I made a 2d platformer game. It's a remake in many ways. I didn't spend much time on it.
But does it have something cool and unique?
Yup.
It has a custom physics engine.
Is the physics engine better than the ones other people make? Does it have some fancy theoretical advance? No way. It's simple and naive.
But it's different b/c i just made one up from scratch instead of copying it. It's a little quirky. That means if you played a bunch of platformers before, this one won't feel too repetitive, because the physics are different. It gives you something new to learn and get used to and figure out how to use to your advantage.
Example: in my game, ground tiles have high friction, air has much less, and ice tiles have even less than that. Therefore to land on ice and stop yourself you usually want to jump right after landing and put on the brakes while back in the air instead of while sliding on the ice.
Every game really does need to have something that's different from other games to give you some reason to play this game instead of those other games.
And it's not that hard to do that. Even if you're making a remake. All remakes should change something to be a little different from prior games.
Even if you're doing a sequel and do not change the art or game engine at all, you could still say "what it has that no other game has is MORE LEVELS that you haven't played before in the original". That will explain to people why to buy it.
If they don't find value in what I made, then it won't sell. And that's as it should be. Shrug. My first customer is me. I like it.
It's quite possible to make stuff different in a way no one likes. But you can and should make your stuff different in some way or other and then use this as a reason people might want to buy it.
But does it have something cool and unique?
Yup.
It has a custom physics engine.
Is the physics engine better than the ones other people make? Does it have some fancy theoretical advance? No way. It's simple and naive.
But it's different b/c i just made one up from scratch instead of copying it. It's a little quirky. That means if you played a bunch of platformers before, this one won't feel too repetitive, because the physics are different. It gives you something new to learn and get used to and figure out how to use to your advantage.
Example: in my game, ground tiles have high friction, air has much less, and ice tiles have even less than that. Therefore to land on ice and stop yourself you usually want to jump right after landing and put on the brakes while back in the air instead of while sliding on the ice.
Every game really does need to have something that's different from other games to give you some reason to play this game instead of those other games.
And it's not that hard to do that. Even if you're making a remake. All remakes should change something to be a little different from prior games.
Even if you're doing a sequel and do not change the art or game engine at all, you could still say "what it has that no other game has is MORE LEVELS that you haven't played before in the original". That will explain to people why to buy it.