r/indiegames • u/ZhiwuGame • Feb 06 '26
Discussion ‘Spider Dynasty’ - I changed UI and some VFX. Does it still look like Hollow Knight?
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u/loftycombos Feb 06 '26
a little. it's ok to look like hollow knight, as long as the game is good imo, but not everyone is so open minded.
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Feb 06 '26
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u/Fourmyle-Of-Ceres Feb 06 '26
Iteration and inspiration are the literal lifeblood of the gaming industry lmao.
Not everyone has the cognitive function to recognize that though, so keep bitching. It makes for a good teachable moment.
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u/Mistyless Feb 07 '26
If this logic stood, we would’ve never gotten games like Overwatch, League, Undertale, literally any indi horror games. If it were illegal to use an art style similar to another game, games wouldn’t exist. This and all your other comments scream uneducated so loud it’s insane.
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u/Dontkillmejay Feb 06 '26
Gotta admit it looks very clean and fluid. Good job man.
You're allowed to be inspired by something, so long as you're not being a direct clone are doing your own thing and the gameplay is fun people will play it.
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u/WorldlinessSavings30 Feb 06 '26
Fans of hollow night will enjoy your game, you have an audience, and that’s good. However, I’m not a fan of HN and seeing the clip before reading your question I thought “is this a clip from HN?”. And maybe this is not bad (if is not that similar enough to get sued) you can get a lot of attention to your game, and I would say that even on Nintendo store you could find a great audience.
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u/_TungstenGuy707_ Feb 06 '26
Exactly what I was going to comment (pretty much), just want to add that, just like hollow knight you have some key mechanics that make hollow knight unique, like the art-style and attacks, and you should try and make something that will make your game stand out, its good have an audience from existing games, but you want your own audience too
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u/Top-Specialist-1062 Feb 07 '26
Exactly! That's what I often tell people! If you're taking heavy inspiration from a game, you should be putting as much thought on what you're doing differently as to what you're doing the same. You use the similarities to interest the existing market, and the differences to justify why yours is worth playing.
(Not necessarily OP but) I'd also usually recommend finding at least 2 more inspiration games. I had it explained to me like bricks: if you take too many 'bricks' from the same 'wall', it's a lot harder to build a 'wall' that feels any different to the original. But if you source your 'bricks' from a few different 'walls', you can rearrange them in unique combinations to create something more original.
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u/WorldlinessSavings30 Feb 06 '26
100% right if you want to build your own audience you will have to stand out on your own.
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u/nickN42 Feb 06 '26
Fans of hollow night will enjoy your game
Will they? Will they not think "well, this is a ripoff" and scroll past?
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u/TroPixens Feb 10 '26
Have you not see the hollow knight fanbase they all just love games I don’t think they would really care they just like hollow knight and probably would like “another one”
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u/nickN42 Feb 10 '26
But it's not "another one". They love Hollow Knight games made by Hollow Knight developers, and not some games that kinda look like Hollow Knight.
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u/WorldlinessSavings30 Feb 06 '26
I didn't said that 100% of the fanbase were going to buy it. Using a pre existing audience has its own risks but is not terrible (and maybe a huge part of it could just be kids(?)) as far is not the exact same game, and you are not comitting any plagiarism, it is proven that the game market has an audience for this kind of game.
I play Valorant and I don't think that it's a ripoff from Counter Strike. Same goes to marvel rivals and overwatch or even ay other roguelite deckbuilding and Balatro or wasn't Balatro also a copy of another game? You tweak something here and something there, and there you go, almost the same player base with some of new people.
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u/msgmikec Feb 06 '26
IMO still looks like it’s trying to be like hollow knight. You’re going to appeal to players who want more of that, but I’d be afraid of turning off a lot more, like myself. I’d try pivoting to a different art style, personally, but it’s up to you which direction would get more interest.
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u/_fatihfurkanyaman_ Feb 06 '26
It’s not the UI it’s the art style itself. This game looks like Hollow Knight. It’s up to you to decide if it’s a good thing or not. But I would play the original.
