I followed the advice of a couple of game dev YouTubers (specifically, Payne Robinson and Juniper Dev) and bought Pico-8 for $15 US (approximately R350).

So far, I'm finding it a novel challenge just to navigate the UI and play some simple games, but it's undeniably very charming. I intend to combine some simple tutorials with my own experimentation, since it appears that it's relatively trivial to open up other authors' games and adjust their code. That should teach me a lot about how people get things working in Pico-8.

I'm under no illusions that Pico-8 will satisfy my needs as a developer when it comes time to build my dream RPG: however, I am hoping to learn the fundamentals of design and get some fun, bite-sized games out there to build up my confidence first. Plus, I imagine it will be very fun to use in any game jams I enter.