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Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Printable Version

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Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Pedigree - 11-26-2017

Mario Fan Games Galaxy is a website dedicated to the creation of fanmade works such as games and resources used to create them. MFGG has been around since 2001 in many different forms, so it surprises us how frequently we see the question: “Aren't you afraid that Nintendo is going to take you down?” On behalf of MFGG, I'd like to let you know that we do not share such concerns. However if it ever does become a concern, we will be the first to let you know.

The most recent takedowns that have inspired such concerns are Another Metroid 2 Remake and Pokemon Uranium. There are a number of factors to consider in regards to why Nintendo took these projects down such as:
  • Another Metroid 2 Remake not only competed directly with an official project in development by Nintendo but in conjunction with media coverage, according to Reggie Fils Aime, posed a risk that the fan work would influence the direction of the Metroid franchise as a whole.
  • Nintendo does not solely own rights to the Pokemon franchise and the intense media coverage of Pokemon Uranium brought the fan work to the attention of The Pokemon Company.
It's important to remember that it is Nintendo's legal right to protect their intellectual property as they see fit. However, if you follow some basic guidelines, there may be no need to worry that any project you may be working on will be shut down. These guidelines include but are not limited to:
  • You must never attempt to promote your work as an officially licensed Nintendo product. In fact, we recommend that you place a disclaimer in your project stating that you are not in any way affiliated with Nintendo and that your project is a fan work.
  • 1:1 level designs and physics so close to an official Nintendo product that it may be mistaken for a Nintendo product should probably be avoided.
  • You must never charge money or accept cash donations in relation to any project with which you do not have legal rights to do so.
  • Avoid remakes and 2D/3D versions of official Nintendo games so that you aren't competing with their products. Another project, Ocarina of Time 2D, had its mediafire download link taken down for similar reasons as this.
If you'd like to hear from Reggie Fils Aime himself on Nintendo’s stance on fan works, check out the following article from Twinfinite:
http://twinfinite.net/2017/06/reggie-fils-aime-nintendos-stance-fan-made/

Remember, if Super Mario Blue Twilight DX by BlazeHedgehog survived appearing on Television (specifically G4), then your projects are probably safe.

With your help, we'd love to end this fear that Nintendo’s going to put a stop to our passionate projects. Thank you for taking the time to read and for all you do for our community!

Please keep in mind that this thread should not be taken as any form of legal advice. It is simply our answer to a frequently asked, though important question.

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Parakarry - 11-26-2017

This is ultra handy.

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Pedigree - 11-26-2017

Thanks, Parakarry!

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - mit - 11-27-2017

this thread should 200% be in news, it's a huge point of contention amongst a lot of fangame devs that gets brought up a lot

edit: said announcements instead of news

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Zero Kirby - 11-27-2017

Or at the very least, stickied in this section of the board. (Which I've just done!)

The announcement would eventually change, anyway...

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - geno7 - 11-27-2017

I think a positive of this is that it might actually influence more fangame developers to do crazy stuff that Nintendo would never do. Those are my favorite sorts of fangames anyhow

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Pedigree - 11-27-2017

I absolutely agree with that, creative and wacky fangames are among my favorites!

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Parakarry - 11-28-2017

I'm serious too about this being useful. The ones that Nintendo seems to go after get the most attention, or are trying to be remakes of already existing games, which lets you get a free (and better?) version of a game. AM2R is the perfect example, but even MORE perfect since they were working on their own.

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Merit Celaire - 11-29-2017

The one thing that really should matter in my opinion is making sure our content itself is original; I mean, in terms of the fangame projects that I'm trying to get back in the groove on (yes, they still exist, but in the "concept stages"), they're inspired from other games that I've played (even the Mario installments themselves), but anything that's just a blatant "copy" of official games would be a red flag for me already since chances are high that the original owners would go after those folks for IP theft.

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Pedigree - 11-29-2017

Well, MFGG has had hundreds of fangames with official Mario-style gameplay for 16 years and survived even being featured on TV once.

Unless a game attracts serious media attention, I don't think a game that emulates the official gameplay is going to be a problem. However, if you're worried about that sort of thing definitely feel free to avoid emulating official gameplay.
You also have to remember that Nintendo is very protective of its characters. If you make something so out there that it misrepresents their vision for their character and the media circulates it, they might come after you with their character copyrights.

Truth is, there's no real safe zone when dealing in the realm of fan art or fan games. If Nintendo gets a wild hair and decides to pursue people for violating their copyright, it's their right to do so. It wouldn't be very cool of them to do so and might damage public opinion on them, though. Luckily, I don't think that's gonna happen unless your fangame goes viral and puts pressure on Nintendo.

Short of the matter is, make your fangames and have fun. Stop running around like a chicken with its head cut off just because Nintendo took down some extreme examples of fangames. We're still around after 16 years for a reason and it's not because Nintendo hasn't heard of us.

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - OssieTheOstrich - 02-09-2018

Wait, Nintendo knows about the site?

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - Pedigree - 02-09-2018

You don't exist on the internet for over 16 years, get featured on TV, streams and in Youtube videos without someone from Nintendo taking notice on you. We don't have confirmation, but the odds that they've never heard of us are slim.

Our projects may not pose any risk is all.

RE: Help! Nintendo's After my Fanmade Vidya Games! - OssieTheOstrich - 02-09-2018

Phew!

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