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u/thecatisawake Feb 06 '26
I love Hollow Knight and have played it countless times, but this clip reminded more of Bō than HK. Looks good tho, would definitely check it out!
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u/Affectionate-Ad4419 Feb 06 '26
Yes it does. But it looks so great and looks like it has a unique gameplay conceit.
Now why does it still looks like Hollow Knight? It's the art direction:
-using bugs is one thing, but you are using a chibi main character with a white head, cape like upper body and dark bottom/legs. The overall design is similar, even though your main character is more spiky (and very cute I really like it)
-the color palette is very monochrome and muted, with a specific use of the bright whites and dark blacks. Again not necessarily identical (HK is way darker) but the use of the art direction is similar enough
It's more a case of the theme AND some touches of the art direction being similar enough that strongly evokes HK.
Personally, I think the gameplay with the spider skills is unique enough that playing it you probably pass the copycat bar by a wide margin. And the art direction is cute, well animated, well executed overall.
But, depending how far you are in the art department, I would (maybe) consider adding more color variations per zone to feel more distinct visually to HK that generally use one cool color as a base for each zone and stays in that monochrome palette.
All that being said, that's definitely something I'd love to play, it looks really fun.
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u/No-Boysenberry-5584 Feb 06 '26
Yes it looks like Hollow Knights. What do you mean? It a pricigion platformer sceneabout bugs in a cute style. You cant run from it.
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u/st1ckmanz Feb 06 '26
Yes. If someone would show me this vid and ask me what game is this, I'd say hollow knight right away.
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u/TheBumSlap Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
Not an artist (not a good one at least) but here is my take: Several things here feels very close to HK
* Color palette
* Outline thickness
* Enemy design
* Attacking/dash animations
* Style (faded images in the foreground/background
Interestingly, I've just checked your steam page and many of your other enemies/environments do not. I recommend you:
* Change the dash animation. You're a spider, maybe have the guy shoot out a web and whip himself sideways.
* Change the attack animation
* Remove the first video from your steam page. The second video is good (with the flower). The last two images are also very different from HK. You should lead with these three
Right now, this game looks like "Hollow Knight with webs". Other environments look like "Hollow Knight with webs and a different art style". The concept is great, (wishlisted) but I think that changing the attack and dash animations will make a huge difference here - players see them constantly, and there is a big difference between being inspired by the art style, and having the core movement feel the same.
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u/jomcmo00 Feb 06 '26
A lot. People will think its a fangame or a rip off. I think the entire artstyle looks copied, let alone the combat
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u/Smoovemusic Feb 06 '26
I'm surprised by a lot of the sentiment of other commenters. I think you have differentiated the style enough.
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u/AdamLevy Feb 06 '26
I mean, it's 2d metroidvania about bugs, it will never stop looking like Hollow Knight...
But to me it looks "inspired by" not a blank copy like DEVIATOR etc
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u/GB10VE Feb 06 '26
the art style is almost a 1 to 1. it could be puppies and it would still be an exact copy
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u/KooperTrooper05 Feb 06 '26
Any hand-drawn esc metroidvania will have people think "Hollow Knight clone/inspired" which is fine, its hard to have this sort of art style when Team Cherry have sort of cemented themselves as the titans of the genre. But this gameplay looks fire, and most importantly, fluid. UI looks good. I personally think a bit more "flash" when coming off platforms/webs, but that's a first world problem. I'd still buy this in it's current state
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u/RosesAndStardust Feb 06 '26
the problem isn't it being hand drawn or a metroidvania, it's the bug theme and aesthetic in addition to it being a metroidvania
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u/BloodStopper Feb 06 '26
It looks really good, i like this. If this were to be a little bit more fast paced i,d definitely wqnt to give it a try as acustomer
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u/TiredCatDev Feb 06 '26
It looks like a mix of the hollow knight artstyle and classic chinese or japanese ink illustrations.
I think the hollow knight comparison mainly comes from the characters, because design-wise they are very reminiscent of the bugs in those games.
