wat is hack? wat is fan game?

[Vanya]

Split from http://forum.metroidconstruction.com/index.php/topic,3054.0.html.

Fan games and ROM hacks and Mods are all "fan works", but there are some pretty clear distinctions in my mind.

A fan game to me has always been programming your own game from scratch that uses the character, setting, and/or art assets from an existing game or series of games.

ROM hacks and Mods are different because you are altering existing code and assets.
Also, mods are often done with permission from the creators of the game, ROM hacks are rarely done with permission.

Mods have less of a stigma about their legality, too.

So to me in reference to a ROM hack, 'fan game territory' really doesn't make sense. The closest any ROM hack ever gets to a fan game is when the hacker is creating their own code.

[Thirteen1355]

A fan game is a fan game. Done.
A game made by fans, whether it's a rom hack or made from scratch.

A rom hack is a fan game, but a fan game isn't always a rom hack.

[Scout1297]

A fan game is a fan game. Done.
A game made by fans, whether it's a rom hack or made from scratch.

A rom hack is a fan game, but a fan game isn't always a rom hack.

A rom hack could not be a fan game i.e. just editing the physics of Samus, new graphics, ect.

[Thirteen1355]

Made by fans?

[Scooterboot9697]

The closest any ROM hack ever gets to a fan game is when the hacker is creating their own code.

As if Meta isn't using his own code... :bounce:

X-Fusion is, by all means, a Metroid fan game, created using Super Metroid's engine. A fan game does not always mean "made from scratch". AM2R was made in GameMaker: Studio, which in itself is a game engine.

[Vanya]

The closest any ROM hack ever gets to a fan game is when the hacker is creating their own code.

As if Meta isn't using his own code... :bounce:

X-Fusion is, by all means, a Metroid fan game, created using Super Metroid's engine. A fan game does not always mean "made from scratch". AM2R was made in GameMaker: Studio, which in itself is a game engine.

This isn't really the place for this discussion but I will clarify that when I said using your own code, I meant exclusively. A fan game does not use the original engine directly in any way. You can try to recreate the code, but fan games don't need to have the same physics or even the same genre as the source work.

You can't compare making a game on GM to hacking a ROM.
In many ways I have far more respect for someone as talented as Metaquarius for being able to do what he does with a game like Super Metroid than I do for a programmer making a fan game. ROM hacking has an entire extra layer of learning above and beyond anything anyone goes through when learning to script in GML. You have to learn the details of someone else's code that can be a very difficult task.

All fan games are fan works. All mods are fan works. All ROM hacks are fan works. But they all have inherent differences.
Classic Kong is a fan game on SNES. Flappy Bird is a fan game on NES. X-Fusion is a fantastic and amazing ROM hack, but it is a hack of an existing ROM.



More importantly than semantics, another suggestion for Dragon-X is to add in maybe 2 Evir-Xs to act as 'options' during the battle. It would be cool to see the little buggers in some form and doing more than just colliding into Samus.

[Thirteen1355]

You talk like you think Fan Game is some kind of technical term or something.
Fan game=fan game. FAN. Game made by fans. It's not that hard.

[benox50]

cant resist to say it c:

1- A fangame is a complete new game 100% done by the maker (well lets hope, no assets flip :p)
a fangame is not completely original and takes ideas from a or games the maker love. Compared to creating a new original game which is the one that normally would require the most time from your life.
Both making a new game or fangame can be made using a professional SDK specifically made for that or if they are badass enough, they make their own engine.

2- A mod is a modification to an existing game or an addition to an existing game, the degree of the modification can put mods into different categories (vehicles, maps, expension...), most metroid mods are expension which is adding a new set of maps that can have custom additions while using vanilla ones.
A game expension can be a professional mod made by the devs => Fallout 4 nuka world, what we call today DLCs are professional mods.

3- A Hack is simply a mod with a weird name cause the fact they are made without acceptation of the devs (kinda illegal). On the other hand, there is lot of recent games mods that can could be called hack if we use this definition. I worked with a non professional editor (editor made by a fan, same as smile) for worms 3D, the devs dont know about that editor and there is mods made with it that the devs dont know about.
Can those mods can be called hacks ? Maybe

Meta is basically making a mod, but he is close the border between mod and fangame. its mostly a huge full convertion mod  :yay:

[squishy_ichigo]

itt: srzbsns

You hacks that call yourself fans got modded, this isn't a game, you need to work on your permission, this code isn't an asset, start your engines, maker yourself legal, editor yourself and maybe you won't get C&D. Metroids.

[Lunaria]

Since some of you people are so hooked up on the engine part. Is a game made in the unity engine a unity fan game then? Is a "fan game" made using an engine like unity or unreal not a fangame then because you're not exclusively using your own code? What about coding libraries? That's code someone else made, heck, so are programming languages.

The only definition for a fan game that makes sense is: A game made by a fan of a franchise. And the implication of it is that you're not actually licensed to make it.

A ROM hack on the other hand is defined as an edit using reverse engineering of an existing game. It's also generally a term used specifically for games distributed on ROM formats.


Usually most hacks are fan games, but not always, and even in cases where they are, not necessarily for the source material. Take this hack for example, it's definitively a hack (of nestroid), and it's definitively a fan game..., but not a metroid fan game. You could make a hack that feature a set of completely characters and setting, at that point it could not really be argued that it's a fangame.