Fan-made projects?

[Smokey]

How do you feel about fanmade games based off popular series? I see  alot of people make fanmade games based off titles like Resident Evil 2 from 1998,  How do you feel about fanmade projects? Do you think people who do these should be picked up by proper game studios and given jobs?  I've seen some pretty impressive projects myself.  Fun fact, daymare 1998 started off as a fanmade Resident Evil 2 remake project before the official remake was announced. 

[Shortie]

The fact that people are willing to sit and code a fan made version of a game is just amazing and as you say, some of them are just amazing and definitely worth being looked into my game developers in possibly bringing them in to work for them. I can only imagine the number of hours they must put in to get the game to get it where it's playable with limited problems and get barely any recognition for the game is very sad. Hopefully one day developers will pick up on those who make fan made games and appreciate them a little more than they do now. 

[Kane99]

I love it. I think it's great as long as you're not profiting off of that fan game. Plus it's illegal to do, so there's that. But I think it's perfectly fine to make a fan game to pay your respects to a game you love. 

I hate when people get told to stop because a studio doesn't want them making a game based on theirs. But I think it's fair use as long as you're not selling it or profiting from it. Which is why I hate when Nintendo or Rockstar stop these developers from making these fan games. Let them have fun. 

[Smokey]

22 hours ago, Kane99 said:

I love it. I think it's great as long as you're not profiting off of that fan game. Plus it's illegal to do, so there's that. But I think it's perfectly fine to make a fan game to pay your respects to a game you love. 

I hate when people get told to stop because a studio doesn't want them making a game based on theirs. But I think it's fair use as long as you're not selling it or profiting from it. Which is why I hate when Nintendo or Rockstar stop these developers from making these fan games. Let them have fun. 

These are exactly my thoughts, it can be seen as free advertisement for their game. As you say, as long as they aren't profiting off  the original developer's work, I don't see why devs have a problem with fanmade projects!

Edited November 30, 2022 by Smokey

[Kane99]

3 hours ago, Smokey said:

These are exactly my thoughts, it can be seen as free advertisement for their game. As you say, as long as they aren't profiting off  the original developer's work, I don't see why devs have a problem with fanmade projects!

Exactly, which is why I don't get when Nintendo and some others decide to squash the work they put in. I get if they were to profit from the games, sure. But most of these were free and available to people to mess around with. I bet they would have been fine if they didn't use any of their characters likenesses. Maybe then Nintendo would be lax about it. 

I think their excuse is that they don't want anything to take eyes off of their games, so they ban these fan made projects because they feel it could undercut their profits or something. But I doubt that it'd even be much at all. Because they're Nintendo and people will never stop buying their games. 

[Justin11]

It's only natural that we appreciate those fan who try to recreate or make a different version to our favorite game without any proper funding but shear Passion for video games.

I have played as many fan made video games but I think these game companies should hire those who come up with really cool concepts to work on the next release of their video games.

[Kane99]

8 hours ago, Justin11 said:

It's only natural that we appreciate those fan who try to recreate or make a different version to our favorite game without any proper funding but shear Passion for video games.

I have played as many fan made video games but I think these game companies should hire those who come up with really cool concepts to work on the next release of their video games.

There is a lot of talented people who have started out making fan games. It's why I wish Nintendo should hire all of these devs who made their own fan games based on their characters. I hope fan made games are still a thing into the future, because it can be a fun way of finding new talent. 

[Kyng]

One thing I have to ask is: how many of the people who make these games will even want to do it as a job?

Of course, some will - but others make these games because it's a passion. And turning your passion into a job is generally a very bad idea... it means you'll start doing it on somebody else's terms, which will just suck all the passion out of it 😞 . 

But, for those who *do* want a job as a professional game developer: I wish them all the best in finding such a job 🙂 .

[Justin11]

4 hours ago, Kyng said:

One thing I have to ask is: how many of the people who make these games will even want to do it as a job?

Of course, some will - but others make these games because it's a passion. And turning your passion into a job is generally a very bad idea... it means you'll start doing it on somebody else's terms, which will just suck all the passion out of it 😞 . 

But, for those who *do* want a job as a professional game developer: I wish them all the best in finding such a job 🙂 .

That's completely true, some of these independent developers are usually driven by passion and maybe wouldn't want to do it as a job or profession.

But I am quite sure a good number of them would certainly jump on the opportunity to work with Sony or one of the big gaming studios if the opportunity arises.

[The Blackangel]

I have 3 ROM-Hacks that are fan-made games.

Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets
Zelda: Parallel Worlds
Zelda: Goddess Of Wisdom

They're great games with one exception.
They're way too fucking difficult. I've been playing Goddes Of Wisdom for about 5 years now, and so far only been able to make it to the third dungeon. The way it's scripted is nothing but pure bullshit. For example, with one boss, the only hit the does any kind of damage is a spin attack. Then there's when they put a boss from Link To The Past in the third room of a fucking dungeon, and you have almost no hope whatsoever of beating it. I honestly believe the ones who made it never had any intention of it being beaten. It's that damn hard. And Goddess Of Wisdom supposedly isn't even the hardest one of the three. I've heard it said that the hardest is Parallel Worlds.

If people want to make ROM-Hacks and fan made games, I say go for it. But don't make it so goddamn hard that no one can beat it.

[aerodynamik]

I played PokeMMO for a while, it has a great userbase behind it. And you get to play Pokémon, so instant win. 😛

[Empire]

SO many games tand people that do that 🙂 for any game. Seablock modpack for Factorio. it's like Factorio 2, for free; way more complex than the base game, still pretty balanced, and takes advantage of mechanics of the engine that the base game barely touches.

[Kane99]

On 12/2/2022 at 7:12 PM, Kyng said:

One thing I have to ask is: how many of the people who make these games will even want to do it as a job?

Of course, some will - but others make these games because it's a passion. And turning your passion into a job is generally a very bad idea... it means you'll start doing it on somebody else's terms, which will just suck all the passion out of it 😞 . 

But, for those who *do* want a job as a professional game developer: I wish them all the best in finding such a job 🙂 .

Depends on the studio and who is working on it. Most big studios will ship remasters to smaller teams to tackle, which is what Rockstar has done in the past. I think most developers want to make their own original games, but some do get stuck working on remasters. I thinks studios would prefer to work on remakes, because at least then they're kinda making something fresh, albeit with the same story/characters etc. 

I can't imagine most developers want to work on remakes or remasters, but a lot I'm sure get stuck doing that. The beauty of game development though, is that people move on from studio to studio a lot, so if a dev feels stuck, he/she can usually put in their two weeks and find work elsewhere.