GregD Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 Just read an old interview from the developer of Broken Sword 3 (Revolution) on AG.com and im amazed that he said that he doesn't mind people making fan games of BS.. even fan made sequels! We the fans are so unlucky that LEC doesn't have such a carefree attitude to what could be one of the largest adventure fangame communities. People would be working on prequels to mi and god knows what else. I'm still so disgusted by LEC's attitude towards us, we fill their pockets with money and they expect us to sit back and wait for a sequel or another game so we can fill their pockets some more. I realise they don't want people doing a fan made MI5 etc. but come on LEC get with the times like revolution software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 There are two ways of looking at it. Sure, it would be cool if there was a load of downloadable Monkey Island games, but there are hidden dangers within this pot of gold. I mean, I for one would get very annoyed if I kept downloading games which weren't very good, weren't funny, and involved "naked elaine" gags. If I owned the Monkey Island rights, I'd probably do the same as LucasArts do. I wouldn't want the web littered with bad rip-offs of my game. I appreciate that there would be the odd very good game, but the vast majority would NOT be good. The fangame community over at Adventure Developers more than satiates my appetite for fan-made games. The developer of Broken Sword says that, but the difference is that LucasArts are speaking from experience. I'm willing to bet that if someone made a badly made "Broken Sword 0: The Pharoes Balls" with bad jokes and was just an overall bad game, the same developer would think twice about letting "fans" loose with his material again. Remember, LucasArts didn't start stopping fangames before anyone had decided to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guano Posted March 15, 2003 Share Posted March 15, 2003 here's an idea: If I was a developer of a hit adventure game series then I'd just let ppl upload their fan games on my site and have a monthly contest with prizes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregD Posted March 15, 2003 Author Share Posted March 15, 2003 Theres always a risk obviously but it would help to improve an otherwise stale community compared to say that of a major series which can be modified and can have addons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scabb Posted March 15, 2003 Share Posted March 15, 2003 I haven't seen Mr Lucas firing legal bullets at all the Star Wars spoofs that litter the internet - From the harmless ones to the ones where Yoda lights up a spliff and engages in some interspecies interaction, and Luke & Leia narrow that gene pool ETC. What's so different about adventure game characters? Maybe if we make a cartoon where they all advocate homicide and perpetuate stereotypes LEC legal will back down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guano Posted March 15, 2003 Share Posted March 15, 2003 what's ETC? Empire Takes Crack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabez Posted March 15, 2003 Share Posted March 15, 2003 Yeah, it’s a shame LEC come down so hard on fan projects. But they still haven’t stopped quite a few being made, and there’s nothing to stop you from making one to share with a few friends. It’s not like they’re completely anti-fan, they just don’t "encourage" fan-games. Generally I’d say the LEC were pretty good to their fan community, with all their cool stuff they do and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregD Posted March 18, 2003 Author Share Posted March 18, 2003 Gabez, can you give me like 10 examples of what LEC do in the community besides making games and running competitions? Because to be honest it's sod all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jannar85 Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 I wouldn't allow people making fan games of our soon-to-be-released Roger Foodbelly. Why? Well, would you like it if you made a superb game, and someone mysteriously made a fangame which ruined the whole original game? Someone plays fangames first, and if it's bad, they most likely won't play the original game. Plus, I don't like fangames. Why? Well.... People making fangames can make something original instead. Of course, I'm being just foolish, and you will flame me. But it's just my opinion. Start something original instead. I've learnt that from my own experience when I was younger. I do look farward to 'some' fangames though, I must confess... Btw... It's my birthday today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien426 Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 Happy birthday to you then! I've got to agree. Seeing fan games that "borrow" Monkey Island's graphics isn't nice in my opinion. If you can't draw a background yourself, why make a fan game? If you can't develop characters yourself, why make an adventure game? The exception here would be games where you can take a whole new view, like the one that lets you control Herman Toothrot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scabb Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 I fully agree that it's a lot better to make an original title than a fan game (or a sequel, in some cases), but LEC still shouldn't shut down fan games. They allow music to be remixed, pictures drawn, fan novels written - Isn't a game really just a combination of all 3? It's a creators choice to choose if he wants to use some LEC characters or come up with someone original in his game, but as long as it's clear that this "is" a fan-game, then there should really be no problem. If people don't realise they're playing a fan-game, then they're probably too ignorant to play through the real games anyway. Besides, the whole point of "fan-games" is that they are played after the originals; because only fans will actually want to play them. Most aren't fully devoid of originality anyway - "Fate of Monkey Island" had little to do with the Monkey Island characters, I believe the same islands were used though, and there were a few cameos. But that's it, really. The one with Herman, "Night of the Hermit", looks absolutely fantastic, but that suffers from stilted dialogue and ridiculous puzzles. At the end of the day, a decent amateur adventure game developer can make a fan-game great. After all, "CMI" isn't from the original team, it's from a bunch of people who loved the originals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregD Posted March 19, 2003 Author Share Posted March 19, 2003 I agree Scabb, and I think it's the one thing