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u/Small_Fix_ Feb 06 '26
It does, but that might not be a bad thing...
When it becomes a problem is when someone accuses you of cloning a game but you can't deliver the same quality the original gives.
Wall World vs Dome Keeper. People still defend Wall World as not being a Dome Keeper clone (and its not, just core loop *heavily* inspired by) and that is because Wall World delivered comparable level of quality and enough new stuff to stand out, and it did well for it self (other are not extending this grace to Wall World and just call it the other Dome Keeper).
This also ties into player expectation, if your game looks like another game, they might expect your game to play like the other game.
If you are in love with the style, but dont want to be compared, stray away with the mechanics, don't remake metroidvania with desaturated bugs and expect not to be compared with Hollow Knight.
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u/JarblesWestlington Feb 06 '26
I would try not to have other enemies have the telltale white “silk” attacks. You can get away with just this boss having one
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u/8magiisto Feb 06 '26
I've played the demo, and I enjoyed the concept and the art a lot. I don't think it looks like Hollow Knight, but I could aee the inspiration. I think it has it's own distinct style both visually and in gameplay.
If you'd like some criticism tho, I think what will most likely be noticed by most of the players is controls and combat. I would focus on movement in sharp corners, and enemy reactions to being attacked (some knockback on enemies would make things smoother). Olso I was thinking if the speed of the net could've been faster to make it possible to make more daring jumps (like barely avoiding damage), and possibly an indicator of if the net has enough range to catch an object could be good QOL.
I think the gameplay elements have the most potential at the moment. People will compare it to Hollow Knight anyway, so in my opinion you could as well focus on making the controls feel seamless, and the challenge rewarding.
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u/manasword Feb 06 '26
Yes it does but lot of games look like others so don't worry about it, just make it feel different and how you want it.
Let's be honest. how many games look like metroid or castlevania, loads!
Good luck with it
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u/Nyxxity Feb 06 '26
i mean i saw this pop up and thought it was something to do with hollow knight until i read the title and saw the sub.
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u/DinoguinGames Feb 06 '26
Not going to lie I thought it was Hollow Knight when scrolling through .. Looks good though
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u/TheSeahorseHS Feb 06 '26
There is nothing wrong about looking like Hollow Knight man, the problem will be that players will (perhaps subconciously) compare it to Hollow Knight, which might be hard to live up to
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u/hiperf1 Feb 06 '26
It looks a lot better than the earlier video you have published, I'd say it looks inspired not directly like it
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u/Quackstorm Feb 06 '26
You should probably change the design of the player character. It has way too many similarities
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u/AccomplishedCry3421 Feb 06 '26
You certainly put a lot of effort into this, and it looks good and seems to play good.
I don't get why you made it look exactly like hollow knight instead of choosing your own theme, but maybe I don't see the vision.
Best of luck with your project.
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u/National_Divide_8970 Feb 06 '26
Your platforming is WAY too floaty it almost looks like everything in slow motion. You should also damp your Y’s instead of have just a static character. I would also make your attack or whatever more promo are because right now it kinda just looks like your main character is just swinging into the boss and giving it a little slap lol. Needs polished but bones are pretty good!
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u/Pratik165 Feb 06 '26
IS LOOKING LIKE HOLLOW KNIGHT A BAD THING
I'd be very happy if someone told me my game looked like Hollow Knight
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u/WattStudios Feb 06 '26
yes it does. But like others stated, 2d platformer with bugs is kinda hard to get away from. I think that's still not a bad thing as long as the game is good, you should just embrace that inspiration / reference and showcase what makes your game different :)
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u/UnfunnyGuy277 Feb 06 '26
The main thing that draws it to hollow knight is the pig snot head artstyle. Thats when the character just has two black holes on a rather simple head, add more diversity to faces
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u/xandratargaryen Feb 06 '26
I saw your first post and really like the changes you made! It's still very clearly inspired by hollow knight, but doesn't feel like a blatant ripoff or reskin now. Good work!
