I’m not a game developer but if I were to make a game, the only ideas that come to mind seem to be “I’m gonna remake my favorite game but change these things I didn’t like about it!” but I heard that’s a bad idea usually.
I’m wondering how much change, and to which aspects (gameplay, mechanics, theme, etc), do you think is needed to make a game inspired by something instead of a rip-off?
Yeah totally, I’m sure there are multiple aspects to it. I don’t think Nexomon counts as a rip-off game, a rip-off idea maybe? poorly mimicking the original game is ,for me at least, the one thing that separates a rip-off from a clone or a spiritual successor etc.
The intention being, most of the time, riding on the popularity of the original to success.
I also wouldn’t generally consider fan games to be rip-offs.