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SORRY, BUT I LOVE THE IDEA OF MAKING FANGAMES.
Posts
WeaselEliot
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CloseI don't think that fan games are inherently bad. I love seeing reinterprations of established works of fiction (It happens all the time in literature), but where the amateur RPG-making scene is concerned, they're rarely ever creative (And I don't think 'creative fangame' is an oxymoron)
I like the idea of playing with an established universe. You might pick up a plot or character element in a story and think 'hey, why didn't they do anything' with that? Or 'What if I took this to mean this instead of that' and run with it.' This is what. The Final Fantasy fan games, unfortunately, the creators tend to make up original stories and slap the Final Fantasy title onto them. Either that, or it's one messy 'fan-collage' of Cloud and Squall and Nathanial and Pixie and Akinu-chan and Sora and Ichigo and'. Or remakes of games that don't even deserve remakes.
I think, considering the software, fan games could make things easier, because some of us tend to underestimate how difficult worldbuilding, pixel art, etc. is. If you were to decide to make a fan RPG based on the Kirby series with a Final Fantasy style job system using Kirby's forms, it's just a matter of picking a Kirby game and doing a great deal of editing . Maybe it would be a good RPG-making 'stepping stone'.
I don't know...what do you think? Has anyone had any interesting ideas for a fan game?
I like the idea of playing with an established universe. You might pick up a plot or character element in a story and think 'hey, why didn't they do anything' with that? Or 'What if I took this to mean this instead of that' and run with it.' This is what. The Final Fantasy fan games, unfortunately, the creators tend to make up original stories and slap the Final Fantasy title onto them. Either that, or it's one messy 'fan-collage' of Cloud and Squall and Nathanial and Pixie and Akinu-chan and Sora and Ichigo and'. Or remakes of games that don't even deserve remakes.
I think, considering the software, fan games could make things easier, because some of us tend to underestimate how difficult worldbuilding, pixel art, etc. is. If you were to decide to make a fan RPG based on the Kirby series with a Final Fantasy style job system using Kirby's forms, it's just a matter of picking a Kirby game and doing a great deal of editing . Maybe it would be a good RPG-making 'stepping stone'.
I don't know...what do you think? Has anyone had any interesting ideas for a fan game?
Shinan
4314
I agree. I often think in terms of fangame/fan fiction/fanfilm. There's a lot of fun that can be had with that kind of stuff. You can go from the whole Mary Sue thing (which is often quite dreadful I suppose but works as comedy) where a real-world character somehow gets mixed up in a different world (that he or she may or may not be a fan of). And visit the "side stuff that had a little part but speculation is fun" where you take a mention of something in a story and make an intimate story about it, using the world as it was created in the original.
This is mostly thinking about fangame story though. There's also the fangame game. The SMBX thing is a perfect example of fangaming where it seems to be going alright. Using the gameplay of the original to make new levels is probably exactly the same as using the setting and story of the original to create new situations.
(Or make fun of said situations/gameplay. I guess breaking the fourth wall is the most common thing to do in fangames)
Of course usually it goes wrong. In the story department it usually goes wrong when the creator is using the characters from the original and don't get the character's personalities at all. Or change the story to fit their needs. Of course that can all be done meta which... actually I generally don't like that but I can laugh at it as much as anyone else. I mean who doesn't have a laugh at meta slashfiction?
In the gameplay department it tends to go wrong because it's newbies who don't know anything and just use sprites from other games in their games. Thus creating a crappy fangame from someone who doesn't even make their own graphics. Oftentimes a "first game" is made using borrowed art because honestly you don't want to waste a lot of effort into that first project so stealing graphics from games and making a fangame is an easy way to learn.
The other problem for those who DO put a lot of effort into a fangame is that they run the risk of being shut down and the fact is that you can never really do much with a fan-work apart from making it I suppose. It's illegal after all.
This is mostly thinking about fangame story though. There's also the fangame game. The SMBX thing is a perfect example of fangaming where it seems to be going alright. Using the gameplay of the original to make new levels is probably exactly the same as using the setting and story of the original to create new situations.
