help the new guy

I'll answer question 5, I do it all the time.

http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/download.html

Use the free version of that software to make/ edit sprites. As of everything else, It could be done very simply with switches and conditional branches.

I'm busy with some graphical requests at rmxp.org, but I'm sure someone else could help you...(lenny?)