My Super Mario fan-games plans, experiments, and ideas

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Mr. Butterbean

Guest
Disclaimer: This is not necessarily a continuation of my old, now defunct Making Mario Great Again thread; it is simply a new take on it.

Over the years, many fans of Mario have been making their own games, some of which using innovation to impress their audience.
But unlike others - most importantly - I'll mainly be using unique game mechanics; less importantly, unique art and sound assets; as well as aesthetics and stories never, or at least not often, seen in a Super Mario fan-game.

Here is the aim of my Super Mario fan-games:
  • They will all be game-first, as Khao said about official Mario games in the old thread; story and aesthetics will come after.
  • They will be freeware, first for desktop as stand-alone .exe distributed to the official Facebook page of my local high school, Houston County High (an "unofficial" way of distribution), and, if that gets decent traffic, to my forum dedicated to my homeschool group, as direct downloads.
  • If safely possible, they will secondly be put on two custom websites of my own (one that is public and another which is private, which that is probably safe) and linked to the Made With GameMaker forum, unlike stereotypical new GM games, which are commercial.
  • For those on the custom (public) website, they will all have a "license change" at the ready, as Yal suggested; the same game with generic art and sound assets, in the event of a C&D from Nintendo. (Although I may just do that from the start instead, to play it completely safe.)
  • I will not be "trying to 'fix' Mario just by changing the story"; that would be just sorry.
I already have some assets ready to show you in the future, such as experimental levels, stories, game mechanics, et cetera. But please let me repeat myself: the games will all be made game-first.
This thread - I will admit - is mainly about showing you what's in my head, but to have it fit in with the point of those like these, this is also about discussion; talking about and giving me ideas for, for example, unique game mechanics and how to distribute these fan-games "properly"; doing so without arousing Nintendo; resulting in a C&D. Since I'm new to these forums and GameMaking, I could very well receive an idea I've never thought of, or even would be good, and please excuse me if you find any problem with the aim mentioned earlier. Thank you.
 
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RangerX

Member
Fan stuff is often tolerated but Nintendo is pretty arsh about it. Your only way to do it "properly" is to not use anything from Nintendo. As soon as your project would become popular enough, Nintendo will shut it down like it did TONS of fan projects.
As for the games, you have your pitch (your main idea) now you need to devellop it. I suggest you read about GDDs and how to write them. This is your next step really if you want to pull out games proper.
 
M

Mr. Butterbean

Guest
Fan stuff is often tolerated but Nintendo is pretty arsh about it. Your only way to do it "properly" is to not use anything from Nintendo. As soon as your project would become popular enough, Nintendo will shut it down like it did TONS of fan projects.
As for the games, you have your pitch (your main idea) now you need to devellop it. I suggest you read about GDDs and how to write them. This is your next step really if you want to pull out games proper.
Thanks for the feedback.

However, you must not have understood what I meant by "license change"; I didn't even mean it literally. To put it simply, everything Nintendo will be ripped out of a game, and replaced with generic assets, such as a teenage boy and funky music. Regardless of whether I get a C&D, Nintendo simply shuts it down, or both, the game will come back as looking and sounding completely different. Yes, you could argue that just having the game mechanics too close to a traditional Mario game would get it shut down, and you could actually be right; I just need to know.

Thanks for letting me know about GDDs, and as mentioned in the OP, they will be made game-first: platforming, challenges and all.
 
M

Mr. Butterbean

Guest
I've changed the OP; I've decided to first distribute these games to my local high school Facebook page and, if possible, my "official" homeschool group forum, which is also local. Also, I plan on having a second, private, website for these two groups specifically, so they can have their fun and that I know I'm probably safe with that.

I know for a fact, as Geoff mentioned in the old thread, that Nintendo will fight brutally just to defend their property, so I've gotta get crafty with these games; using my stealth in favor of just putting them out there, wide open to a C&D.
But perhaps one of you is thinking of a sneaky option where I can present them to the public at the same time; that's one point where the discussion of this thread comes into play.
 

RangerX

Member
If you don't use any of Nintendo assets, nothing will happen. Nintendo doesn't give a damn if you do a game "like Mario". It gives a damn if you use is properties and trademarks that's all.
 
M

Mr. Butterbean

Guest
Okay; since I don't want this to be thread to be useless, here's my first idea, straight from the GDD, with the project overview:

Epic Mario


Project Overview

Executive Summary:
Epic Mario will use the core mechanics of Super Mario Games and elements from Zelda, Castlevania, the Mario And Luigi RPG series, and various traditional others of such, making it an RPG-style platformer where Mario and Luigi can level up, find simple strategies for defeating enemies, gain or buy trinkets and other artifacts to progress, explore a mix of mainly metroidvania, and traditional levels, and take on slightly more advanced bosses than their Mario counterparts.

High Concept:
The game will have the simplicity of Mario, yet have the complexity of Zelda.

Core Gameplay:
RPG / Action/Adventure Platformer; Singleplayer/Multiplayer (Co-op and Battle); Play roughly like traditional Mario; Real-time battle system; Vast exploration; Three widely varying classes (Mario, Luigi, and Peach*); Item and Power-up co-op.

* Peach can be unlocked upon completing main game.

Genre:
RPG and Action/Adventure.

Target Audience:
All ages or (more likely) all ages 10 or older (E or E10+)

Team Members/Collaborators / Jobs / Contact Info:
Matthew (Mr. Butterbean): Game Designer (Using GameMaker: Studio*). Email: [email protected]. (Just wrote all that down for emphasis.)

* May use Construct 2 to establish prototype.
As always, feedback is appreciated.
 
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