2020’s “Streets of Rage 4” was made with zero involvement from Sega, but they were given the greenlight to keep developing if they had Sega publish it. This gives fans even more incentive to revisit these old franchises themselves.Ģ017’s “Sonic Mania” began as a fan tribute to retro Sonic games, but it was so good that Sega cut the indie developers a deal and published the game officially. Unlike Nintendo, they craft new IPs all the time and leave many of their classic series in the past. If they can price their games like that and still turn a profit, I’m unsure why the company is so afraid of allowing a few fan games to exist to be distributed for free on the internet – “fandoms” only grow more enthusiastic when allowed to rally around their own content, too.īut I have my biases – I come to this conclusion as a Sega fan. These titles almost never go on sale – it’s still difficult to buy “Super Mario Odyssey” or “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” two 2017 games, for anything less than $60. It’s baffling to me that the company is so protective since they consistently churn out products of excellent quality, often sticking to established franchises in favor of creating new ones.
Nintendo is particularly notorious for sending cease and desist letters, halting the development of “Another Metroid 2 Remake,” “Zelda 30 Tribute” and “Pokémon Uranium,” among many others. The trouble is, of course, copyright laws.Įven if the hobbyist makes the fan game free, the IP owner is legally entitled to shut down projects featuring their characters and/or setting. The advantage of going this route is obvious – you don’t have to make something out of nothing, and it’s easier to get people hyped. Because of this, many game design enthusiasts choose to showcase their passion by creating their own indie games in their spare time – and many of them are fan games.Ī fan game uses an existing intellectual property. Internships exist, but they are always quickly inundated with a massive swath of applicants. There are certifications and classes, but there aren’t many other intermediate steps – you’re either making games or you’re not. Many of us remained idealists, but it only takes a quick Google search to ascertain that game design is a complicated, specialized and highly selective field. I found that by the time I hit high school, my peers were already more skeptical of their ability to “make it” in the world doing what they love.
I have no idea whether any of these elementary school classmates went on to become involved in making games. On playgrounds as a kid, whenever someone asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?,” several children would invariably reply, “I want to make video games.” Of course they did – who wouldn’t want to have firsthand involvement in one of their favorite hobbies?
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