Hey there, I am a hobbyist programmer (many years experience with programming, gameplay mechanics and planning for fun) with very basic pixel art skills, not even close to your level. Built my own engine years ago, but ultimately decided to move onto using game engines built and maintained by people who do that full-time. My preferred engine due to performance, ease-of-use, and scalability is Construct 3. Much better in my opinion to Game Maker 2 and GDevelop, and much faster to prototype with than Godot or Unity which I don't even have the time for - tedious and boring to work with.
I also have a day job, but I've been working on my first serious game the past couple of months, a survival horror/top down game focusing more on Resident Evil/Silent Hill style storytelling and atmosphere, but combining it with some gameplay elements from Hotline Miami, GTA 1+2 (first GTA games from the 90s that were top down), and Diablo (fighting hordes of enemies, but more like Doom with less focus on looting and equipment mechanics)
I draw a lot of my inspiration from 90s pixel art games as they were very original, fun and unique at the time - and I still play them here and there to this day. Given how bad the AAA industry is and how indie games are still gaining popularity, I think it's a great time to be working on these kinds of projects.
I am looking for a long-term partnership with a pixel artist willing to allocate some spare time, and ideas, to help bring this game (I have a series planned) and future games to fruition. The team will always be small and the art style I think will be doable and manageable for you (literally looking at creating mostly from 8x8/16x16 to at most 64x64 pixel sprites and tiles - with only as much detail as needed. You would be part of our little team (2 people currently - me, and a friend who would help with planning and business/legal related stuff) and if we can get our works released and hopefully perform well, share in the rewards and credit.
I have an early prototype preview of the gameplay which I can share with you via URL. No need to download anything as it is built using web technology (can be hosted on Itch.io if needed) although we can export to different platforms like Steam.
I sent you friend request on Discord from kjb007.
Looking forward to your reply.