Indies - stop making fangames

21 Nov 2016

Cat, after recieving a Cease and Desist.

This is a formalised version of the twitter thread I posted here:

indies, again, for the record: you shouldn't be putting your time and effort into other people's IP (when you don't have the rights)

— Chris Hayward (@ellji) November 21, 2016

This was basically kicked off by the removal of the fangame projects AM2R (Metroid 2 remake) and Pokemon: Uranium from the Game Awards 2016.

Good.

Not only is it vaguely insulting to actual original work to go up against a remake of (insanely) popular intellectual properties (which by the way, neither projects have any legal right to), but I think it’s actively harmful to the small independent game development community to have such efforts be recognised in such a way. Don’t get me wrong, I think mods that are sanctioned by the developer are fine - in those cases you a) have legal permission and b) it’s no different to using a game engine. Even mods that recreate previous content like Brutal Doom 64 and Black Mesa are fine. In either case they have the explicit permission of the IP holder to release those works, and they are both transformative, updating older game mechanics and refining what came before.

I don’t disagree that both AM2R and Uranium do the latter, both are taking the existing games and adding refinements and tweaks to the mechanics of the franchise. They both however violate the former; Nintendo has not and are unlikely to ever give permission to the developers to make and release these games.

To which I say to the developers; Are you insane? Why would you ever put months if not years of effort into developing a work using an IP you have no right to? Why would you put that much effort into something a well-paid laywer in a large company can obliterate with a single A4 page of text? Why would you devote so much time and effort into something you cannot ever gain compensation for?

It’s one thing to love a franchise. It’s one thing to do fan art and comics and animations and stageplays and fanfics and all that stuff. It’s another to go head-to-head with the IP holder on their own turf with the IP that they themselves control. They own all the ground, you own nothing, not even all the sweat and toil that you put in. It can all be taken away like it wasn’t even anything at all.

I kind of get it, I truly do. I love Metroid as much as the next bearded 30-something white male, and I’m occasionally despondent when I see how Nintendo has treated one of my favourite characters and settings. I grew up with Pokemon, and I occasionally get infuriated with certain mechanics and think “hey, I can do this better” (‘call for help’ in Pokemon SUMO, I’m looking at you.)

BUT

At the end of the day, these are their franchises to do with what they wish. They made them, they own them. Would you like it if Nintendo went and released a game based on an IP you created? Just because you’re a small guy and they’re a huge company, doesn’t make it okay - and neither is the reverse. You should expect better, and also behave better.

This industry lives and dies on the back of it’s ideas, and an industry rooted in remakes and reliving what came before is one that is dying a slow death.

So, what is the right idea? What should you do if you love a franchise like Metroid, and you want to see it loved again?

Do what Toby Fox did, take the idea (Earthbound, for reference) and run with it. Make something insane. Make something unique. Expand the genre and make it better. Do it on your own terms.

Make something so amazing that Nintendo can’t ignore the demand.

Make something that makes the creator break out in a sweat that they didn’t think of that game mechanic.

Make something that makes the original games look like ancient artefacts, best left undisturbed.

Make something on your own terms.

If you want to, make something and get paid while doing it.

Who knows, maybe you’ll get hired to work on that thing you love.

Maybe by that point you won’t want to.