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Gonna go over something here, not entirely on about @tripplejaz& #39;s original post, but mostly regarding the discussion that took place in the comments section about how "we are tired of seeing sandbox stages and engine tests". So... (1/23) https://twitter.com/tripplejaz/status/1252664619526549504">https://twitter.com/trippleja...
(2/23) As someone that have been part of the Sonic fangaming community for almost 15y now, I think it& #39;s not very clear just how much work is put into making a fangame. It& #39;s a very daunting task that most often than not has the creator figuring out things as he goes along. (...)
(3/23) This is because fangaming is not really something that you pick up as a hobby, but instead, game dev is. Fangaming is, more often than not, simply an entry point for game development, as it& #39;s simpler to learn, there& #39;s tons of assets available and you don& #39;t have to...
(4/23) ... spend months figuring out and developing an idea that you may not be fully sure about. There& #39;s also dedicated frameworks available, which allow you to quickly build up an idea without having to spend a lot of time coding simple character movement and so on...
(5/23) The main driving force here is: fangames are easier, faster and cheaper to build. Download Sonic Worlds, throw in a few sprites from TSR and spend a few days building a level and suddenly you have something in your hands that is passable for good enough.
(6/23) But as time goes on, the "minimum acceptable" quality level for a project to stand out also increases and after almost 30y of the fangaming scene, this bar got pretty high, and the amount of work and knowledge you need is already nearing the same amount required for...
(7/23) ... a small original project to be made. This is not to say there& #39;s anything wrong with the old approach, you can still create amazing projects with just the few resources flying around the web and ripped straight from the original games. Every year we see a bunch...
(8/23) ... of them showing up at SAGE and they are just as fun (if not more, sometimes) as the ""professionally made"" ones, with their amazing visuals and original soundtracks and dozens of lines of code for gimmicks, bosses and so on.
(9/23) I mean, there used to be a time when we thought that this (pic) used to be amazing and incredibly technical, but if a game such as the original SRB was made today it would very likely be laughed at (not really! We have a really cool community but you get the point).
(10/23) and here& #39;s the crazy bit: this took weeks and months of hard work and could probably be made today in a single evening with all the resources and knowledge we have flying around today. And this is AMAZING, but we shouldn& #39;t really brush off the fact it took 30y...
(11/23) ... to get us to this point. This is 30y of learning code, developing frameworks, creating assets and passing along knowledge that took us years to figure out on our own with just basic high school math and very limited tools and time. The fact that you can ...
(12/23) ... probably recreate the entirety of SRB1 in a day is huge, but also goes to show just how these things take an excessive amount of time to reach a point where it& #39;s pretty easy to make a simple fan game project. And even before that, wind back a good 10 or 15y...
(13/23) ... and you& #39;ll see that the fangaming landscape consisted of, pretty much empty sandbox stages and engine tests just like I see people complain about the 3D projects of now (you can now probably see where I& #39;m going with this).
(14/23) Point is... these things take time, an excessive amount of time that most people don& #39;t have, and requires patience and hard work that most people are not willing to put on for a simple fan game project. I mean, just look at Sonic Freedom and how long it took its team...
(15/23) ... to finally get to the point they are now. Now, you could argue SF is an exception, and that it only took it this long because of its excessive level of polish and you& #39;d be 100% correct, but this just goes to show how quality takes time and a lot of hard work.
(16/23) So you have all these factors in play here. On one hand, it& #39;s easier than ever to build a game, there& #39;s a lot of resources and knowledge around to get you by and on the other hand, the bar has been raised to pretty high standards...
(17/23) ... almost to a point where a great quality fan project demands just short of the amount of work required for a full original game that you can make money and a career out of. This is what happened with, for example, @galaxytrail& #39;s Freedom Planet ...
(18/23) ... a game which started as a Sonic fan project and suddenly evolved into an original and very successful 2D platformer, with it& #39;s second installment in the makes and looking better than ever. This is not to say that fan game development isn& #39;t worth anymore ...
(19/23) ... but that, at this point in time, the amount of work required to make a quality project is pretty high. But as we observed before, as time goes on, this becomes more of a possibility as new tools and assets get made and the overall quality for these gets higher.
(20/23) 3D fan gaming is currently at its infancy, despite the level of quality being already pretty high, and the amount of work required is ridiculously high as currently the available tools (while accessible) are difficult to master and the available resources are very little.
(21/23) and this is why we mostly see greybox stages and engine tests around in the scene. This is not to say things won& #39;t change, just that it will take some time until they do so and the landscape is rapidly changing with some of these amazing projects and the ppl behind them..
(22/23) ... Making some serious efforts to build the stepping stones of 3D fan game development.
So, the next time you see an engine test or a physics playground pop by your Twitter feed, don& #39;t think less of it or take it for granted...
So, the next time you see an engine test or a physics playground pop by your Twitter feed, don& #39;t think less of it or take it for granted...
(23/23) ... but instead, give the creators the praise they deserve, because even if some of those projects don& #39;t really grow much further than that, they will surely inspire bigger and better projects for years to come!
Cheers! Thank you for putting up with me thus far and sorry for the length of the text.
Some things I would like to make clear: I don& #39;t think these comments are ill-natured or really trying to be dismissive of the 3D projects around nor do I think less of the people whom share..
Some things I would like to make clear: I don& #39;t think these comments are ill-natured or really trying to be dismissive of the 3D projects around nor do I think less of the people whom share..
... this line of thinking. I think they are just misinformed and this is the sole intention of this long thread: to inform others who may think alike.
In fact, if you guys are interested, I can probably do another one later going through some of the process of developing for 3D.
In fact, if you guys are interested, I can probably do another one later going through some of the process of developing for 3D.