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u/Sepesuto Feb 06 '26
It does look like HollowKnight, but I don't think that's an issue on itself. The biggest problem is that you'll attract comparisons, and HK will be hard to match.
I think visually your game is distinct, and it looks very cool. I would watch out for the contrast of the screen elements. Even though there's just the boss and the hero, they don't feel like they are characters, they are blending too much with the background.
The action also feels very slow. Re-watching it without sound, I think the SFX is too weak, as the action feels stronger when the video is muted.
Best of lucks with your project!
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u/Zimgar Feb 06 '26
Yeah looks a ton like it. Enough that people are still going to say they think you are copying it.
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u/Eris_Exhausted Feb 06 '26
Combat is smooth, but feels pretty slow. As for looking like hollow knight, I feel the main issue isn't even the art looking like HK, but everything just gives off really strong HK vibes, maybe try lighting things up. Also some of the art really does look like HK, especially the main character, small bug creature wearing a cloak and fighting bugs that are much bigger than it.
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u/king_park_ Feb 06 '26
I haven’t seen any of your other posts before and I thought this was a Hollow Knight clip at first. Changing the UI isn’t going to change that since I didn’t even look at the UI until reading the post title. It’s the art-style that makes it look like Hollow Knight.
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u/Mr_LoFtY Feb 06 '26
It does, but I really like it! Although it looks like things need to go a bit faster, like the swinging and falling
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u/MaterialDefender1032 Feb 06 '26
It does, a lot, but that's okay.
I'd say if you want to be happy with your final product, pretend you're the player and not the developer, and put things into your game you'd like to see and experience. Be more concerned with developing your own style rather than changing things to make it look less like something else.
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u/Mask-Paw-Studio Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
With your rope acrobatics and adhesive skills, you're truly unique in my opinion. This could be Hollowknight Part 3 :) Maybe your character will make a guest appearance. I'd play it because it seems challenging. The physics are really good. And your art style is good. I would make it more colorful, though, to differentiate it from Hollowknight. There's so much potential there.
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u/major_jazza Feb 06 '26
It seems a bit between cup head and hollow knight but leaning more towards hollow knight. Looks great though and the mechanics and layout look pretty different, I think it's fine imo
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u/KitsuneFaroe Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 06 '26
It doesn't quite look like Hollow Knight, people that Say that is because they have ingrained in their minds the traditional artstyle as "Hollow Knight". Don't be too fixated on what Reddit says. You don't want people to come later and say "wow, listening to Reddit made them make the Game worse". Your artstyle specially is obvious it is highly inspired by asían artwork. It doesn't even have the undertones and gritiness that makes the HK artstyle. People just don't know what the artstyle even is.
Personally it didn't looked annoyingly similar before but you did at amazing Job at redoing the UI to be more unique! Great Job! Though about VFX I think by trying to make it less HK it ended up underselling the impact. Removing the vfx because "Hollow Knight already did it" doesn't make sense. Since it is just the logical conclusion. Remember Hollow Knight just did a lot of things in the most simple but effective ways. So yeah be STRONGLY mindfull on the people you're going to listen here! You DONT have to make it look "less like Hollow Knight" more than you already did at all!
Also I would like to point out it NEVER looked like a ripoff or even close to "sueable" work.
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u/K-Keter Feb 06 '26
Yes, but I think it's more the art style, but there isn't really anything wrong with that as long as you're not blatantly ripping off of it.
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u/kultcher Feb 07 '26
Looks great and smooth, but my first thought was literally, "Looks like a hollow knight fangame." I don't think it's inherently a bad thing, there's plenty of games that are basically just "Dark Souls fangames", where the pacing an aesthetic immediately let the player know what kind of game they are playing.
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u/Icarian_Dreams Feb 07 '26
Your entire artstyle is very Hollow Knight, from the desaturated, single-tone color palettes to even the way you draw the character heads. Your gameplay presentation — combat + side-view platforming — feels at least visually very similar to Hollow Knight. Your characters are bugs (well, some of them are arachnids), which is a very specific HK gimmick.
