There are plenty of creative ideas out there, its just that the vast majority of BYOND users are only interested in making their online version of something they like, and the creative stuff gets flooded out by the fan stuff. And it saps the motivation of people who develop creative ideas when the only people who'll play them are expecting another fan game.

Its like someone introducing Monopoly to a community that only knows Hack & Slash games.

"Where's the attack command?"
"There isn't one. This is a real estate trading game."
"Oh. That sucks."
*Logs out*

I was basiclly mentioning that there's way too many Fan Games than anything. I haven't downloaded Byond, don't have much time to try out the games.

But I do see what you're saying. Didn't mean to start a rant, I personally just love to see people doing this as a hobby such as I am & use their creativity to make their own games.

FrostByteGames wrote:

I was basiclly mentioning that there's way too many Fan Games than anything.

That's been a popular observation for about the last 5-6 years. The entire website has been redesigned several times in efforts to funnel them away from the more creative games.

Poal wrote:

FrostByteGames wrote:

Hello Byonders!


I am here to spread some words.

I see that most of you don't use your own creative ideas for games. I'd like to know why? Game Development is about being creative, not copying a Cartoon Network show & making it playable.

I'd like to see some people make a Game Design Document. Concept Document, Technical Document, etc., etc.

Hello, I am the owner of FrostByte Games, we're a developing Game Studio, right now we have a very low low budget & consist of three programmers, two of us, Will & I use C# & Blain uses BlitzMax, but right now he's in collage working towards his Bachelor's in Computer Science.

Well, I just wanted to say a few things for my introduction to this community!

Please, I really want to see some creative ideas like FailedFate, it may not have much of a story, but the developer made an effort!

- FrostByte Games

Well as a "game-developer" I would personally like to state my opinion on your question. Why make fan games. Well because believe it or not, starting a game from scratch and a bunch of ideas in your head is HARD, look at the games in the market, most are sequels. I know it may seem easy to make a game from scratch but if you have an idea you can refer to for ideas and help it is a lot easier. Also it is very hard to just "drop" a project because you're so used to it.

-Poal

I do know that it's very difficult to create a game from scratch. I am still working on a design document for an RTS/RPG game, it's been a year now.

Well here's what I do.

I have a small idea to design a new game, well I want it to be different from others. So, let's take an RPG for example. I'll go & get some documents ready,

Game Concept, Game Design, Technical Design, Game Proposal.

Now, I look up some games at Wal-mart, K-mart, EB Games, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc., etc. OK, now I look at the features of the game(s). I try to see what the game-play would be like & if I need to I'll download the demo if there is one, if not I'll buy it, then once I am done with it I'll sell it on EBay or give away to a friend or keep it if I like it a lot. Now, I take my experiences from those other games I had played for about a week of two.

I take features, combine & make better newer one that I think will be hot for an indie game developer.

Now I just fill out all the design documents how it's ordered above.

Then it's time to get started on the game, now, I like to have a really big story, I do those myself(I love math & English, so game dev is for me :D!). I take my story & try to find some quests I can get out of it. Now, one question I ask myself, how big do I want this RPG to be? Well, I'll take a look at the story & estimate how big I can get it to be, like a whole series in a one game or will I have to make sequels? I usually just design it for one game so I can move onto another idea. Well, I just start making the dialog for the game, how many main characters? How many NPCs? How many enemies? etc., etc..

After that, i go to develop it, now that's the biggest task of all. That, I won't explain, just basically, build the engine & after that I go right to the game implementations. That's too big to be discussed Lol.

Well, finally, I have a game, game's may take up to month(s) & even year(s), it all depends on what genre you're targeted & how big it will be, but all that time is very worth it!

Not sure if that all made much sense, I suck at explaining.

Now, if you think about it, it's actually not all that hard, but that's only if you make it a priority & commit to it.

I do know what you're saying though, most people here want to avoid all that, so they take something they like & make a game out of it. It's not wrong with that, so don't take me wrong about these posts, I am just very particular, I like to see new things all the time.

Cavern wrote:

Ultimatum: http://games.byond.com/hub/UnknownPerson/Ultimatum

Battle of Wesnoth.

You've just been looking in all of the wrong places.

Remember when you were a kid and you'd play what ever show was popular at the time (Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, etc). For the most part this is an extension of that.

Kunark wrote:

Also, there's a huge difference between amateur designers and people who want to play something so they're forced to make it. Practically all the people making Naruto games are just kids who want to play something, so they make it to play it. The people who design original games usually make it just because they enjoy design, which is one reason you never catch them playing other games or often even their own games.

I may not be a professional game designer or game programmer but I do see what you mean about the difference.

An example would be of some of my friends that love to play games and tell me their "great" ideas (usually involving something I know I cannot do or something that would be very hard to do). I tell them it is not that easy, they ask why, I tell them that it is not all fun and games (oh the irony). They would be the sort to create a quick fan game and leave it five days later.

Me myself, I really never play my own small games that I make. Not because they are bad (some are) but it is just that some of the fun is sucked out when I know practically everything about the game. So I just move onto another one.

Shlaklava wrote:

Me myself, I really never play my own small games that I make. Not because they are bad (some are) but it is just that some of the fun is sucked out when I know practically everything about the game. So I just move onto another one.

That's probably why Roguelikes are so popular, since even the designer never knows what the game might come up with.

I'd personally love to come up with some kind of game that's similar in play style to a roguelike (a bunch of random content that you have to make the most of), but isn't a big hack & slash game. I'd like to see a game with cool randomized content that's about something other than killing stuff.

I believe that most developers "creat" fan games because they might think that if they don't their games might not be too popular or get many players just an opinion here