Well hello there,
I've been MIA from byond for quite some time now, but decided to take another go at making a game here.. now to my suprise there was no longer possible to make or at least to get One Piece fangames listed. due to a C&D.
My question for that matter is: Does the C&D only render the listing of the game impossible, or does it mean you can't make it at all? i've seen there still are 1-2 OP games on byond, but some have vanished completly.
If it only effects listings i guess i'll still make one.
Now for the dilemma, I'm wondering if i should make a OP fangame, or rather make a Pirategame with similar aspects as one piece.
I.E i could use Gods Apple instead of devilfruits. and use different names for characters etc.. plenty of piratebooks to look up typical pirate names in, both for characters and locations.
But i feel it won't be the same. but it would be a shame if i had to remove the game right after making it, so to what extent does the C&D go? what are the limitations?
ID:151295
 Sep 20 2011, 12:20 am
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Sep 20 2011, 12:54 am
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Heyya46
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From what I know, any anime with the C&D means you can't get your anime game featured or listed, but you can still make it, however, you'd have to advertise it yourself. As for your point in making it similar but not using OP aspects, then you can get it featured/listed as long as it's not using OP material.
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What does the One Piece setting add that you couldn't do better yourself?
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I guess nothing when it comes to the technical stuff.. but the atmosphere of the OP setting with the characters etc.. the whole story background of it all, i won't be able to do better. Not that a OP game will have the same feel to it, but thats what the fans associate with it.
but we'll see what i decide upon. | |
Do you want people to play your game because they enjoy your game, or because they enjoy the series?
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Well i'd hope they enjoy the game ;) I think i see where you're getting at.
I think i'm gonna go for the pirate game, non-OP version. But i think i have to rethink the concept alittle.. | |
What does the One Piece setting add that you couldn't do better yourself? If I may answer that question.. Making games is expensive. In fact, it's so expensive that a single developer with average talent will have a lot of trouble to make a game with more than 5 hours of unique gameplay. But BYOND isn't a platform about games that you play for 5 hours and then drop. If your game only is played for 5 hours, it must be extremely good to be in BYOND's top list. The thing is, most players select a game because they were looking to play with others, possibly they were even invited by a friend. For this type of advertisement, you need players online at all times, you need a core playerbase which will play the game for far longer than 5 hours. How could this be achieved? Well, you could make a game that generates content through a strategic or a PvP element. Games like chess or counterstrike can be played for far longer than 5 hours. However, these types of games aren't popular on BYOND anymore. I don't think a game like Proelium could make it into BYOND's top-played games anymore. The other option is to have the player generate content, either by allowing them creativity in regards to forming the world, or by focusing on human-interaction(roleplay). The roleplaying community on BYOND indeed is thriving, and games like SS13 and CowRP have been popular. However, not everyone on BYOND is a fan of these games. Surprisingly, after this complex analysis, the answer for many aspiring developers on BYOND can be a far simpler one. Don't make a game - make a community. Even if your game ceases to deliver new content and ideas after 5 hours, if it invites players to chat about things they enjoy, it'll be played for far longer than that. When normally a player would quit a game because it has nothing new to offer, she may be tempted to continue playing because of the people she has met there. Once this happens, her playing time will also shoot up, as she finds new ways to enjoy the game, such as helping new players, or making new characters to go for another run through the game with a friend. With a lot of people who play the game often and don't quit, the game will rank high in BYOND's hub, and new players are bound to join. What does this have to do with fangames? Well, a 5 hour game isn't enough to keep people talking for dozens and dozens of hours. To make a community, often you don't have to build a fanbase around the game, but a game around the fanbase. At the same time, just the fact that you need the pre-existing fanbase for your game to be popular, doesn't mean that the game itself will be bad. It's more like a mutual thing.. You need players for your game, and your players need a platform to enjoy what they love. Making such a platform is a challenge in itself. TL;DR? Even if he could make a better game without OP references, that's not what the OP fans want. | |
Sure, and that was my question, is he looking to cater for One Piece fans, or fans of a pirate setting?
The curiosity I've seen in the roleplay area is that the source material was actually surprisingly irrelevant to the respective communities, it was just used as a draw for players. Hence so many fan-games made some switch to more original content (although in some cases thinly veiled), and the fans of the games did not just leave in their droves. Again as you note, they have made a community. They weren't interested in the content being true to source material (lord knows it rarely is for Anime fan-games in BYOND), so much as a setting that they could ease into. If your fans are of that nature, it's a pirate setting they are after, not a true to One Piece game per-say. Heavens knows that the One Piece concept itself has rarely been popular enough on BYOND to make the argument that you get an instant community just off branding yourself that way. We sat for a good year in BYOND Anime hoping to list a One Piece game, and they never arrived and never seemed to get testers when in development. So while I completely agree with your assessment that an online game of the nature often envisioned on BYOND needs to build a community more-so than build a game per-say, I don't buy that "the market" in general as it were demands true to source material of even that fan-game setting. To which his dilemma (and original question) is simple, does he want to cater for ardent One Piece fans, or the broader audience of people who would appreciate a game with a pirate setting. I reckon your success rate among the ardent fans would be comparable with either solution due to the lack of existing true to source material games, and your own setting offers you a lot of practical flexibility. Servers must be paid for, forums, websites etc, and the development time must be made your while. And of course importantly, the community you can potentially build has to be big enough. | |