You wrote: "If some artist agrees to cooperate, I will document the progress."

I would suggest the opposite: Make a github repository, decide on an open source license, then show the link to the project here. But this is just a suggestion, it's up to you.

Greetings

Peter

Se ainda estiver precisando de ajuda com a arte 2d, posso ajudar

Hello! I love puzzle games and I'm currently involved in one puzzle project. I love that game, I played one very similar on zx spectrum but I forgot how it was called. I just want to give you an advice to get started:

First, from my experience, the hardest part of puzzle games is the game logic, so I suggest you to try to find examples of similar games and decide which language you would like to use. You don't need graphics for that, you can use ascii character first. Please check this great site to see examples of game logic of many puzzles: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/

If you want to succeed creating a port of that game start small and from the beginning, try to implement the game logic, ask for support in forums for the language you decide to use. Once the game is playable and working upload it to github and that's the right moment to search for artist to help with the assets.

I want you to succeed in your game port and that's why I think you can't start with the assets without having the game logic, but don't be discouraged, game development is sometimes a slow and hard process.

Good luck!