Sometimes enough is enough and fans just pick themselves up and say "Fine, I'll do it myself".

Ever since the early days of computing, enthusiasts have taken it upon themselves to realise their dream projects and have created some truly amazing as well as equally insane homemade projects. Some can be the result of a single person while others can be the products of entire teams working together.

Whether the idea is to resurrect a long-forgotten franchise, or to build upon and approve an existing product; or whether the ambition stems from a long seated desire for improvements that just never come to pass - the results of these projects can often outclass the original and even lead to the developers getting recognised and even hired by the IP owners. A recent example is the 2011 port of Sonic CD - a project that started out as a fan made proof of concept on YouTube only to later be greenlit and picked up by SEGA.

More often than not, fan made projects tread a very thin line when it comes to legality. See this interesting piece on Gamesutra that takes a deep look into the legality of such projects.

Historically, Nintendo are known for their aggressive stance toward fan made projects and regularly issue and demand takedowns whereas SEGA on the other hand are much more lenient and have outright publicly stated that they are OK with fan made projects as long as they don't seek to profit from them.

Some notable fan made projects:

AM2R - Another Metroid 2 Remake

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Built for Windows and ported to Linux, Android and even the Vita, AM2R is a ground-up remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus released for Game Boy in 1991 and features graphics and design similar to that of Super Metroid for the SNES. A DMCA takedown was issued by Nintendo who later went on to release an official remake of Metroid 2, but the author continued work on the project in secret.

AM2R

Black Mesa

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Over a decade in the making, Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half Life within the Source engine. It even caught the eye of Valve who not only let the project continue but after its completion last year, even allowed it to be sold through Steam.

Black Mesa on Steam

Mother 4 / Oddity

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Mother 4 (now renamed Oddity) is a brand new official indie game that takes a lot of inspiration from its precursor, from the look of the text boxes, to the character designs, and especially the battle system. While the game is still in development, a trailer was released back in January of 2020.

Oddity on Twitter

Sonic Utopia

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Sonic Utopia is a single level proof-of-concept built to demonstrate how classic Sonic could play and control within a 3D environment. Using the full momentum based physics of the original games, Utopia provides an open sandbox style world to explore and test out Sonic's capabilities.

Sonic Utopia on Archive.org

What are some of your favourite fan-made projects?

Let us know below!​

 

[Magnus87]

I have played several fan projects however the one I liked the most is SFMB (AKA Mario Multiverse).
It is true that there are many fangames that try to replicate Mario Maker even before the release of the official Nintendo game but SFMB has a more "serious" development, although it does not have all the Mario powerups, it seeks a much more polished experience for both level creator as for the player.

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The community is small since for now the project is still a closed beta but while Neo, the game developer is in charge of the code, the community contributes with the sprites, melodies and SFX. What I like the most is that it is really focused on the PC, the level editor makes good use of the keyboard and mouse.

The creator of the level has full control over the stage, you are not limited to what the theme determines.
You can have a level that looks like SMB3 but Mario moves similar to NSMB.

If this project continues, it could become a good tool to create any type of platform game and not only focus on SMB.

 

[Jjones]

My favorite mod was for Mario kart 7 that is called: "CTGP-7".

 

[SAIYAN48]

Lots of Poekmon Hacks, Flames of Eternity, Portal Stories: Mel, Portal Reloaded, just to name a few.

 

[Wavy]

I'd also like to add something else: Any game reverse-engineering project.

Having reconstructed source code not only allows for preservation, but also gives us the ability to improve games and get them running on modern hardware.

