It's just a question of cyclical market, I can pretty much predict that a new wave of puzzle-platformers will come in the future (yeah, I'm being vague so I'm sure I'm gonna be right ^o^)

For the three genres in one, it's just market research , like with those graphic circles (aka customers/players) which overlaps at some point. It reminds me of a long post by the dev of Necrodancer about market analysis and developing games from that:
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/RyanClark/20150917/253842/What_Makes_an_Indie_Hit_How_to_Choose_the_Right_Design.php

Excerpt:
"How do you analyze the market for a "mash up" game, like NecroDancer? With much trepidation. You will want to analyze both markets (in NecroDancer's case, I analyzed both rhythm games and roguelike games) and then attempt to estimate how much they OVERLAP. The overlap is your actual target market. Lucky for me, the roguelike and rhythm genres do have some overlap. But beware: With a mash up game you will really excite fans that love both genres, but you will also immediately EXCLUDE anyone who hates either of the two genres. The effect is that you will have an easier time reaching some minimum level of sales (if you can reach the excited gamers who live in that overlap) but you will also limit your max audience size (due to some gamers' dislike of one or the other of the genres). For this reason, I was confident that NecroDancer would be profitable, but I was not confident that it would be a hit. Darkest Dungeon, mentioned above, does not have the "genre confusion" that NecroDancer has, and as such has a wider target audience."

EDIT: that reminds me of the case of "Mercenary Kings" which I hated as it combined Metal Slug with the modern grinding/crafting mechanics to please the crowd.

"experience"

Reminds me: "it's" instead of "its" (and extra apostrophes in general) seems to be a very overused mistake in indie games. Mousecraft, Adventures of Shuggy to name a few.

''Exciting''

There's nothing wrong with a genuine "love letter" to a game. The problem is the overuse of this term, where "love letter" to them essentially means "cheap knock-off" to everyone else.

Also "in the spirit of"

which just means "some elements might look a bit similar but we want to advertise with that great name" - so basically not very useful.

"We want to create an experience"


Just say it outright that you'd rather do anything else but videogames, but other media doesn't want you.

What jamyskis said.

This thread is about overused terms. I didn't comment on whether making a so called love letter is right or wrong.
Are you sure Sacrifice is indie?

Yeah, "indie" shouldn't be an excuse for bad spelling, it makes the games look amateurish instead. Other popular mistakes: "wierd", "thier", "of been", "rouge". :P

I was being silly and no it's not. :P

Damn the Licurg infection is spreading

Of course it is. It's a unique, innovative spiritual successor to Chaos: The Battle of Wizards, with an exciting, narrative driven story, a procedurally generated world, and beautiful pixel art reminiscent of old school games. Created by a one man team, it's a blend of strategy, action and RPG. This hardcore game can be challenging and even unforgiving at times, though it's... er, its, retro atmosphere will bring about a very nostalgic experience.