[simias]

I agree that a voxel engine is probably more productive for such a "toy" console approach. You can basically use the same techniques as the one you'd use on the PICO-8, just with an added dimension.

Polygonal 3D is a huge step compared to 2D engines. You can't just create assets with a simple bitmap editor, you need to learn 3D modeling and it's a huge can of worm. And then you need to learn to animate your models...

With voxels you can just sculpt your models minecraft-style, it's a lot more intuitive I think. And animations could be done like for sprites: you just key your animations with different 3D voxel models.