Any recommendation for an object modelling application (free+Linux support), or is Blender the only go-to? I want to do basic #lowpoly models and vertex colors as well (textureless, at least early on). Maybe (skeleton or vertex) animations?

In the tinkering stage now, currently have tried Raylib (have done stuff for 2D polygons but seems pretty limited, also note I want to use it with Nim-lang). I figure 3D might have better support here (due to the format), though maybe some other framework would be better too? Spyro is some inspiration/motivation here with vertex colors used for effects (also, vertex skybox).

Some type of gridmap editor (crocotile, cube 2:saurbraten) might be viable to make object models (unsure of for characters and vertex colors) but I haven’t checked them out. Also looked at Gamefromscratch’s stuff and didn’t really find much. Dust3D is a thing but I don’t think that’s the type of workflow I want (maybe for an organic character).

#ps1graphics