Hey, I doubt I'll be of any help on the programming side of things but the ideas of the premise you're laying out sound very interesting, I don't know if I remember anybody here trying to make something akin to an aesthetic but eerie take on apocalyptic kind of stories with a dash of body horror. I've always been interested in making illustrations try depict gore and body horror in that kind of light, I didn't see you specify wanting a digital illustrator but I'd be happy to join if you'd like to have one on board.
If you're cool to I'd say go have a look at the kind of stuff I make and see if that's the kind of thing you wanna have on board here: instagram.com/leafeon247