"The Simpsons: Hit & Run" gets a full fanmade private remake made in Unreal Engine 5
"The Simpsons" franchise has seen a lot of video game iterations over the years, starting all the way back in 1991 with the original "The Simpsons" arcade game, which has since been one of the most popular games based on the animated comedy. A whole set of other games came out during the 90s and 2000s based on The Simpsons, but aside from the original arcade game, arguably no other game from the franchise was quite as popular as "The Simpsons: Hit & Run" when it released for the original Xbox, PlayStation 2, Gamecube and Windows computers back in 2003.
The premise of the game was quite simple, you take control of a variety of characters (mostly the Simpsons family and Apu), and you go through driving missions (with the option to walk with the character also there, but this is mostly for collectibles and other small things) to unveil the reason to many strange incidents that have been happening all over Springfield. The game has 7 levels, and each of them are separated into several missions and subplots. While the game itself is quite simple in design, it was really fun to play throughout, and it captivated many players and Simpsons fans alike.
Developer and UE5 veteran Reubs was one of these fans, and he started work on a full-on remake of the game from scratch using the Unreal Engine 5 as the base for it, going detail by detail from the original game to recreate its AI, behaviours, models and maps from the ground up, all with original code. The models, maps and artstyle went through several iterations, until Reubs settled with the work from Korylons for the definitive style of the game.
After a little bit over a years since the start of the project, the fan remake has finally come to an end, with a final video by Reubs showcasing the missions that game has, as well as full gameplay for the remake from his part.
However, it all comes with a caveat.
Given the nature of the project being a fan remake of an already existing and published game (which still holds it into copyright law), the creator and his developers have opted to keep the remake a private project, meaning that the remake will not be released to the public. The copyright holders for the Simpsons franchise are Fox, and for those keeping up with the movie industry, Fox was purchased by Disney some years ago, making the Simpsons franchise effectively a Disney asset as of today. The most likely reason for keeping the project from the public might be due to fear from a potential legal action by Fox or Disney, but that's an unlikely scenario.
It's debatable as to whether or not this would even go to court, as it's most likely Disney/Fox would only send a C&D (or a DMCA notice), effectively close up any further development (as Nintendo's actions have taught us so well when it comes to fan projects and remakes). More so due to the fact that (a) the remake project would be free, (b) the remake is a transformative project on its own and/or the game would fall under "fair use", (c) none of the original game's code or models were used for this remake, even though the original 2003 source code for Simpsons: Hit & Run leaked some time ago.
Even if the remake ends up not getting released, it's remarkable the amount of work and dedication that the team went through in order to recreate one of the Simpsons' best games to date.
Reubs' YouTube Channel Reubs' Twitter