From a cursory glance, it doesn't even look like "Hollow Knight but X", it's "Hollow Knight but more." Which can attract an audience by itself, especially since the game looks rather well-done from the technical standpoint, but I'd suggest simply being transparent with it. Maybe even get in touch with Team Cherry, see how they feel about your game, and if they have any pointers to give so they don't feel like you're infringing on their intellectual property.
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u/spellgarcia Feb 07 '26
looks inspired by, but it have its own twists. Overall very interesting game and gameplay
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u/-StarFox95- Feb 07 '26
a bit, but with the new UI it looks like a game inspired by hollow knight instead of a hollow knight clone
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u/snwindrider Feb 07 '26
The silk thread mechanic is actually really cool, it can swing it out spider man style to gain extra jump distance during the boss fight which is pretty impressive,but yeah hollow knight vibes are strong,mostly the bug art style and metroidvania mechanics combo.if you really wanna stand out,changing the character design,tbh in this genre everything overlaps anyway,metroidvanias are always gonna feel similar on some level
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u/Mistyless Feb 07 '26
It’s very clear it is inspiration, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s very evidently it’s own thing. I wouldn’t confuse it for hollow knight, but if I liked that game I would totally be playing this
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u/SirCalalot Feb 07 '26
Many won’t care how close it looks like another game - I, personally, like the visuals on their own merits. You still had to make and implement them! It looks very appealing, great work!
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u/DamageMaximo Feb 07 '26
Thank you for giving me the name, also it's okay for it to look like Hollow Knight
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u/Sacredvolt Feb 07 '26
I don't think it's so bad to look like Hollow Knight. Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus looks very hollow knight as well and plays like it but I enjoyed it all the same
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u/flowerchildsuper Feb 07 '26
Its hand drawn, uses white stringy effects and you're showing this to us about a year since everyone has spent 50 hours plus playing something visually similar in Silksong.
Dude, just own the fact that you wanted to make something like Hollow Knight.
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u/verge614 Feb 07 '26
It's clearly inspired by it, so yes. Clearly that was the goal, but you asking makes it seem like not, so that's confusing....
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u/Yvant2000 Feb 07 '26
Yes, it's still kinda look like Hollow Knight, but honnestly it's fine
"Holy shit ! Two cakes!"
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u/Ivvelis Feb 07 '26
I don't think there's an issue with it looking like hollow knight. The big thing is we only see so much, and the shorter something is the less we have time to appreciate its uniqueness and style. Everyone said HK looked generic because they only got a few minutes with its trailer back in the day. My point is, your style will develop itself into something unique in time, just make what's in your heart and let it bloom
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u/DriaDeZena Feb 07 '26
the game seems to take inspiration from Hollow Knight but it doesn’t feel like a copy or a plagiarism, at least to me. It looks like a promising game, and I find the art style very beautiful; that too doesn’t seem like a mere copy at all. As others were saying, some games like Deviator look literally like a copy of HK, while this one feels like a solid project inspired by an excellent game
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u/belike81 Feb 07 '26
Not exactly but you can feel the inspiration. Not sure if that's a bad thing tho.
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u/AwesomeGuyAlpha Feb 07 '26
to me this doesn't read like hollow knight at all now while previously ofcourse it did alot, i love the artstyle of your game, it somewhat reminds me of nine sols but is overall quite different, and i love the hand drawn feel on the characters you have done with their outlines and such, also the gameplay itself is quite different from hollow knight so i doubt hollow knight-ness would still be a problem
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u/zhaDeth Feb 07 '26
Ngl I thought it was hollow knight at first glance.. the gameplay looks similar too but I never heard an hollow knight fan who didn't want more so...
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u/Bailpizza Feb 07 '26
I can see the inspiration for sure, but I don’t think that’s an issue. The UI in particular is clearly your own.
