Example: In one Russian team in the project B0-R15. You do not play for a paratrooper or even a person, but for a mutant bear in a vest.
If, instead of a human, a mutant bear in a vest kills zombies, what's the difference? Increased perimeter and cross section? Much better melee combat? Trouble using weapons?
It might be a cool character (the graphics in the link are quite pretty), and the gameplay differences might be improvements, but I don't see how a change of personnel would suffice to make the zombie killing activity "less boring".
I did not say that if you made the main character: Bear, Skeleton, Alien, or whatever. That then your game will be dramatically interesting.
The fact that I wanted to say that you should not be shy in the experiments with the network and the plot.
Let me give you another example ... Joakim Sandberg And his Noitu Love 2.
The game is a standard fighting game platformer. You can compare with Megamen and Metroid.
The game uses the usual and familiar to the player mechanics in the game.
Then why did I remember this game ... There were a lot of chips that I did not see anywhere else.
1) He changed the control of the game ... With buttons that in most games of this type. After setting the attacks and blocks on the bear.
2) He tied up several mechanics for some of the characters on the teddy bear. Adding interesting chips in them. (You will understand if you play for all the characters.For such a young and old game. Passage for each character feels like passing through a different game.)
3) He wrote a history of the world around. Which gave birth to the original setting game.
PS: Although the game has a lot in common with other games, it has a lot of its own that it shows.
1) The same with your game. Come up with a world in which events take place, think through the plot and characters. And they do not have to be for a sight. All this should be interesting.
2) Create a setting based on the story. Unique and only your own.
3) Experiment with mechanics and look for ways to use them unusually.
Look at these games, they can inspire you: Bastion, Transistor, oceanhorn, Torchlight, Hyper Light Drifter and others.
But it's best to just let go of your imagination. And come up with something perfect new. Something your own. You must have a picture of what you want to create in your head. You must see what should be created before it is actually created.
