FAN GAMES -- THE GOLDEN RULE

That's not a point, it's a question.

Usually the answer is probably "no". But not always. The Final Fantasy MUD I help run works fine if you have never played the source games, because it isn't a sequel, it's a recreation of the source games in an online multiplayer format.

did you make this because of chairmandrek's megaman game?

author=Billwilliams
I've been thinking a lot about fan games lately and I would just like to remind everybody of one very important point.

Can your fangame be understood by people who have not seen the source material?

Thank you for your time.
-Billwilliams, Anime Hating Heretic.

I don't really think it's necessary for them to see the source material if your fangame is a side story and totally independent from the source material, but spiritually related anyway. Unless you're making a fan-made sequel of some sorts or something. Final Fantasy would be a good example of the former point I've brought up.

Of course it would be good if the players do understand the source material, but it isn't really necessary.

I think as long as the developer keeps in mind that fans won't be the only people playing the game, that he should implement some backstory, and storyline.
Y'know, to help the player understand things better, or feel more connected to the characters.
That way people might get into -insert anime/game series- after playing the fangame.

Hmm....
Good fangames fills up incomplete games, or give them continuity on some aspect, such as story or gameplay, and without detracting from the game's feeling. Bad fangames try to poorly mimicize already existant parts of said game, ofter making them poorly, using lower quality EVERYTHING (Such as MP3 to MIDI, wich isn't really a problem, alone. But together with your standart fangameish gameplay and story... Ugh.), trying to recreate unsuccessfully EVERYTHING from the game. Bad fangames are snowballs thrown by newb game "designers" (Because you can't call yourself a game designer until you've got at least a very little ammount of knowledge, not just downloaded RPGmaker to your computer). I love fangames. They're fun. Final Fantasy fangames are especially fun, tough unbalanced most times, imo. But... People just go "My FFX-2 CD broke. I'm gonna make a 2D remake to play it!" And, just... Ack.

....so, back to the topic, depending for what the fangame is supposed to do, it doesn't need to be understood by people who have not seen the source material.



...All that in my humble opinion.

Im making a pokemon fan game, and its pretty much the same as a normal pokemon game. But with less OMG EVERYTHING IS SO HAPPY kinda thing that japan likes to do.

When I'm making a fangame, I usually just use the source characters and basic law universe and throw them into a story that could be a potential for it. For example, Advent Cirno is a Touhou+Final Fantasy crossover, everyone who never played Final Fantasy (which is I think impossible right now) might not get the reference and *might* like some aspects of it (like Magiteks/etc.) and those who never played Touhou might just see them as Badass Girls or something.

I think it depends. Hetalia is based on WW2 History so you really don't need to look at Hetalia to understand wtf is going except that they're the personification of that country.

But yeah.