[List] Video game remakes

I have a growing list of existing (mostly popular) games that have main mechanics that I admire and want to implement for various reasons.

• The challenge: I want to see if I can do it, in what timeframe and what aspects do I underestimate during the process.
• Educational value: I can learn new things while implementing already existing, proven and well thought out mechanics. If I document the process others can learn too.
• In some cases – if I'm satisfied with the result – I might release the source project (essentially a template) either for free or maybe for a fee.

Here's the list of games I might attempt to partially remake.

Wizard of Wor

This was probably the first video game I got addicted to in Commodore 64 times. If I ever implement the base mechanics I'd love to add a few new ones, like destructible walls, 4 player support (with larger maps, maybe TDM/CTF modes).

Plants vs Zombies

I spent countless hours playing PvZ on PC and Android as well, I absolutely love the concept and I already started hacking together a template which uses roughly the same controls / mechanics but with a 2.5D side view where lanes are stacked on top of each other. I also have an idea for a fork: controlling the game completely by the keyboard, but not with the arrows, but by typing keywords (think Typing of the Dead or Epistory - Typing Chronicles).

Heroes of Might and Magic 2±1

I'd love to play a game with the same base mechanics but in a completely different world. Maybe a WWII or futuristic robot war theme?

Airmech

During the development of the Copterfields prototype / game jam entry I already implemented similar player movement (and beaming / building capabilities), but not combat. An Airmech clone would also be a great opportunity to venture into networked multiplayer territory, something that I haven't done yet.

Kingdom series

I had a lot of fun playing Kingdom: New Lands, until I didn't. The gorgeous art style and amazing audio probably played a huge part on why I spent over 50 hours playing a game that's so unforgiving at times. I didn't like the huge difference in stress levels between runs because of the RNG, but there are parts of the base mechanics that I'd love to implement. With a twist (that might or might not work): I'd like to try to make the whole level fit on the screen by placing multiple "rows" of it vertically and either adding vertical travel (think SimTower) or teleportation so it doesn't take minutes to get from one end of the level to the other. Making the whole level visible would unlock the possibility to add local multiplayer.

Smash TV (or a similar twin stick action game)

Even though I've never played Smash TV, I'd love to do a similar twin stick fighter/shooter with local multiplayer. I don't have an idea for the theme/lore yet though.

QuizUp

Back in 2014 (iirc) or 2015 I had a blast playing this (sometimes fake-)multiplayer trivia game. I had a quite competitive knowledge about certain TV shows (like The Office, Family Guy, South Park, The Sopranos, etc) and I was able to showcase that due to public scoreboards. When I started playing QuizUp also had player profiles and social features like chat which I thought probably could've been a great way to make new friends by allowing people of similar interested connect to each other, but it was removed later. A friend of mine also approached me years later with an idea very similar to QuizUp (including monetizable community-made question packs) - now that QuizUp is long gone (shut down in 2021) it might be worth a try to go after its market.

Dr Mario

This is a project I already started hacking together but abandoned. The base mechanics are brilliant and so simple that there are room for forks. One idea I have is to have low resolution pictures of objects in the background of a level (made up from the same colors of the "pills") and target would be to place pills so the right colors overlap to complete a picture (essentially a very hard drawing game).

Ballance

...just in 2D. I think the same mechanics (switching ball material / weight) would work great either in a top-down (similar to Rollin) or side view.

The Incredible Machine

It was perfect the way it was, but I admit that I loved the second one even more because of the wacky cartoon characters. I'd just love to implement a bunch of objects, a level editor and let it loose on the unsuspecting public - that's you.

Mahjong solitaire

I already have a basic implementation, but I want to mix the gameplay with something totally different. Either by turning it into an action game (eg. you have to gather various resources - stone, wood, gold, whatever - against a time limit and build stuff to defend against waves of enemy attacks) or maybe something educational (use it as a language learning tool - pair up the same phrases/words in two different languages - an alternative flash card technique).