So here are my two pennies for you. I was literally in your position about 2 years ago. Attempting to do the same thing. EXACTLY the same thing. So I’m going to help you out tons by telling you exactly what you SHOULD NOT DO. OK first “game design” degrees are a scam. Don’t invest in that. “game development” degrees hold more salt, but it doesn’t leave you much to fall back on if that route fails. If you’re anything like I was you wanted to do the whole creation process of the game, right? I’ve found the best route is to go to school for at minimum computer science, but more realistically software engineering or something that let’s you learn plenty of math, physics, electricity, and code. (it helps to be well rounded in any job) and you should learn about the art creation side in your free time or even take some classes on the side for it. DO NOT BUY OR DOWNLOAD FREE ASSETS. Make them yourself, trust me it is so much more rewarding and less of a pain in the long run (from a legal stand point and simplicity of many things.) Don’t ask anyone to help you on a huge project like that without years of experience and proof of you knowing what you’re doing AND understanding exactly how daunting a task you’re aiming for. Lastly, start small and work your way on to bigger things. Make a clone of something simple like Mario and expand on it till it looks really solid, then move on to something tougher and repeat the process till you feel like you have a good grip of things.
Honestly, don’t aim to make SAO. Take what you like about it and make your own idea. I’ve been apart of 10, I repeat 10, SAO projects that have all started up and failed because they were run by people who weren’t pro’s with tons of money. We all want it to be a reality, but your own ideas could be so much better! Why knock off someone else’s ideas? Feel free to contact me if you want to know more about anything including the projects I worked on and what route you should take. I’d also love to work on a group project for fun if you’re interested.