OPINION ON FANGAMES

author=matthewac95
What I like about the concept of making a fan game is that the creator is delving into a world where most of the hard rules have already been set. Typically before you even begin seriously working on a fan game you already have a setting, some characters, and a back story, among several other possible things. I like that because as long as you understand those things that have been given to you from the start, you have a lot of liberty to play around with and expand on and create in the artistic world you're working in.

This is why I personally like Final Fantasy fangames more than any other. Say what you will about the quality of many of them that have cropped up over time, but since that series doesn't follow any set characters or stick with any particular setting or world, there's a ridiculous amount of freedom for the game maker to play around with. Unless we're looking at a Final Fantasy fangame where the author just wanted to throw out more Cloud/Sephiroth nonsense, the fangames usually strike a pretty nice balance between established and original ideas. They're like a lot of ingredients that were thrown into a blender to create something that is quasi-unique. The quality of the ingredients just differs from person to person, obviously.

If you do go making sequel/prequels and the like at least get the fucking lore and characterisation correct. Good God, some people who amp their games up as the be-all, end-all and then get all the little things wrong, wrong, wrong... those people are why others hate fangames.

Note that I'm not saying don't make fangames. I'd be a hypocrite if I did. Just, get the details right... ;.;

author=UPRC

author=halibabica
Whatever you do, don't make a fan game that goes in a different direction than everything from the canon series, as this ensures exactly zero people will be interested. I should know; I have hands-on experience.

A few commercial developers should take note of that, too! Hey Sega, nobody wants Sonic to turn into a WEREWOLF.

true words, true words...

@topic

I think a "fangame" would be best, if it follows the actual storyline of a movie / series as close as possible. just with some appropriate gameplay mechanics added.

This is just a little aside but it's an amusing tale nonetheless:

I used to be in the ZZT (MS-DOS object oriented game engine) community and this dude made a Final Fantasy fangame...that plagiarized the entire first two hours of Suikoden 1, line-for-line, character for character. The guy didn't even change any names.

The game ended pretty abruptly once you free the bandits from the corrupt government official. It was meant to be continued (probably for the rest of the entire plot of Suikoden), but the guy went to jail for murder before he could make any more.

And that's why you don't make fangames.

What about a total reboot of that particular franchise / product, like taking something that exists out there but hasn’t had a proper entry (or even a representation of it in game form at all) in years and has basically become dormant all this time – would that be alright?

Either way, I have no problem about fan-games or people doing them, considering I’ve done one myself. But like RedMask said, as long as they’re not complete rehashes of the original game in the RPG Maker / whatever engine form, then I don’t have a problem with it, especially if it looks very promising and the creator(s) know what they’re doing and have a good understanding of the lore and the mythos behind that franchise. Sometimes it’s nice to see something that you’ve played or remembered in the past done in a much different light by somebody else - or even just to see another game of it in years. And sometimes, like with UPRC’s Final Fantasy Blackmoon Prophecy series, you get something that almost surpasses or is on par with the original games, so it just depends.

I like originality in my games too, but I just can’t say no to good fan-games. ^^

Being one of those who is making a fangame, I have no room to criticize anyone who does the same. As a seasoned fan fiction writer, I will say that absolutely everyone posting to this thread, both the nays and the yays, make excellent points.

When learning any discipline, I believe it is essential to begin your journey by traveling roads that have already been laid, after all, you cannot design a car if you have never seen one, tune a piano if you do not know how it is supposed to sound...

When you begin to draw, the first sketches you make will be bad. When you begin to write, the first passages, poems, entire stories will be poorly written, but this is nature. Even Mozart had to learn how play the harpsichord before he was able to arrange "Ah vous dirais-je, Maman!" (better known as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) for his earliest variations at the tender age of five.

Having a structured guide helps. Writing fan fiction isn't copying; it's reinterpreting the work of another man, something that famous artists have done since the days of the pharaohs and probably earlier, and something famous artists will do until the end of all things. When you create something, you breath life into it, give it an identity. It is foolish of us to assume that that which we create continues to belong to us. Once other people have seen our creations, that very act changes the nature of our works, of our creations. People immerse themselves in our creations, make them their own and thus our creations evolve into something greater, into a lifeforce that nobody can define, much like a child growing up and making his or her own way in the world.

If you choose to make a fangame, don't worry about it being terrible. After all, the true artist creates for himself. It's okay, because what comes after will be better, and what comes after that will be better still, and then you might make another fangame, and then that one will be okay. Don't worry about your work being derivative. After all, by choosing to make a fangame instead of an original work, you are continuing an ancient tradition that has shaped art, and indeed our very society throughout history and if you don't think being a fanboy or fangirl changes history, then you need only look at such tales as the many stories of King Arthur, written, rewritten, almost all of them derivative, and so loved that they have helped to shape the morals of entire nations and the policies of their governments.

As I have said, everyone here makes an excellent point, and in your decision to make a fangame, all of it should be considered carefully, but let nobody tell you that it's a bad idea, or that you should wait until you are more experienced (when does that happen anyway?).

Fanboys and fangirls rock, and let nobody tell you different.

One thing about fan games that I will never understand is the amount of Final Fantasy fan games. So many are floating around out there, but a lot of them have no ties to the series. The way I see it, unless you're making the three hundredth Final Fantasy VII fan game sequel, then you should just slap an original title on it. Square Enix doesn't exactly own rights to the names and game mechanics, so having Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder doesn't make your game a fan game. Yet that's about the extent of the fan game's relation to the series.

Personally, I don't like fan games unless they're for a series that doesn't have a video game or hasn't had one in nearly a decade. If somebody wanted to make a Mr. Mosquito fan game, then I'd support the hell out of it. But Final Fantasy 7.32-XV^3 is just getting old.

Well, that's probably because they haven't released a Final Fantasy game in almost thirteen years.

*rimshot*

Some fangames are easier to please the masses with than most. I'm currently working on a Mega Man fan game and it seems to be getting good reviews/comments. I'm almost done and we should be seeing a release in a few months. But I am all for fan games if they are done right, with skill and with lots of love/passion by the creator for the source material.