You might have better luck on the Discord server. As for sprite software, Aseprite is a a good/fast/cheap program for pixel art. For free ones you might look at Gimp or Krita. Most people use game engines, so you might increase your chances of finding a partner/team by picking up one. You could take a look at Godot (or Unity or Unreal). Personally I'm happy with Construct 3, but it's not free (and not that popular, so can't recommend it for partner-seeking).