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Difference between revisions of "Fan game"

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(Fan game development)
(Development challenges)
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==Development challenges==
 
Despite the well intention and dedication of these fans, development of many fan games ended in abandonment. Notwithstanding the legal issues faced by these fans-turned-developers (see Legal issues), numerous development challenges are faced by these individuals when attempting to develop a fan game from start to finish. These failures are related to the lack of development experience, time, resource, money, interest, talents, and other factors. It is unclear what proportion of fan games attempted are never successfully created and released.
 
  
Excluding mods (which are technically not true fan games), the vast majority of fan games that have been successfully completed and published are adventure games. This likely reflects the longer history of this genre related to other genres and the availability of many free third-party tools or engines to make these games. Most importantly, there must an unwavering passion by a core group of fans which extends over years to overcome any obstacle encountered during the project's development. This sacrifice is best described by Britney Brimhall of AGD Interactive, regarding their 2001 released a remake of King's Quest I, "I think a lot of people don’t realize when they initiate a game project just how much sacrifice it will require. Whereas most people enjoy writing a story or making a piece of artwork, most would not enjoy writing hundreds of pages of dialogue or drawing over one hundred pictures when they could be socializing with friends or playing video games."
 
  
 
==Legal issues==
 
==Legal issues==

Revision as of 15:52, 1 June 2008

Fan games are computer and video games made by fans featuring popular based on one or more established video games. Many fangames attempt to clone the original game's design, gameplay and characters, but it is equally common for fans to develop a unique game using another only as a template. Though the quality of fangames has always been variable, recent advances in computer technology and in available tools have made creating high quality games easier.



Legal issues

Some companies go out of their way to shut down fan games, declaring them copyright infringements. Such shutdown has been believed to have a chilling effect on free speech, where amateur developers can't predict what a court will find as fair use. The term "foxed" is often used to describe these incidents, stemming from the original coining of the term from 20th Century Fox's shut down of an Aliens-themed total conversion of Quake. In the vast majority of cases, the original copyright holders have full legal justification to order a cease and desist upon fan game projects, as by definition, fan games are unauthorized infringing uses of copyrighted property. Many fan games go as far as taking music and graphics directly from the original games.

A notable case in late 2005 involved Vivendi Universal shutting down a King's Quest fan project, King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has a Silver Lining. It was to be an unofficial sequel granting closure to the series, which had been abandoned since 1998. After a letter-writing campaign[1] and fan protests, Vivendi reversed its decision and gave permission for the game to be made. As part of the negotiations, the developers were required to remove "King's Quest" from the title.[2]

Other times, companies have endorsed fan games. Very few companies have ever officially made comments on fangaming, however. This is seen through a Myst fan game, called The Ages of Ilathid, where Cyan Worlds, the original creators of Myst, had given permission to the creators of the fan game. [3] Most companies that don't outwardly promote or challenge fan games have in the past exacted a de facto policy of non-involvement or neutrality, officially stating that their copyrighted material may not be used without permission, but refusing to prosecute fangamers for doing so, in much the same way as fanfiction is tolerated.

Because fan games are developed with a relatively low budget, rarely is a fan game available on a console system; licensing fees are too prohibitive for fan games, even if the game is made with original content. However, homebrew fan games can occasionally make it onto consoles with prolific homebrew gaming, such as the Sega Dreamcast PlayStation Portable and Game Boy Advance.