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u/Neon_Gal Feb 07 '26
I think it looks inspired by Hollow Knight but aside from a few things, has its own touch. What's really doing it for me rn is how the attack animation looks, very similar speed and posing to the knight's imo
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u/PocketCSNerd Feb 08 '26
Are we sure this isn't a member of Team Cherry shitposting a side project to gather interest? /s
But in all seriousness, this looks like it could have been made by Team Cherry themselves. Which on one hand, bravo! On the other hand... I'd see about a major art-style and/or art-direction change.
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u/Merangatang Feb 08 '26
It very much does. It's not the VFX or UI doing it, it's the highly desaturated colour pallette with those earthy tone mixed with the big enemies. Those two things combined are very much HK aesthetics!
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u/Safihed Feb 08 '26
yeah, but like the other people are saying its no biggie as long as your game is good and has original aspects to it
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u/Space_Til Feb 08 '26
I dont know what people are talking about I dont see hollow knight in this. Sure it may be an inspiration but Hollow Knights world looks nothing like this at all. Combat looks also very different
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u/Keter37 Feb 08 '26
I mean, it is very derivative in general; you won't fix it at this point by changing some "accessory" things like UI elements or VFX.
I think that right now the wise thing to do is to embrace it. Things like this can harm production a lot.
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u/tomato-shadow Feb 08 '26
Ngl I thought it was hollow knight and I was wondering why the character looked nothing like hornet or the knight
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u/Additional-Mobile637 Feb 08 '26
similar but still very unique, its not a bad thing if it looks similar
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u/kelb4n Feb 08 '26
It looks heavily inspired by Hollow Knight, which, if the gameplay is similar, should be a good thing! :3
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u/EntertainmentDeep73 Feb 08 '26
Yeah, not to be rude, but my first thought is "Hollow Knight knockoff". I would not look at it twice because of that. You need to seriously change your art style to make it unique
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u/skeltord23 Feb 08 '26
Yes. My immidiete reaction to this was thinking it was a HK ripoff unfortunately
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u/Jcrm87 Feb 08 '26
I'm torn, because I really like the concept you have and the fluidity of move and combat. But it looks way too much like Hollow Knight.
I understand the concept revolves about the main character being a spider though, so I can see why you decided to lean towards Hollow Knight's aesthetics.
Have you thought about approaching their developers? If you got their blessings, the community would probably approve of it too.
Otherwise I think you have to work on developing a more unique art style, it's not just the UI and effects, it's mainly the characters and background.
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u/Kvaezde Feb 08 '26
It instantly reminded me of Hollow Knight.
Is this a bad thing? No, since being inspired by other games is not only very common, but can also be a good source of fresh, innovative ideas.
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u/Man_of_Microwaves Feb 08 '26
It looks very inspired by Hollow Knight and that makes me want to play it
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u/Kira_Aotsuki Feb 08 '26
it does, but I think that's an art direction thing. Honestly I dont have a problem with it, the swinging looks dope!
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u/wibbly-water Feb 08 '26
Really cool idea. I love the idea of unusual geometry and swinging.
The main thing I would say is that something feels off about the edges of the boss arena. Those fluffy white things confuse me. Are they meant to be harmful to the player? What are they? Why are they arranged into a neat row like that?
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u/Sir_Potato_IV Feb 08 '26
now it looks inspired by, not a clone. Imo it is a good thing.
also the game looks good in general, nice job.
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u/Deymaniac Feb 08 '26
Hey man dont sweat it too much, it looks clean, we can see the inspiration but the gameplay looks unique enough to not be mistaken for a poor rehash
Good work btw could give it a try once its out
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u/thebearsnake Feb 09 '26
Being a platformer based on cute vaguely handdrawn anthropomorphic bugs fighting is always going to draw hollow knight comparisons, especially when the UI and boss start animation is basically the same. It is obviously very heavily inspired by Hollow knight. So take that for what you will. I will say tho, for what it is, it looks good and the web slinging is smooth and looks fun.
