Starmen.Net

[Cracks knuckles and leans in re-e-e-al close]

So you wanna make a fangame. You loved earthbound so much you’d do anything to see a fourth game, even if it means making it yourself. But here’s the thing, you have no game development experience and no direction for the project. Well here’s a short sweet answer for you;

Forget it!

I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say you’re still in full-time education, alot of us are when we start out. Fangames are time consuming and because your using an existing IP the only way to fly under the radar and avoid that dreaded C&D is to distribute it for free. I might seem overly morbid to you, but consider this; would you rather fail your exams because you were working on a game that’ll net you nothing instead of studying. Or would you rather have good grades, a decent job that will keep you financially stable. Again, I might seem overly negative but you must think about how far you’re willing to go in the name of Itoi. Alot of these fangames, they start out all fun and games, but then deadlines are missed, scripts are redrafted from scratch and only a few see the light of day.

But!

If that hasn’t knocked your confidence, good on you! But I need you to know that maintaining a work-life balance it crucial, at all times, remember (this is where you’ll want to start taking notes) “This game isn’t that important, get all your school work done first.”

Now let’s get into the non-descript meat and potatoes, starting with the premise MOTHER games are renown for their focus on story and you can’t have that story without a premise. Take along look at the trilogy, are there any loose ends you think need tying up? Was Gyigas’ defeat the last we saw of the alien scum? Did porky really stay in that capsule for all eternity? Or is there another, more bizarre threat that has yet to rear it’s ugly head?

Next comes your party a party size ranges generally from 3-4 characters, usually aligned with neutrual good but there may be some temporary allies or even an entire second party thrown into the mix. You need to think about the characters that make up these parties, their identity; Who are they? Where do they come from? Are they even human? Their mannerisms; how do they speak? Their goals; What do they want to achieve over the course of the adventure? (OTHER THAN SMITING EVIL) Do they achieve it? The party interrelationships; Is a character a social lubricant or a source of friction? Only then can you finally move onto how they behave in a combat situation; Do you go with just having PSIs and muggles? Or something more off the wall?

Now comes the writing of the story, by this point you should already have some ideas about how this should play out, I shouldn’t have to help you with this. But I will contribute a relevant quote from itoi “the first parts are all full of dialgoue, daily life. The middle part is the story and the drama, and the last part’s a rollercoaster”.

And finally comes the development, you’ll need to start by forming a team of artists, programmers, and anyone else you deem necessary (maybe you want voice acting or something). You need to pick an engine, RPG maker is a common choice, but I recommend Yoyo’s gamemaker coupled with Cidoku’s API. But if that doesn’t suffice, and proving you’re a C#/ Java wizard, you can do it from scratch (not the recoememended method, but it dose get the best results.]

I hope I helped.