Yeah, I had a go at Anim8or... Thing is I'm the only programmer on the team, and I've got too darn much work to do to spend time learning about 3D modeling and animating. (plus all the training in the world won't change the fact that I don't enjoy it and suck badly at it!!!)
Briefly:
Our game is a 2D RPG game. The game world will be navigated via the traditional overhead view. Then for fights, caves and towns, we're switching to side view and running a live action battle system. We have a great writer on board who has a giant awesome story to enjoy. It was because of the view switching that the decision was made to build the game with a 3D engine. This way we can model our characters once and change views all we want. As for the leveling up system, we're stealing one from the pages of Elder Scrolls, where everything you can do is governed by a skill. So, if you wanna be able to jump higher, you just need to practice by jumping around everywhere you go, and you'll get better in time. We do have all the details fleshed out and I've documented them and made a to-do list as well, so we're good to go!
Thanks, Rubix Cube, I'll head on over there and bug those Anim8or guys for some help! I'm sorry to bluemonkmn and everyone here for being off topic and needy here. And like I said, I'm not ditching or dissing SGDK, in fact I'm very fond of it, just it's not well suited for this particular project (ie the view changes).