GamerDude96 was really a great game back then.
I would suggest you to check out the MS-DOS version that is definitely better than the C64 conversion.
The animations are so good because they were made in rotoscope, a tachnique that records a real actor and then artists draw frame by frame on top of the original image. In this way all the movements feel very natural.
Have a look at this footage about the game:
The idea is for sure not bad, but you need to create interesting puzzles to make it stand out.
Animation wise, you can try to go with rotoscope too and record a friend or even yourself :D