Surely you jest: https://store.steampowered.com/app/220780/Thomas_Was_Alone/

Has a lot of sound and music though. Its an animated square with jump anims etc. A lot more work went into that game than whats described above.

It's sad for Super Meat Boy that the comments underneath yours keep insisting it's "just a platformer with a red square".

The point is that Super Meat Boy would still be a fun game even if the player character was just a red square. It wouldn't have the same commercial success without the artwork and music, but you can easily see how you could make an MVP and have it still be a fun game, then add the graphics after.

Super meat boy happened to have an extremely fast dev cycle. It only took 18 months to make the engine and game! https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134717/postmortem_tea...

I get what you're saying, but if you read the replies, that's not what they're saying. Exact quote: "Super Meat Boy is basically that" (meaning, basically a red square).

Sure they will, if the gameplay is compelling. Maybe they won't pay full price for it (though there are many examples of games with very basic graphics that sell just fine), but an MVP doesn't need to be profitable. What you need at the MVP stage are playtesters who you can validate your gameplay ideas on.

You are confusing MVP (Minimum Viable Product) with MCP (Minimum Compelling Product). The red square is enough to enable key decision makers to assess the viability of the product. It is not intended to be a compelling product in that state.

Super Meat Boy had done exactly that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Meat_Boy

I recently played Super Meat Boy. It's a great game and the character is basically a red square.