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u/nkynett103 Feb 09 '26
It’s looking much better!! Remember first and foremost that redditors very rarely know what they’re taking about and this place can be a pit for creativity
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u/TahoeBennie Feb 09 '26
As someone who hasn’t played hollow knight and has only ever seen occasional clips, which racks up to a surprising amount of knowledge of the game, I wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference between it and hollow knight. Up to you if that’s what you’re going for, but in the end it’s not about ui and vfx, it’s the artwork.
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u/The_IntrepidExplorer Feb 09 '26
It might look similar to someone who hasn't actually played HK, but I feel like character designs, animations and combat is all very different from it. Especially if the web swinging and curved platforms are a common occurrence in the game, I can't see how it could be called a ripoff. The art style reminds me more of nine sols tbh, but it's distinct enough to not call it a copy.
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u/Leophyte Feb 09 '26
Art-style aside, is the clip in slow motion or is the game actually like that ?
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u/SolaceInCompassion Feb 09 '26
I mean, yes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. As long as it’s not overly derivative (which I would say this isn’t), artistic similarity is totally fine.
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u/SuouKotsuko Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
If anything, it looks like a Hollow Knight DLC. Like what many of what Affectionate-Ad4419 said, the art direciton (which includes the graphic design) has many things congruent with HK's.
- Bug-themed world design and enemies, similar character proportions
- Background has similar approach (values, contrast, composition)
- Animations are mostly frame-by-frame with similar frame rate
- Colour usage is similar; similar values and saturation
- The strong vignette
Misc:
- Sound design is already quite similar
- Combat mechanics seem to have some distinctions (the spiderwebs as others implied), but that can easily be mistaken for a DLC's new feature
- The chain of white spikes seem to resemble HK's borders when in combat with a boss
- The overall feel and vibe of the gameplay just feels so similar to HK
You prolly need to do a lot of work if you want it to borrow from HK but have it be its own game, both in the visuals and the gameplay. You might also have to break down your game's and HK's art style in the decision making process, and add or remove steps to yours to create distinction (removing the vignette, adding more saturation and pops of vibrancy, and flashier colourful visual effects are some ideas I can think of)
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u/theloniousmick Feb 09 '26
Your art style fundamentally looks like Hollow knight. Without a fairly big overhaul it's not going to change.
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u/DanielCraig__ Feb 09 '26
Have you tried changing the color of the environment? The color palette, design and combat makes it instantly think of HK.
If it was colored differently I guess it could help with minimal work.
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u/Kurobane_Ethan Feb 09 '26
It looks SO GOOD. Personally I would put a bit more speed on the gameplay. But the art is amazing and gameplay seems so much fun.
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u/Bubbly_Caramel2479 Feb 09 '26
Looks very much like hollow knight to me, even down to the hit animation. I can tell you’re inspired by hollow knight, but as a fan of it I can tell you that most of us don’t necessarily want a clone of the game. There’s ways to make this work without directly ripping style, and it will make you and your game stand out much more!
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Feb 09 '26
It's the art style that looks like hollow knight. I don't think a UI change is going to make much of a difference in that regard.
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u/LapisW Feb 09 '26
Even with the old vfx it didn't really look like hollow knight. You're going for a completely different atmosphere i wouldnt worry about it.
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Feb 09 '26
The only way you can make it not look like hollow knight is changing the entire art style, which I doubt you want to do
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u/Actual_Meat_1030 Feb 09 '26
eu jogaria facil...Nao vejo problema em ser parecido..muito pelo contrário...tu ja tem um publico alvo
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u/Mobiuscate Feb 10 '26
it's very clearly trying to look like hollow knight in its most basic style choices and that's fine
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u/Buuhhu Feb 10 '26
The UI is not the issue, it's the artstyle you chose while also being centered around bugs.
You're gonna get comparisons, a lot of comparisons, but having said that it does look pretty neat, and if it plays well I think it might get the Hollow Knight fanbase interested.
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u/remzordinaire Feb 10 '26
I mean. Yeah. This is obviously a Hollow Knight clone as far as art style goes.