(Or make fun of said situations/gameplay. I guess breaking the fourth wall is the most common thing to do in fangames)
Of course usually it goes wrong. In the story department it usually goes wrong when the creator is using the characters from the original and don't get the character's personalities at all. Or change the story to fit their needs. Of course that can all be done meta which... actually I generally don't like that but I can laugh at it as much as anyone else. I mean who doesn't have a laugh at meta slashfiction?
In the gameplay department it tends to go wrong because it's newbies who don't know anything and just use sprites from other games in their games. Thus creating a crappy fangame from someone who doesn't even make their own graphics. Oftentimes a "first game" is made using borrowed art because honestly you don't want to waste a lot of effort into that first project so stealing graphics from games and making a fangame is an easy way to learn.
The other problem for those who DO put a lot of effort into a fangame is that they run the risk of being shut down and the fact is that you can never really do much with a fan-work apart from making it I suppose. It's illegal after all.
Well, I believe that fangames are fair game to make but I prefer a (slightly) more subtle homage to the games that I enjoyed. Building a game in the same universe is a bit of a turn off for me since it breaks the illusion, especially when I see familiar characters.
I have no problem with seeing gameplay ideas lifted wholesale from existing games, though. Like Shinan alluded to, it's like the old game but with new levels (or in the case of RPGs, new battles and dungeons). If someone recreates the materia system or esper system and makes a game around it, I don't mind at all.
I have no problem with seeing gameplay ideas lifted wholesale from existing games, though. Like Shinan alluded to, it's like the old game but with new levels (or in the case of RPGs, new battles and dungeons). If someone recreates the materia system or esper system and makes a game around it, I don't mind at all.
I am glad kentona posted what he did, because the second somebody came out and outright said "fangames suck" I was going to link them to Hero's Realm.
catmitts
4862
i've made three so far i think. ziggy the game and bubsy the bobcat in rip van bubsy starring bubsy are both kind of parodies of fangames but biggles on mars was kind of a genuine nostalgic thing based on the books i loved as a kid. i'd be lying if i said it wasn't fun to play around with that!
basically i don't have anything in particular against the idea of fangames or whatever: you can put your own stamp on it, just as you can be influenced by lots of media and still make things that aren't completely derivative. my problem with most of the fangames that get released is how unimaginative they are! if it was people trying to evoke what they loved about something or trying to take a new perspective on it then that's one thing and i have no real problem with it but so many of them feel like just uh pedantic canon garbage. look i've recreated a whole village from ff6 in rpg maker!! look it's cloud and squall ~tohgether at last~. look now we can see what really happened to jenova or whatever. it has a creepy air of playing with dolls about it.
i think people tend to overestimate this, to be honest!
basically i don't have anything in particular against the idea of fangames or whatever: you can put your own stamp on it, just as you can be influenced by lots of media and still make things that aren't completely derivative. my problem with most of the fangames that get released is how unimaginative they are! if it was people trying to evoke what they loved about something or trying to take a new perspective on it then that's one thing and i have no real problem with it but so many of them feel like just uh pedantic canon garbage. look i've recreated a whole village from ff6 in rpg maker!! look it's cloud and squall ~tohgether at last~. look now we can see what really happened to jenova or whatever. it has a creepy air of playing with dolls about it.
some of us tend to underestimate how difficult worldbuilding, pixel art, etc. is
i think people tend to overestimate this, to be honest!
deboo
85
i pretty much agree with everything already said.
i think the reason some people are automatically prejudiced against it is because a lot of the time they're made by 11 year olds who have just found RPGmaker and want to put a twist on a game that they love and just end up doing it no justice, unfortunately. they're toying with something complete and perfected, something that many other people have played and related to. it needs to have a certain level of polish or it'll be ripped apart.
people don't want the original game they loved to be ruined by some crap fangame. though then again you could just not play it, right? hmm.
on the other hand, if it's done right, you get that warm, nostalgic feeling when you play, and that's ace!
i do think it's safer to make an original game with original characters(and more fun i think), but if done right and you keep the personalities constant then i don't see why not.
