You can import JPEGs to use in your world. Go to File -> Make Billboard...
To detect when an object touches another object, play around with the proximity functions, which you can locate by select an object from the object tree and clicking the functions tab in the details window. Try creating a while loop and dragging in one of these functions. While Alice has no collision detection, with a litte work, you should be able to fake an object touching another object and something happening as a result pretty well. Good luck!