Construct is an open source software for making 2D games with Construct's visual, human-readable event system. There is no need of any programming or scripting languages at all as the process of a constructing is visual by drag and drop objects and a right click adds the behavior.
Except for games,
Construct can be used for creating applications also. I've made a web cam capture program in less than a minute. Yes, that how easy to use Construct is.
After you add objects and behaiviors you can test your application/game or you can compile it into a single executive .EXE file and all this in a matter of minutes (not days). Construct even support DirectX.
I warmly suggest to try Construct from
Scirra.com if you are in a need for a small, easy to use application for creating a simple desktop application or if you want to try yourself as a game creator creating 2D game.
Latest version is released on 13th July 2010, size 15.1MB, for Windows only.