I swear I want to slap the developers of these kind of projects for wasting their talent on a project bound to die.
The developers of fan projects aren't wasting their talent, they're refining it, it's the people that shut them down that are wasting their talent. Those are the people you should want to slap.
Yes they are. No matter how many years you take to make a game, if it's a fangame you're be surely going to have trouble with copyright, just as with let's players. This happened with Pokemon Uranium too. Seriously, why don't spend ten years making an original game rather than making actual games? You could sell them, despite fan games. It's sure you grew as a game designer but next time
make a game, not a fan game.
Then, why can't Nintendo even try to protect their own IP? Unlike Trademarks, Copyright can't be lost but i believe you may have problems over it when you really need to protect your IP. Especially when this guy has made a remake of a very old Gameboy game you can buy right now on 3DS' Virtual Console and released it completely for free. That doesn't sound alright. At this point, Nintendo is totally right to remove it. Will not make Nintendo bankrupt but will damage sales.
Now many justification i've read around the web are "But he could have hired him" or "Why didn't Nintendo get the rights from this guy and released it as a virtual console game?" "SEGA did hire his fans" and i only have issues with these.
First of all, this was made in Game Maker: Studio. GM, right now, doesn't have a WiiU exporter. Second, when Nintendo makes a game i believe they use
their own engines. And with this one would reply "But why then didn't remake it using this fan-remake as base?"...
It's a terrible idea, i believe.
I've the feeling that Nintendo just doesn't want to take other people's fanworks and release them as their own. If they want to remake Metroid 2, they will create their own assets. And will not need Mr.Guasti for this, nay, i believe they DON'T want it.
Would you like it if you made a fangame and Nintendo used it for their games... pretending they're the creators of these games?
I belive that, rather than taking a fanwork for itself, they just don't let you publish them at all.
Nintendo would create new bosses instead rather than copying the ones seen in AM2R. They'd copy some assets from Zero Mission (like the player's sprites) or create them from scratch. Then, if Nintendo hired everyone who could make a Nintendo fan game, how many people would they hire? They already have a recruitment system. Or, maybe they would aknowledge my work but... i'm afraid i'd not see a cent, since it's not my IP. Therefore, i'd not like any of these, i'll jump directly into making my own game isntead.
And SEGA? Oh yeah they hired two Sonic fan game creators... yet SEGA has been disrespectful to consumers for a lot of years and they really don't know how to use Sonic. And have taken down other fanworks as well. They changed mind? Maybe i don't know the full story, though. I prefer Nintendo does keep coherent instead.
At this point, i'd follow the roots of the creators of Freedom Planet: his main creator used to make Sonic fangames but lost interest and decided to create something similar but also very different, with his own IP. And he succeeded! They have the glory of having their own IP. My ideal game is more similar to Mario but doesn't have turtles, mushrooms, floating bricks, coin-blocks or coins that gives extra-lives.
Now call me a "Nintendo Fanboy" or "Fascist" but my stance over this is strict and rigid. I would be be annoyed if someone made money off my works (many youtubers) and would put a policy like Nintendo did if i wanted to be "magnanimous". If someone makes a good fangame of my game, i'd be both annoyed and amazed. Annoyed because he can't do this and wouldn't let him to. Amazed because i'd recommend him to create his own IP instead. The fact that Nintendo is a multibillion dollar company doesn't justify the fact you can break its copyright policies... not even if you do it
for charity.
As i've pointed out, i'm very strict over this. If you want to have problems with companies or authors, that's your problem. You may be lucky but it's better you create your own content instead of using someone else's one. Copyright isn't a kid's toy.
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