Here's a sneak peak on a project I've been working on throughout 2010. I did about 80 images in total, including monsters, NPC's and items, about 50 of which were chickens of various types.
Alas, it's probably one more project out of those which didn't make it to release, though we've been pretty close: design was almost ready, all the art was done, 90% of the code was complete when the programmer found a full-time job and left the ChickenFighters.
Anyway, it was fun and I learned a great deal while working on this, not mentioning all the crazy ideas and cool designs and stuff. (Piratey Chicken! Coconut chicken! Cabbage chicken! Oh wait, I pubished this one ) Thank you ChickenFighters, it was an awesome freelance job.
I am sure you've thought of this, but it could be cool to kickstarter and see if you could raise enough to hire a new coder, this game looks fucking awesome.