 

[Noctosphere]

Pokemon Insurgence is a very big Pokemon fan made game
I haven't played a lot, but I started playing it again recently.
The fact that there are multiple cults (instead of teams) rivalising between each other makes it very interesting, just like the experience we had with emerald and ORAS, instead that so far, i've seen like four differents cults instead of just two, each of them worshiping a legendary pokemon

I've seen the Abyssal Cult, which worship Kyogre, some dark cult that worship Darkrai

There's also a legend about some hero called the Augur who has dissapeared while fighting the cults. Then, at the very beginning of the game, another man claims the status of the Second Augur, and so far, from what I've seen, he's just some kind politician making propaganda and promoting himself by building statues of himself in every cities


Anyway, the story is very great so far and there are lot of funny moment too

I highly recommend it, it's on pc for those who wants it

 

[pspJesse]

Just need to comment SKYWIND!
morrowind in Skyrim engine (not complete sadly) but looks amazing.

 

[anhminh]

Most fan-made project nowadays are just simple mod or go straight to inspired indie game route. It made sense since it would be way too much trouble to deal with copyright and selling game make you more money than donation.

 

[MariArch]

oddity aint ever coming out lmao. ive been waiting for so long ;-;

 

[MetoMeto]

AM2R ofc!
Sonic utopia is good, but empty.

 

[lordelan]

I'm not very familiar with fan made projects, but I really appreciate the Ace Attorney translations. The Investigations ones and the Great Ace Attorney at least before it came out officially.

Ah translations! Forgot about them.
I'd like to point out this one which brought me hours of pure joy on my 3DS:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/translation-dragon-quest-monsters-terrys-wonderland-3d.431204/

And on this occasion I want to cry like a baby once again that still no translation for the PSX version of DQM 1 + 2 (this is one single game on the PSX) has happened so far:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/request-english-patch-for-dragon-quest-monsters-1-2-psx.569295/

Thanks for your attention.

 

[ciaomao]

VVVVVV on C64:


Resident Evil 1.5 on PS1:


New Super Mario Land on SNES:


Cannonball Engine - Outrun on Raspberry:


Battle Jewels on GP2x:


Lansquenet 2004 on Neo Geo:


and many more

 

[KimKong]

Right now, my favorite fan project is "Little Nemo - The Slumberland Hero":

 

[Ferris1000]

Pokémon Liquid Crystal is definitely my favourite. I liked this idea so much that I ordered 2 physical copies from China and played it on one of my my GBA SP AGS-101.

 

[Mythical]

Black Mesa is definitely up there, Half Life 1 has always been one of my favorite classic FPS games so getting what is almost a complete remake in the various Source engines was 10/10 all around.

Valve's behavior towards it is exactly how every other dev should handle fan projects like this, they were in support of it since it's been worked on, and even now Valve is supporting another fan-made remaster for Half Life 2 from the Half Life 2: Update team, too.

The world would be a better place if so

 

[MadMakuFuuma]

Released: Streets of rage remake 5.2

tbr: Megaman X Corrupted

 

[DS1]

I have never been much of a PC guy, but I’ll go with Streets of Rage Remake. I’d never played an SOR before it, and ended up buying SOR4 based on my enjoyment of it.

 

[LightBeam]

I've followed AM2R while it was under developpement and I'm so glad it released. Don't forget that there are some updates to the game and even a secret port on Switch


I've also heard about Sonic Utopia and it looks cool af, but I'm wondering .... What's the purpose of the game ? Is there an end to the levels ? Cuz it feels really open ended and fun to move around ... but what's the goal ?

 

[chrisrlink]

all my faves got taken down fucking nintendo SCREW YOU!

 

[CoolMe]

Any of the Pokemon hacks really..

 

[Foxi4]

FOnline, or the version I played, FOnline: 2238 was the best thing since sliced bread. It used maps from both Fallout 1 and Fallout 2, plus some extras made by the community, in a persistent online setting, "remastered" with DirectX lighting and other quality of life improvements. You could build your own bases, camp, mine for resources, craft... most commonly though you would get killed by roaming bands of bandits and lose all of your loot. The tag line? Wasteland is harsh. Ain't that the truth. A better online Fallout experience than Bethesda's own Fallout 76, by a country mile.