Kotaku Article on Fan Game Creation

[Shgeldz]

Hey folks, we're in the news!

http://kotaku.com/the-world-of-pokemon-fan-games-has-become-a-minefield-1794743843

@Aki , @Deo , and @Atomic Reactor as well as a bunch of members here are quoted. Worth a read, and to discuss some of the points the author makes.

Some guiding questions, but feel free to just write your thoughts:

1. Is there anything here you strongly agree with and want to expand on
2. Is there anything here you strongly disagree with, and if so, why?
3. What are your thoughts on the clear rip-offs being sold for profit mentioned in the article
4. Are there things you want to add to this depiction of the community?

 

[Evan]

Before I throw out my thoughts, I just want to say the anonymous fellow sounds incredibly handsome.

Now,
Is there anything here you strongly agree with and want to expand on

My favorite thing about it was Maruno mentioning how using the older generations is a great way to teach the tool and get people to learn--I agree with that with leaps and bounds. I think that the more complex the tool, the more people will be scared off using it. To me, the best way to get people into fangames is to make the methods of creation welcoming and easy to pick up (even if they are harder to master).

Is there anything here you strongly disagree with, and if so, why?

Nothing I strongly disagree with. My thoughts on this stuff tend to be VERY nuanced--I don't think either side of these arguments are entirely right.

What are your thoughts on the clear rip-offs being sold for profit mentioned in the article

Not into it. It's something that's going to happen, but it's not great. It's the same with the kind of movie ripoffs you find in Chinatown--people will recognize it as a blatant ripoff, and if they choose to get it, that's their prerogative. I'm not sure I agree with the quote about it hurting sales of games like "Zenforms," though. But I also havent done the research.

Are there things you want to add to this depiction of the community?

Mainly I'm just glad that people realize that it's a thriving community, and the more that people see that we enjoy doing what we do and not all of the games that are made are getting torn down the better. I think in general it can be more stated how diverse and creative the fangames that come out of Essentials are--that even though it's a base pack that resembles FRLG, people have taken it and turned it into so much more.

 

[Grapz]

Mainly I'm just glad that people realize that it's a thriving community, and the more that people see that we enjoy doing what we do and not all of the games that are made are getting torn down the better. I think in general it can be more stated how diverse and creative the fangames that come out of Essentials are--that even though it's a base pack that resembles FRLG, people have taken it and turned it into so much more.

Made me realize that I should be more proud to make games under Relic's Flag... Even if I still don't have a game on here...

(someday...)

 

[TechSkylander1518]

It's pretty cool to see a whole news article about the community! It was really fun to read through names and references to fangames and think, "Hey, I know who they're talking about!"

Personally, I slightly disagree with the idea that modern fangames get more publicity than ever before. Though it's certainly true that Let's Plays will spread more attention to the game, it's not as if Let's Plays commonly feature fan games-unless it's a channel dedicated to fangames, I usually just see a playthrough of Uranium or Prism. I think more important to consider how those Let's Players discovered the game in the first place-which is commonly through social media. Pokemon Uranium, for example- had multiple social media accounts, and it had an extremely popular post on tumblr that got a lot of attention. (I saw it on an old account that wasn't even tied to fangames at all-something I've only ever seen with sage) It's still a lot of publicity, but it's not that they're suddenly in the spotlight-it's just that they have more control over where the spotlight's place. (Disclaimer-I don't know much about Prism's situation, so I might not have a good comparison)

I have a small question about this quote-

The hope is that if a fan game creator doesn’t charge for their title in any way, whether through a Patreon or donations for “server costs,” they’ll be safe. It doesn’t always work out that way, as we’ve seen, but there’s no consistency to what projects get shut down and which ones are allowed to continue updating.

To my knowledge, the only large titles that were "shut down" (even though their community is still quite active) were Prism and Uranium-and Uranium had a Patreon perk early in its development. But like I said earlier, I don't know much about Prism's situation prior to "release", was it completely free?

(Minor nitpicking-It's Involuntary Twitch, not Voluntary! :P)

 

[Evan]

To my knowledge, the only large titles that were "shut down" (even though their community is still quite active) were Prism and Uranium-and Uranium had a Patreon perk early in its development. But like I said earlier, I don't know much about Prism's situation prior to "release", was it completely free?