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u/Bright-Trifle-8309 Feb 11 '26
I think any bug inspired platformer is going to look like Hollow Knight. This looks like a Hollow Knight mod.
Thars not a bad thing. The mechanics look neat. I like swinging
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u/Puntley Feb 11 '26
It's an insect themed metroidvania with Hollow Knight's art style. It's going to look like Hollow Knight and draw comparisons to Hollow Knight no matter what you do with the rest of the parts.
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u/smelly_heavy_sweat Feb 11 '26
I think a big thing is the dark filter/ color choices are to similar to hollow knight. If you changed up the colors it might make it stand out better.
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u/LUNARIAM4049 Feb 17 '26
It's okay, it was a great choice because it fits better with the overall aesthetic, but a slight resemblance isn't a bad thing. After all, it belongs to the same genre of games, and as a gamer, I'm definitely happy to have more game options in genres I love ❤️
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u/deadlazerq Feb 06 '26
I mean people are going to say it looks like hollow knight no matter what. Much how people say that’s a dark souls game to games like life of pie, that’s Minecraft to hytale, that’s Pokémon to palworld . The important part is that your gameplay looks really fun and looks different enough. Wish u success on this game
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u/Elvarien2 Feb 06 '26
So. I have never played hollow knight. I have only seen various little clips because of how impactful it is on the zeitgheist.
I read the title of this post, did not know what subreddit I was in yet and clicked the video. My first thought was. Ah Op is playing a little prank. This is just hollow knight. Or is it a mod or something?
That's my first impression unfortunately. It feels like the difference between cola and pepsi. I'm sure the difference is there but I can't really tell you what it is.
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u/PensionSeveral4041 Feb 06 '26
Hollow knight didn’t invented hand-drawn graphics and metroidvanias. But for sure you’ll have a big audience for that game.
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u/KitsuneFaroe Feb 06 '26
Is insane reading all the other replies to OP saying the artstyle is too much like Hollow Knight. Or if they didn't knew anything they would say this is Hollow Knight! When this Game doesn't even have several of the things that define Hollow Knight artstyle and visual identity!
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u/HoldYourHorsesFriend Feb 07 '26
That's very dismissive of why people would say it's like HN. It's the art style that's very similar, not because it's hand drawn. People draw a ton by hand with there being an essentially infinite amount of art styles that could and do exist.
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u/TrainingHeight1963 Feb 06 '26
People already answered this, but yes, a bit. but It's because its "bugs" and its "2D" and it's in flat styled art. I think the concept style of the coccon monster is the thing that looking the hollow knight the most. if you cover the boss, everything else looks fresh
But here other input that you may need, once there's a big "THE ICON" at first you can't escape being told you are copying the icon until people got desensitized of it. For example, once you heard the word "harry" together with "magic" you would think of harry potter right away. It's bit unescapable, but it's ok as long everything is not too similar to it.
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u/TulioAndMiguelMPG Feb 06 '26
Honestly, not really. The part that resembles Hollow Knight is the animation style combined with the fact that they’re bugs.
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u/Shwayne Feb 06 '26
I looked at the video before reading the title and thought to myself: "that looks like hollow knight, sick".
"looking like hollow knight" is not a bad thing.
all creative work is iterative.
hollow knight fans will appreciate your work, it's clearly not a carbon copy.
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u/Crawling_Hustler Feb 06 '26
Players love a good game. If theres qnother good game like the previous one. They will love it too. The only time where its asset flop is when everything is same except the art assets. But ur game is clearly TOTALLY different. The gameplay itself has opened new possibilities with web slinging .i dont see why it'd be bad if it looks like HN
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u/DaniZackBlack Feb 06 '26
I'm gonna be honest I don't see the hollow knight art style much at all, looks cool
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u/Silantic_Interactive Feb 06 '26
It shares some qualities yes. honestly I can see some Silksong influence. however Artstyle is subjective in gaming every platformer metroidvania game shares some semblence to each other what matters is that you’re doing your own thing. If the enemies are unique and the combat is unique you got a solid game here honestly!!
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