In Search Of Unique Indie Game Mechanics - 2D Platformers

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I'm trying to find unique game mechanics, as I believe that is the key to a good indie game. Come see me try out these four games and try them yourself in the links below.

Shadows Under The Bed:
Agent Pyxel:
Apex:
Teleportorium:

In the video the games are simply reviews from a mostly objective standpoint, please don't take offence if one of the games was yours and I gave it a poor review.

00:00 - Intro and explanation
00:35 - Shadows Under The Bed
01:46 - Agent Pyxel
02:52 - Apex
03:56 - Teleportorium
04:51 - outro

Music from Uppbeat:
"with-the-winds" by Volo
License code: 8XNSLWWOQNXVGBZP

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Let me know if you disagree with my assessments! If you would like me to rank your game comment a link below! :D Thanks for watching! :D :D

Artindi

If want to find more unique mechanics, I might suggest looking at entries for game jams. Those contests are known for using constraints to encourage contestants to take more unique approaches to development, and I've seen some fascinating results just from watching promotional videos and dev-logs.

dreamstandem

So this is 4 random games that aren't noteworthy. I'm not sure I see the point of this video. I guess you can use it as an example of how to judge games but it doesn't leave me wanting more of this series.

SkySpiral_Lets_play

Hello Artindi :), nice to see my game here - Agent Pyxel. I am a bit sad that you decided to judge the games mechanic without reading the game description or even in game instructions in menu. You haven't paid ANY attention to all of the different achievements you can get in the game. Also no, equipment is not 'usable once' - you simply didn't have the gas mask :). Please let me then just share a bit of extra info:
1. The game has a shadow based stealth mechanics. When you stand in shadow you become invisible to the enemies - this allows you to plan your path carefully. It is possible to pass the whole game without killing single enemy besides the main boss. Also, when you are hidden, you inflict critical damage which allows you to kill enemies without noticing you, which makes it possible to pass the whole game without dying.
2. The respawn after death is part of the core mechanics. The game is not intended to be extremely difficult and allows you to go through each playthrough differently, getting different achievements. There is achievement for a lot of deaths, there is achievement for no death at all to encourage different play styles. Also, your playtime is taken into consideration when giving achievements. It is close to impossible to get the achievement for finishing game quickly dying multiple times.
3. The game has, as mentioned before, a system of achievements which encourages different ways of playing. Stealth mechanics, exploration, killing all enemies, avoiding enemies.
4. I am also completely disappointed you haven't mentioned the raycast-based shooting. Maybe I don't have that much experience with other platformers as you have I haven't seen many 2d platformers having raycast based shooting. If you know some, please let me know, I would love to play them and learn from them! :D.
5. I literally had to go back to the game and complete it yet one more time just to make sure the situation you mention about 'non-renewable' gear is not a bug that I missed. No, once you pick up the gas mask if you die, no matter where, you have the mask still on and the gas doesn't hurt you :). That means, you simply haven't found the mask.

Please don't get me wrong. I don't mind you rating the game poorly. I humbly accept any feedback you have but I feel that if you want to make a video about 'game mechanics' you should first research those games, at least a little bit. Your feedback on my game makes me 100% sure that you haven't even gone as far as reading the description or in game instructions. Good luck with further videos! Even though I don't have positive feedback about the video this time, I am subscribing and I hope I will learn a lot from you! :)

PitiITNet

This is an interesting idea for a series, but from my experience truly unique mechanics feel very rare; what I see a lot of out of successful games is unique combinations of non-unique mechanics. Games like Loop Hero, Vampire Survivors, and Peglin exemplify this. Loop Hero has the persistent progress of roguelites combined with city builder and tower defense elements (it has quite a bit in common with Monopoly as well, i.e. a game board that loops and is built up over time), Vampire Survivors is a bullet hell without enemy bullets that uses a moba-like progression system, and Peglin is a mashup of Peggle/pachinko and more traditional rpg elements. If a game is going to just use the same set of mechanics as games before, it has to have some other way of standing out; an example would be Hollow Knight which I would say is not very mechanically unique but nails those mechanics (a lot of prospective Metroidvanias screw up the formula somehow-making a Metroidvania-style game is quite difficult) while being aesthetically unique. To sum up my rant, looking to the past at old games and well-established genres and cannibalizing them to create something new yet familiar is a powerful method for making enjoyable games.

Sean-gxsf

Great idea for a series, would love to see more with other genres as well.

simkaj

we PAINFULLY need more games like apex. games based around evolution and adaptation, especially playing as monsters

buzzlightyearpfp

The new series, "roasting beginners indie games" :D

kunai

Having spent a lot of time on other forms of art, such as music, I feel slightly disconcerted by your video's emphasis on originality.
I mean, if we stick with the example of music, most of us would hate the sound of something truly new and original. We normally want to listen to familiar things blended together in a way that creates something that feels fresh, even though it's not truly new, though I guess we must occasionally add in subtle new things in a new genre. I'm pretty sure other forms of art work the same way too, though games might have slightly more room for actual new things since they're a much younger art form…But then again, I think mechanics in games are almost always at least loosely based on something we see in reality or in other art.
Have you got any thoughts on this? Sorry if I'm being too literal here 😅

MrHumbuck

I love this video idea but would like to see you actually share examples or comparisons of similar mechanics in other games to justify when you rank on originality. For example, what games do you hide as a bypass to enemies?

JumperAce

Games you can try that are pretty original, but some of them are kinda well-known (haven't played all of them):
- Pause Ahead and Tower of Heaven from Askiisoft (used to be Flash games, I don't know if they're still accessible, and yes these are the guys behind Katana Zero): well thought and interesting
- Milkblood and Bramble from Valknut (Itch): more proofs of concept than anything, but pretty good
- Little Ghost (Steam/Itch, only the demo is free): seems interesting, maybe not that much inspired gameplay-wise
- LightFall from BishopGames (Itch): seems original but I see a lot of mixed reviews
And I could of course talk about games like Flinthook, Shovel Knight, etc. but these are too well-known I think.

xardinlume

I was just searching for some guidance on building a platformer, and stumbled across your videos. Your channel is awesome, and my kids and I are really enjoying the content. Keep it up! 👍👍

DanielAttaway

Hey, I know one of the artists who worked on shadows under the bed :D, we study in the same Game Design program. That's so cool

iamapie

Wow! A really underrated video indeed, hopefully more people see this I really enjoyed it.

herov

Your ratings are pretty wild to me, especially the inflation on the last one. Just from what I've seen (none intrigued me enough to play them), I'd have given these relative rankings of 4 > 2 > 3 > 1, but the individual scores would all be very similar and on the lower end. Like, I can't think of a game off the top of my head that has the *exact* teleporting mechanics as Teleportorium, so maybe it deserves a high score, but there are tons of games with teleporting gimmicks and even with sort of gimmicks. Also, to me the rest of a game's design is as important as its core mechanic, and in this case it just screams basic unoriginal avoid-death single-screen puzzle game which there's a billion of, with nothing interesting going on for the visuals/sound either.

It's a fun exercise though, I sometimes like to look at games through the lens of originality and overall creativity too even if I don't think that's the most important criteria on either the consumer or producer side. (That would be "is it fun", and originality is not a guaranteed plus or minus on that.) I'll have to check out your other vids in the series. (Side note, I find it hilarious that a big company, often creatively bankrupt and incentivized to be so, will occasionally still put out a game that's so creative even on just a single level basis compared to vast hordes of indie games in the same area in a long-trodden genre. Recent example, Super Mario Wonder.)

DeJach