Why you'll never make a fangame
"Hey dudes, let's make a fangame, ok? Let's call it Earthbound 2: Electric Boogaloo. It'll have Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo in it and we will make it online and we will have a full-rpg system and a script and all I need are programmers, sound designers, artists, scriptwriters and I'll take all the credit."
Unfortunately, that above line happens to pop up in various forms throughout the forums every now and again. Everyone wants to make the new Earthbound 64. Unfortunately, nothing like that will ever happen.
Not that we don't have any skilled programmers -- it's actually the opposite, really. We have many skilled programmers that have made many quality EB Fangames. The problem with EB Fangames is people are far too ambitious with their games. They think that games pop out of the sky. It's not that easy. Things aren't like RPG Maker where you click a few buttons and you have a full-featured RPG. These things take time and undoubtedely money to come to light. A lot of people, when playing a game, don't understand the immense amount of work that goes into making the game. On an average console RPG, 200-300 people work for three to four years to bring out a game that may or may not be innovative and fun. Companies spend millions of dollars on making the next Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior. Programmers work long hours programming little, menial things that most people won't pick up. And for what? A little 12-year-old thinking they can program the next Xenosaga with Clik-n-play and a few posts on a forum?
What I'm trying to say is there's more to making a game than you'd think. Sure, you can program a little EB word game in six or seven hours if you have the expertise, but anything above that and you're out of your league. Like I said earlier, 200-300 people work on a game at a time. Sure, you may think you can get 200-300 people together to program a game, and as far as I know you may. But what happens after that? You have 300 people sitting there, programming a game where they won't gain anything out of the job. You need money to pay these people, or else they'll lose interest. No interest, no game.
OK, so maybe you just want to make a little game. Maybe a simple RPG? Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a simple RPG, unless you're using RPG Maker (which is the single most evil piece of software ever created, aside from Pokemon.) Programmers use hundreds of lines of code to make something as simple as an attack/defend battle system. How about a pong game? Again, too complicated, unless you're using a click-and-play game system.
And don't expect to make a fun fangame using those so-called "game creation" systems. It all comes down to cold, hard code. Learning a programming language is the first thing you need to do before even CONSIDERING making a fangame. It doesn't matter what language you learn, either - be it C, BASIC, TURING or even Java. You need to have at least the knowledge of how programming structures and logic work before doing anything game-related. And, unfortunately, some people have a knack for it while others don't. It seems only the people with no actual programming skills make the moronic topics about making the next EB fangame extraodinaire.
I seem to have gotten a little bit off-topic. My point is this: for the love of god, stop asking people how to make a fangame and learn how to do it yourself. Buy yourself a C++ book or something. Learn a programming language. Learn that things just don't fall out of the sky. You have a lot to learn, my friends, and posting a small topic on the forums asking for people to help you with a fangame you don't even know how to make is pitiful.
"Hey dudes, let's make a fangame, ok? Let's call it Earthbound 2: Electric Boogaloo. It'll have Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo in it and we will make it online and we will have a full-rpg system and a script and all I need are programmers, sound designers, artists, scriptwriters and I'll take all the credit."
Unfortunately, that above line happens to pop up in various forms throughout the forums every now and again. Everyone wants to make the new Earthbound 64. Unfortunately, nothing like that will ever happen.
Not that we don't have any skilled programmers -- it's actually the opposite, really. We have many skilled programmers that have made many quality EB Fangames. The problem with EB Fangames is people are far too ambitious with their games. They think that games pop out of the sky. It's not that easy. Things aren't like RPG Maker where you click a few buttons and you have a full-featured RPG. These things take time and undoubtedely money to come to light. A lot of people, when playing a game, don't understand the immense amount of work that goes into making the game. On an average console RPG, 200-300 people work for three to four years to bring out a game that may or may not be innovative and fun. Companies spend millions of dollars on making the next Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior. Programmers work long hours programming little, menial things that most people won't pick up. And for what? A little 12-year-old thinking they can program the next Xenosaga with Clik-n-play and a few posts on a forum?
What I'm trying to say is there's more to making a game than you'd think. Sure, you can program a little EB word game in six or seven hours if you have the expertise, but anything above that and you're out of your league. Like I said earlier, 200-300 people work on a game at a time. Sure, you may think you can get 200-300 people together to program a game, and as far as I know you may. But what happens after that? You have 300 people sitting there, programming a game where they won't gain anything out of the job. You need money to pay these people, or else they'll lose interest. No interest, no game.
OK, so maybe you just want to make a little game. Maybe a simple RPG? Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a simple RPG, unless you're using RPG Maker (which is the single most evil piece of software ever created, aside from Pokemon.) Programmers use hundreds of lines of code to make something as simple as an attack/defend battle system. How about a pong game? Again, too complicated, unless you're using a click-and-play game system.
And don't expect to make a fun fangame using those so-called "game creation" systems. It all comes down to cold, hard code. Learning a programming language is the first thing you need to do before even CONSIDERING making a fangame. It doesn't matter what language you learn, either - be it C, BASIC, TURING or even Java. You need to have at least the knowledge of how programming structures and logic work before doing anything game-related. And, unfortunately, some people have a knack for it while others don't. It seems only the people with no actual programming skills make the moronic topics about making the next EB fangame extraodinaire.
I seem to have gotten a little bit off-topic. My point is this: for the love of god, stop asking people how to make a fangame and learn how to do it yourself. Buy yourself a C++ book or something. Learn a programming language. Learn that things just don't fall out of the sky. You have a lot to learn, my friends, and posting a small topic on the forums asking for people to help you with a fangame you don't even know how to make is pitiful.
