Question Taking the next step in my 2D game making

I was suggested to post this help wanted in this forum so .. here I am !

Hi! So I've been dabbling and making 2d platformers for awhile now, nothing much just cute little explorations, as since I'm more of an artist I like to focus on visuals.

However recently I've decided to finally push myself forward with the next step, I kinda wish to make a multiplayer 2d platformer. Now before I can continue, I wish to state I am not trying to do some kinda super high fantasy mmorpg with a bunch of mechanics thinking it will be the next mona lisa. I'm just trying to create a fun little social game for myself and a few other friends can play and chat on. Here goes a bullet point list of what I hope to achieve with this.

• A cute style 2d platformer with nice models ( I already have this knowledge and experience, I use spriter to do my models and export them by frames, I really like to think I have a good idea on this. )
• Character creator ( this I only have semi-partial knowledge in, as I sometimes create standalone just for fun, but I've never implemented it into a game. nothing too complex just a few outfits, hairstyles and the ability to change color)
• Multiple maps/room function, just 1-3 areas me and my friends can giggle around in
• Chat function, pretty obvious, the ability the chat. Maybe a little chat bubble if possible
• ( optional ) Emoticons, just a little bar that can put different expressions on the characters faces
• of course, the multiplayer aspect, how to host it, any possible servers I can get it on yada yada, I understand this may be the last aspect of it and I wanna focus on getting everything else down before I think of tackling something rather big like this

And that's the general gist of what I wish to achieve, and so I wish to seek advice and possible resources that may be out there, tutorials, and if there's kits that make this easier I would be BEYOND happy, I'm a college student in art so this is just a little mini project I wish to play around with during my free time and have something to show !

 

We are going to release a 2d platformer sample for Fusion in the next days. It's ready mostly aside from some artwork.
Might be interesting for you.

 

You can achieve this with pretty much anything. There are important questions to be answered first:

- Do you care if players cheat?
- Is this game for only you and your friends or do you plan on releasing to the public?
- What platforms are you releasing for?