Are 2D platformers dead as a concept?

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

>Interesting banner art
>it's an indie sidescroller
Every time. It's the same concept as jumping around and picking up coins; absurdly archaic yet ripe for reinvention that nobody will do. Croc had interesting platforming, not unlike the original Tomb Raider. Yet, I haven't seen such an acrobatic "puzzle" indie game, why?

 

[Calandrino]

-Pac Land (arcade game that's a 2D platformer, the gimmick is you mash the left or right button to move, how quickly you press them determines how fast you move and you press up to jump)

Ah well I don't believe the run button had been invented at the time. Actually I don't think the scrolling platformer had either, so it deserves some credit for that too. Pac Land's novel gimmick was that it existed.

Every time. It's the same concept as jumping around and picking up coins; absurdly archaic yet ripe for reinvention that nobody will do. Croc had interesting platforming, not unlike the original Tomb Raider. Yet, I haven't seen such an acrobatic "puzzle" indie game, why?

Isn't Tomb Raider kinda like 2D Prince of Persia but in 3D? I think somebody's probably at least attempted just about anything you can imagine. But sidescrolling is evergreen.

A "gimmick" that differentiates your game is precisely what a modern 2D platformer needs. It should be embraced, not looked down on.

If there's nothing novel about it, why should I play it over any other platformer made in the last 40 years, often made by far more skilled, experienced teams with far bigger budgets than some nobody indie dev? I guarantee that you're not going to make something superior to, say, Super Mario World on pure mechanical platforming merit alone.

40 years is around Super Mario Bros. began leading us down the path of gimmickry and novelty, with its body transformations, MCU-style superpowers, scrolling graphics, and complex plot. It's a great game, but it portended of the future dark days of double-jumping air-dashing speedrunnery. All real gamers have hailed such recent platformers as Donut Dodo, Annalyn, and Cash Cow DX as a much-needed and long-overdue return to Tradition.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

Everyone starts off doing a 2D platformer.

Just don't expect it to be the next mariokiller or anything.

The only way you can get a 2D platformer to stand out is be in 2010 and put it on Newgrounds.

 

[Terror Sandwich]

The only way to stand out as a 2d platformer is to make one of the best ever, or to make something that have never been done well or hasn't been done well in a long time.
Examples for the first one is Celeste, released in 2016 after the genre had already been over done, and yet it blew up in popularity.
Examples for the second one is Pizza Tower, released in 2023. It was a Wario World copy, a style of 2d platformer that had not been done well in a while.