(Minor nitpicking-It's Involuntary Twitch, not Voluntary! :P)

Many other games have been shut down in the past--Fusion Generations [EDIT, my b], Evoas, etc. Usually you'll only hear about the big-name ones that got taken down because they were just that--big name games. You won't hear about the smaller ones because people hear and report very little about those games anyway.

Also Twitch goes by Voluntary Twitch on Twitter.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

Huh, I thought Infinite Fusion was actually still around, but I never followed up on that. (And heaven help me-Aki's going to kill me for forgetting about Evoas) I'll look into more cases like that so I'm not just basing my opinion off of two games, thanks for letting me know!

And, heck, I never realized that! Guess I need to get more familiar with usernames!

 

[Fontbane]

Huh, I thought Infinite Fusion was actually still around, but I never followed up on that. (And heaven help me-Aki's going to kill me for forgetting about Evoas) I'll look into more cases like that so I'm not just basing my opinion off of two games, thanks for letting me know!

And, heck, I never realized that! Guess I need to get more familiar with usernames!

Actually it was Fusion Generations that got cancelled, not Infinite Fusion. Evoas is still going strong!

 

[Aki]

What is going on in these comments?

• Infinite Fusion is an Essentials game by Schrroms and you can find it on old Relic; that game wasn't shut down as far as I know.
• Fusion Generation was the cancelled one. (It's not on Relic, but I think it was a hack actually)
• Whether or not the twitching is voluntary can really only be answered by Twitch
• Evoas is long dead guys, or else I'd have been working on it instead of joining Relic...

I don't have any actual comments on the article, my thoughts were written in there and I liked it.​

 

[Evan]

What is going on in these comments?

• Infinite Fusion is an Essentials game by Schrroms and you can find it on old Relic; that game wasn't shut down as far as I know.
• Fusion Generation was the cancelled one. (It's not on Relic, but I think it was a hack actually)
• Whether or not the twitching is voluntary can really only be answered by Twitch
• Evoas is long dead guys, or else I'd have been working on it instead of joining Relic...

I don't have any actual comments on the article, my thoughts were written in there and I liked it.​

Post edited!

 

[Involuntary Twitch]

My full name is Involuntary Twitch, but my Twitter handle (where the author and I communicated) is @voluntarytwitch because "@involuntarytwitch" is too long to fit. It doesn't really matter that much to me though.

This was a good article, well-researched and considerate. Patricia has been playing Pokemon Fan Games for many years, she told me, and has written articles covering Fan Games on Kotaku before (like Uranium, Insurgence, Infinite Fusion, etc). Instead of writing just another puff piece about "why would anyone waste their time making a fan game that's going to get a Cease & Desist from Nintendo", she took the effort to reach out to the Fan Game community and hear our voices. I really appreciate the effort. I feel as though it paints us in a much more considerate light, rather than in other cases where we're branded as thieves who are too lazy and uncreative to come up with our own game ideas.

The stuff about the Chinese bootlegs was interesting too. Not a lot we can do though -- I'm fairly sure even Nintendo's tools are useless against these microtransaction moneymaking machines.

 

[Fontbane]

• Evoas is long dead guys, or else I'd have been working on it instead of joining Relic...

What are you gonna tell me next, Pokémon Amethyst was cancelled? I'm tired of your lies, Aki!

/s for the people who don't know

 

[Deo]

It was neat having the opportunity to share some thoughts for the article. I'm glad the reception to it from the fan game community has been pretty positive -- I know there's this sort of perceived animosity with some people blaming journalists for fan game take-downs, so I was curious how people would react to it.

I'm also glad there's more positive coverage of what we do for a hobby. It always feels like there's a ton of misconceptions about fan game development (especially if you read the comments on any fan game related article, also don't read the comments. Not worth it.) and certain coverage in the past sure hasn't helped with that.

Looking back, I would have reworded a few things I answered (this stuff is back from early September I think?), but it was nice to see how well written the article was and how many different community members had a chance to have their voices heard. Good stuff.