perhaps a modular design would still be possible? instead of making one big development board, is there any way you could make one main board that holds the PIC and related support circuitry, and has headers for the I/O pins, and then make separate boards with different things on them (LCD, switches, whatever) that can be plugged in. not only would it work in the free version, but it would be more flexible for future projects as you could switch out for different addon boards.
I believe this is how Nigel does his boards.