I know at least 90% of us who trawl the forums already own PICO-8, but just thought I'd share for the few who don't. You can get PICO-8 in the "Beat the Average" bundle for currently less than $7, or pay $10 to add Voxatron. Lots of other good software in there as well.

Here's the sauce: https://www.humblebundle.com/game-developer-software-bundle.

Can anyone vouch for the usefulness of the other software? It's a good value just for Pico alone, but I want to know what to bother downloading :)

I'm a big fan of Pyxel Edit for making spritesheets, tilesets, and maps. It has all the tools/features I want while still being pretty minimal. I've used it both for some PICO-8 projects I'm working on and for some bigger projects outside of PICO-8. I'm curious about the other software though, and second a request for recommendations!

Spriter is a good cheaper alternative to Spine, if you're looking for skeleton animation. I haven't used it yet but I've heard from people that swear by it.

Clickteam Fusion is... okay. It's basically a clunkier Construct 2. Of course it's just a tool and you can make good things with it, but it can feel restricting (though considering the average Pico-8 user and what Pico-8 is designed for, having some restrictions probably won't be an issue).

I can't comment on Pyxel Edit or the subscriptions that come with the Humble Bundle, however. Got it mostly for Spriter and Pico-8.