Let me first say that I have so many games that are easier to make that I'll probably never get to the one that I am talking about here.


I have a game in mind that I have always admitted was influenced by the Shadow Hearts series but it wasn't a Shadow Hearts game per se. Then I thought about tweaking it to specifically use traditional Shadow Hearts items, spells, motifs, etc. and thought it actually maybe fun for me to make this a Shadow Hearts game.

So my question is, do you in the community like this form of fan fiction, or do you think that RPGMs should not be used to make games based on professional titles?

Actually, Fan-games have really never done well... like ever. There had been a few zelda games on RM2, but I think that's about as successful as fan-games have gotten.

I, personally, don't ever intend to re-make or make a sequel to an exsisting series as I would (just like many) butcher whatever series I would be trying to emulate.

But why do you think you'd butcher it? Because of the limitations of the software or not being in tune with the series enough?

Amidst other things, yes. Besides, as a player, I'm going to be more interested in something fresh and new over something that's a spin-off of something already in exsistance.

I once played a RM2 game that was fan-made from Chrono Trigger (which is my favorite game of all time)... and it scarred me.

I'm not sure how I stand on the idea of fan-made games on existing franschises.

And maybe what I'm working on right now either muddles the water or clears it. I'm nearly complete with a rpgm port-of-sorts of the original Donkey Kong arcade game. Now, I admit I have made many changes; some to convert DK to rpgm, some to increase the challenge, and some to add new features. And the reason I decided to do this game on rpgmaker was twofold;

1. It would be fairly easy to convert this game to rpgmaker. Not in the sense it would be easy, but more in the fact it was possible with minimal changes.

2. I love the original Donkey Kong game to death. I love this game. I want an arcade cabinet with this game. At least I have DK64 with has an emulation of this game...that I love. Did I mention I love this game?

How will it stack up to what other people think? I have no idea. I'll wait and see.

But back on topic. For me, it varies on the quality of what is offered to the table. A sequel to an existing game is not something I'd like to see, because the sequel will never be able to measure to the original in ANY way. A remake or port of the game may be more acceptable to me, depending on what I want out of it (whether I prefer some changes to the original or keeping it the same depends on what game is being remade). I'd also be more acceptable to a game that uses original ideas with elements borrowed from franchises.

"Raiders" borrows from "Crystal Warriors", which is... a game that no one here has probably ever seen or cares about. It was a tactical game on Sega's 8-bit portable, the infamous Game Gear. "Crystal Warriors" always was, and still is, one of the best games on the Game Gear (and for once I'm not alone here; just look it up at GameFAQs). It was pure tactical fun from the pre-Shining Force era. The thing I borrowed from it is the elemental rock/paper/scissors dynamic. Water/Fire/Wind, with Earth being evenly matched with all.

As it turns out, this kind of thing apparently isn't as unique as I once thought it was. It's also frowned upon by those who don't like to be shackled by a set of rules for battling monsters.

Admittedly, the elemental bias is much more interesting in a tactical format, especially the particular format of "Crystal Warriors" where you get to choose who moves first. It wouldn't work as well in "Shining Force" where the movement order is determined by how fast each character is. With RPGM3 there's no way to give the player control over who moves first, so... yeah, it's not as good as CW. But nothing is as good as CW. It was a perfect work of art for its time.

A few minor details aside, that's the only thing I was really able to borrow from CW. My game also improves on CW's generic spell list, adding more to it and grouping spells by element.

For a future project, I was thinking on doing "Chakan Redux". "Chakan: The Forever Man" was a very early horror genre game on Sega's Genesis and Game Gear. While I never played the Genesis version, I love the Game Gear incarnation. Chakan is a unique character who has to use his immortality to his advantage to defeat an unbeatable situation. He also mixes colored potions to create alchemies. The translation to RPGM3 ain't gonna be a fluent one. Some creative license is gonna have to be taken to convert the classic 2D environments into 3D, and the potion mixing won't be able to be done on the fly. Instead, Chakan will need to mix potions in preparation for his next battle. It wouldn't be a faithful translation. More like "My version of Chakan".

I think this is what we should strive for if we're copying a game.

It's tough. Realistically, I know that Shadow Hearts wouldn't translate to RPGM3 for a number of reasons, not least of which is the ring on which its battles are uniquely based, but I think that I would really like designing in a Shadow Hearts mode and I think the content and story would be pretty faithful.

The problem that I have with making a game (simply) inspired by another (as opposed to being an all out fan version of a franchise game) is that if it is close enough to the original game, their is a fine line between following a tradition versus blatant ripping off. At least when you make it a particular franchise game, you are starting with a basis to vary in a more or less personal way, otherwise it becomes a little too easy to let the game create itself and before you know it, you have forfeited some potential originality.

I think that it is pretty safe to say that no one is going to be able to create a game from an exsisting series better than it's original creator. And if that statment is true, then you can't really expect much from any fan-made game.

And just to give me a bit of statistics... who hear actually reads fan-fics on a regular basis?

I was never under the impression that fan fiction in any form needed to be better than the original to be worth something. Am I wrong about that? I kind of thought that with fan fiction it was expected to not be better than the original, maybe not even close, but still worth something because it was a personal variation of a common theme.

For the Pavilion's last contest, the Shameless Rip-Off contest, in which we were encouraged to make a sequel to, version of, or expansion on, an existing video game, I was working on something that took only a small SMALL tidbit of a licensed game, and instead decided to focus on the license itself. Not only did I insert characters from said license, but inserted myself as creator/unreliable narrator into the proceedings. Not only did this allow me to incorporate a running commentary of sorts, but also made it a tad meta (tad being an understatement), as "I" was commenting on the game to the characters as I was in the process of creating it.

Unfortunately, this never went too far (like most of my "brilliant" ideas).

Heh, I was just saying... The whole fan-anything isn't a very popular one except by the person who creates it. At least, that's how it comes off to me.

Only if your take on the subject is so fresh and entertaining that it becomes interesting for other people to play.

There's a "Pokemon starter kit" for RPG Maker XP with enables you to make a game exactly like Pokemon, only it's you who makes it. I bet 90% of people using it are following the same battered formula of wake up - meet professor - get pokemon - get badges - battle elite four - go to a 100 story tower or something. And that's no good at all.

Now, if you do something completely unexpected, then it might be cool.

One idea I always had in mind but never got to work on because it'd be too complicated, was to take a typical JRPG – there are hundreds of thousands out there that are basically exactly the same – and redo it, only changing some character personalities from 'typical JRPG thing' (you know the type) into a real person with common sense, some level of composure around women and intelligence.

I'm sure doing this would switch a typical JRPG on a 180 degree axis, and perhaps make it interesting enough to play.

I dunno, I'd like to see Tifa calling Cloud a damn tool and running off with Cid, just saying =P

Well that might be true. I honestly don't know. The thing is though, how many professional sequel games are people willing to play just because it has the same title and packaging without really checking to see if the original people made it. So:

1 Is it really that important to them that it is from the original authors SIMPLY to give it a try.

2. Some still actually like (even prefer) some of the sequels without realizing that it isn't from the original authors since whoever took it over handled the material sufficiently (maybe even better).