I work in an unrelated field and have no background in art or programming. This is my first ever attempt at game development.

I've been working on a solo pixel horror game with religious themes, and the most common feedback I'm getting is that it looks too similar to FAITH. I've built a completely original religion and world, different gods, symbols, and lore from scratch. The game isn't trying to be FAITH thematically, but visually it still gets compared. FAITH was a big inspiration for me, and I'm not trying to hide that. But the world, religion system, and narrative mechanics are all original.

The challenge is making that originality visible through a style that's inherently associated with FAITH. I understand where they're coming from: same genre, same art style, similar atmosphere.

The problem is that FAITH's CRT + rotoscoping style is so minimalist that there's not much room to differentiate visually. I've tried varying the color palette per scene (white cathedral, purple interiors, red glitch effects), but it still reads as 'FAITH-like' at first glance.

For those who've worked in minimalist pixel art, how do you carve out a visual identity without abandoning the core aesthetic? Any examples of games that successfully did this?

How do you carve out a visual identity in minimalist pixel horror?