I had a similar experience recently while helping my 5 year old daughter vibe code a sandcastle-themed tower defense game (https://sandcastles.finley.lol https:

I had a similar experience recently while helping my 5 year old daughter vibe code a sandcastle-themed tower defense game (https://sandcastles.finley.lol https://sandcastles.finley.lol). I ended up thinking it might be easier to generate rigged models, animate them, and capture from an iso perspective, then do some kind of pixel art style transfer on the masked sprite sheet. Eventually I realized my kid didn't really care too much about the visuals so I didn't get too far with it.