will say, that the x11 stuff turns me off a bit. (I know, I know...) I am even a unix guy from way back, but I just like to keep things simple.

As for version control, I use beanstalk and that has worked just fine for me for awhile now.

I think that is about it..
Cheers!
-B