I’m starting small with this post. I’ll take feedback and check out alternatives but here are some pieces I find absolutely essential in writing code on Windows, especially where Android is concerned:
- C#. Java and Objective C are both garbage collected by delegates, dynamics, lambda and linq expressions. Not to mention WCF, WPF, ASP .Net’s MVC, the entity framework, etc
- Windows - because your computer is simply not a toaster.
- Bluestacks – because no matter how you handle it the emulator is slow
- Xamarian’s Mono for Android
- MonoGame
- Nvidia’s Fx Composer for GL shaders (and their development environment)
- Desura and Steam – cause you have to have some fun every now and then
- The best text editor ever: Sublime Text 2
- The best code comparison utility ever: DevArt Code Compare – because it compares code, not text
- The best code editor ever: Visual Studio 2010 and 11
- The second best: MonoDevelop, buggy as it may be
- The best hex editor ever: HxD
- The best developer tools ever: Anything by Telerik
- The best performance tracing application for .Net: Telerik’s JustTrace
and ignore nosql for games, unless you are talking about a backbone for your backbone.
Have fun! 
Omac
Steam is a must, of course. I’m just starting out with Android development, so this article definitely gives some direction. SublimeText looks awesome, but is really expensive for something as simple as a text editor! Komodo Edit and Eclipse do the job for the most part.
bradgearon
But it’s so pretty. I used Notepad++ for the longest time but looking at sublimetext and VS 2012 RC is well… sublime.
Plus I thought they have a free version? I’m a vim user also ;_)
Omac
But you know how those free versions work! It’s like ads every save, or something ridiculous like that! Komodo might not be super pretty, but with the text theme on it the background and text itself looks identical to Sublime. But you’re right, that UI is beautiful. I’m trying to get into development, but it’s a pretty tough gig! Hell, I can do web stuff all day, but picking up programming is a chore to say the least. Atleast I get some time at work to dedicate to it.