also you could just loosely base it on a game, that way it isn't directly tied and you have a lot more freedom.
i think the reason some people are automatically prejudiced against it is because a lot of the time they're made by 11 year olds who have just found RPGmaker and want to put a twist on a game that they love and just end up doing it no justice, unfortunately. they're toying with something complete and perfected, something that many other people have played and related to. it needs to have a certain level of polish or it'll be ripped apart.
people don't want the original game they loved to be ruined by some crap fangame. though then again you could just not play it, right? hmm.
on the other hand, if it's done right, you get that warm, nostalgic feeling when you play, and that's ace!
i do think it's safer to make an original game with original characters(and more fun i think), but if done right and you keep the personalities constant then i don't see why not.
also you could just loosely base it on a game, that way it isn't directly tied and you have a lot more freedom.
I think fangames are perfectly fine, but more often then not, they are made out of a lack of creativity/ideas, and the project ends up suffering greatly due to the lack of intuition in general. This is why they are dismissed so often. I can't count how many final fantasy, dragonball Z, or pokemon fan games I saw that were utter shit over the years. Its sad, because I wanted them to be good.
Brickroad made some fine fan "games" (no gameplay involved, just storytelling) based on Chrono Trigger/FF6. I seem to remember Lysander adopted The Book of Three to RM2k at one point (not sure if this counts). These were well made. I don't know the collected works of every fangame ever made, but I'm sure there's at least a few good ones out there.
In any case, in regards to the OP, a Kirby-based RPG using the FF Job System for each of his forms sounds fucking awesome.
Brickroad made some fine fan "games" (no gameplay involved, just storytelling) based on Chrono Trigger/FF6. I seem to remember Lysander adopted The Book of Three to RM2k at one point (not sure if this counts). These were well made. I don't know the collected works of every fangame ever made, but I'm sure there's at least a few good ones out there.
In any case, in regards to the OP, a Kirby-based RPG using the FF Job System for each of his forms sounds fucking awesome.
Well, I believe that fangames are fair game to make but I prefer a (slightly) more subtle homage to the games that I enjoyed.
Well said, Kentona.
I don't think that fan games are inherently bad. I love seeing reinterprations of established works of fiction (It happens all the time in literature), but where the amateur RPG-making scene is concerned, they're rarely ever creative (And I don't think 'creative fangame' is an oxymoron)
Not all fan-games are bad, but they seem to have a slightly higher percentage of crud than everything else. I feel the same way only moreso about fanfic/fanart, especially since it is about nonsensical "parings" (characters who would never fuck, fucking) *shudder*. So it's not like I hate specifically on fanGAMES.
Maybe 98% versus 90%.
Yes and they are universally worse.
This is just my opinion obviously, so there is no need to try to convince me otherwise.
This is just my opinion obviously, so there is no need to try to convince me otherwise.
What Shinan and catmitts said.
I wouldn't say I'm against fangames at all, but I have never played a good fangame, that's all. I'm a big FF fan, big Chrono Trigger fan, big Pokémon fan... each of these has a lot of fangames, all of them completely terrible for reasons mentioned above.
WeaselEliot, can you please name a good fangame you have played?
Or anyone else?
I wouldn't say I'm against fangames at all, but I have never played a good fangame, that's all. I'm a big FF fan, big Chrono Trigger fan, big Pokémon fan... each of these has a lot of fangames, all of them completely terrible for reasons mentioned above.
WeaselEliot, can you please name a good fangame you have played?
Or anyone else?
post=134171
http://rpgmaker.net/games/2020/How about this?
Doesn't help that it combines two franchises I don't particularly like. : )
Although it is less offensive than most.
Sorry, Calunio. I can't. But I did play that Final Fantasy Empires demo, which isn't the ideal of what i was talking about (It's seemingly non-FF related aside from things like Chocobos, so as I said earlier...what's the point? It's cancelled anyway), but it was decently written and was aesthestically pleasing. I thought it was clever the way the creator edited the FF5 battle sprites to become 'all-purpose'. It's that kind of FANGAME SPIRIT I'm talking about. Fangames that use RTP make me roll my eyes.
