I love the game! I so wanted to finish. It's so much fun. Being a 3 Artist I know the perils of the Z. Fun narrative and art too!!
Viewing post in No Z Required jam comments
I recommend trying Blockbench. It has a unique (voxel) style, which fits well for retro/PS2 style games, but either way, it’s really easy to get into.
For animation, most game engines should support skeleton animations with existing models.