I started with 2D platformers, realized that was far beyond what I was ready to take on with how long it would take me to figure out the available software. Nodes? Mapping? Pixelax or however that’s spelled? These were totally unfamiliar unless I considered vague memories of making vector art in Inskscape or watching behind-the-scene specials for animation. Watching developers struggle with exports and backups of Scratch on one side, pretty much everything including game playing in Unity, and the slopification everywhere, I realized I needed to be picky about the programs used.
I was coming from story writing; webpage building; raster art on free, low-resource software; and very limited experience as a game player. The obvious way for me to start learning gaming concepts and culture was with visual novels and mixed-type game development spaces like here.
I’m planning on returning to my 2D platform games next year, likely in Godot or with LUA, assuming I can afford to maintain any computers then. 😅 I sporadically focus on the sprites, backgrounds, and instructions for those games.
I guess my point is to figure out what you already know and are comfortable doing and build up from there.
For your last question: As a pixel artist, I’m fond of (genuine) pixel art. 😄