the community is lacking at the moment. And jannar concerning your "soon-to-be-released Roger Foodbelly" would anyone want to make a fan game of it anyway ;D be honest now... How on earth did you come up with such a zany title anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 Foodbelly looks cool, and Atle tells me that it is going to be sold properly, not a free fangame. My "fangame" the MIE used Monkey Island art. I thought it was ok, so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jannar85 Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 Originally posted by Alien426 Happy birthday to you then! I've got to agree. Seeing fan games that "borrow" Monkey Island's graphics isn't nice in my opinion. If you can't draw a background yourself, why make a fan game? If you can't develop characters yourself, why make an adventure game? The exception here would be games where you can take a whole new view, like the one that lets you control Herman Toothrot. I 100% agree with you. Thanks for the congratulation GregD on the other hand.... Originally posted by GregD And jannar concerning your "soon-to-be-released Roger Foodbelly" would anyone want to make a fan game of it anyway ;D be honest now... How on earth did you come up with such a zany title anyway... They probably would! If you got your ass into JustAdventure, you can see some of it already. It's in the upcoming releases section... The homepage is 'still' being worked on.... Damn... Oh, and it will be commercial That zany title was created a while back, when the creator wrote novels about him. So we translated his surname, and got Foodbelly! The name Roger Foodbelly is just as zany as Monkey Island. Just reminding you about it... Tell me what you think, if you ever check the art... That page, will only be our temporary source, till we've got our homepage design ready. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamNMax Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 I agree with Lucasart's policy. If I were head of Lucasarts, I'm not going to let people butcher my perfect games with their piss poor sequals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GendoTheGreat Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Damn straight. Well said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregD Posted March 20, 2003 Author Share Posted March 20, 2003 Like I said sequels i can understand them being annoyed over... but not prequels and fangames which could extend the gameplay of existing games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scabb Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Have you guys seen Broken Sword 2.5? Zak 2? Zak 2 again? All are good examples of promising fan-made sequels. They're not going to butcher LucasArts "perfect games" if you don't play them - which you don't have to - and even if you do happen to accidentally download extract install and run them, is that really gonna make you think "This is crap. This has ruined the whole of the "$seriesname" series for me :(" If so, then I'm afraid that you're stupid. Fate of Monkey Island was far from perfect, but it didn't ruin my perception of Monkey Island. I never once thought about that game when I played through the originals again, nor any other of the countless fan-games I have played. Fan games are a lark, not the gospel truth. Besides, Monkey Island is hardly a serious tale, and it's already been "butchered" by LEC if you want to take that tone. And "Perfect Games?" The Dig? Escape from Monkey Island? Perfect? Maybe they're perfect at being "The Dig" and "Escape from Monkey Island" respectively, but these are two examples of Lucas Arts screwing up, at least in my opinion. I'll let "The Dig" off though, because it has its fans, but still.. I'll pick flaws in anything if you want me to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 A tad confused. I was under the impression that LEC fangames WERE ok. So long as the people involved did not make any money out of it. Am I wrong? What about all these? Fate of Monkey Island Monkey : Island 2 Night of the Hermit (A Herman Toothrot adventure!) The Devil's Triangle (Set between MI1 and MI2) Indiana Jones: The Lost World Plus the upcoming ones: Fate of Atlantis II Plus the two (amazing looking) Zak sequels that scabb pointed out. As long as no-one is making money why is LEC making a fuss? ~ Johnny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scabb Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Well, Scurvyliver, the creater of "Fate of Monkey Island" received a cease and desist from the Lucas Legal team, as did Matt Shaw, who was creating a game called "Legends of Lechuck". There was outrage etc, Lucas-bashing, which was fully deserved I forgot to mention FOA2, which is also looking great. Most of the Monkey Island fan-games made so far haven't been on a par with the Zak or Broken Sword projects though. Bleh, Victimless crime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregD Posted March 21, 2003 Author Share Posted March 21, 2003 Again Scabb proves my point look at BS2.5 and FOA2... quality work. Obviously you will get some bad apples but isn't that true of the original game community as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabez Posted March 28, 2003 Share Posted March 28, 2003 Originally posted by GregD Gabez, can you give me like 10 examples of what LEC do in the community besides making games and running competitions? Because to be honest it's sod all. Er, well, maybe not ten, but… They seem pretty good with Mojo letting them come over and interview cool people and stuff, and they’ve got this new person who’s supposed to be answering questions or something. They could be better with some things, but overall I don’t think they’re too bad. All my posts contradict each other, yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregD Posted March 29, 2003 Author Share Posted March 29, 2003 Interviews thats cool of them yeah... but they should allow people to mod stuff like the latest indy game, or at least use the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Yeah, the new PR lady at the LEC is very pro-fan community. I contacted her regarding LEC staff member interviews and she was very helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jannar85 Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 Originally posted by LucasTones Foodbelly looks cool, and Atle tells me that it is going to be sold properly, not a free fangame. Thanks. I missed that. I only want to answer Greg's question, but it seemed like he ignored my previous reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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