First I want to start out by saying that this is my first post, but I'm excited about this community and plan on staying and contributing :)
I have a decent ammount of background in 3D game development. I've worked with Cryengine and Unity quite a bit, and consider myself at least knowledgeable in them. However I've recently realized that I have a hard time getting inspired when making 3D games. Everything I make is either a mediocre COD clone, or a Slender clone. But I've realized that the best ideas I ever come up with are for 2D games (sidescrollers mainly).
So my question to you is how should I start in learning to develop 2D games? I have absolutely no knowledge at all in developing them, but I am willing to learn from the beginning (coding from scratch or using an engine). I would rather not use Unity which seems to be suggested by many people as this is not the art style I'm going for. I'm aiming to make games more in a pixel-art style like Home (find it on Steam).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)
Thanks,
-Creator