Fan Game projects you’d like to do but won’t for any specific reasons

[OddieTheRock]

Here is a bit of a off-shoot of my previous thread about “Listing your cancelled Fan Games”; I'm basically gonna list some fan game projects I want to do but either due to time or just a lack of motivation, I currently will not (if ever).

This isn't exactly in chronological order, and not all of them will necessarily be Mario fan games. With that said, here we go.

2D Artwork-Based Mario Fan Game Proof-Of-Concept:
Now you might be saying, “But Ostrich, didn't you already try this idea and scrapped it before?“. And yes, I did. However, I've recently thought of reviving the idea as a Proof-Of-Concept rather than a full fangame, with possible collaboration with fellow MFGGer member and Angry Birds community member Halo345.

Halo's has done some really good looking Yoichi Kotabe-esc Mario fanart (you can check his Twitter for examples), and had previously asked me the status of that previously scrapped 2D artwork fangame, which is why I thought of reviving the concept. The project will likely be a 1 or 2 level demo, though considering the type of project this is I think you can see why it's just an idea and not actually in development. Seriously hand-drawn stuff like this takes a while to animate.

Mickey Mania Follow-Up Concept:
For those who don't know, Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse was a 1994 platformer video game developed by Traveller's Tales and released on Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega CD and the Playstation. The game featured Mickey visiting various locations based on his past cartoons, ranging from his debut in Steamboat Willie to the more recent The Prince and the Pauper.

Recently I had this idea where it'd be in the visual style of the 2013 Mickey Mouse series, while also including gameplay elements from Epic Mickey as well (such as the paintbrush mechanic). The locations from shorts being revisited would be ones the original Mickey Mania didn't include as well ones released after The Prince and the Pauper, such as Runaway Brain or episodes from the 2013 Mickey Mouse series.

Angry Birds Big Adventure Concept Revival:
Now this requires some background; Angry Birds 2 was the direct sequel to Angry Birds Classic released in 2015, but it originally didn't start out this way. Rather, it was going to be a spiritual-successor (or replacement, as stated by Rovio themselves) to Angry Birds Seasons, with it going to be focused on the concept of Time Travel. Huh, a mobile game sequel that does time travel, sounds kinda familiar..

Here are some tweet threads of more info regarding the scrapped project:
https://twitter.com/angry_facts/status/1...7847184388
https://twitter.com/angry_facts/status/1...4287108104
https://twitter.com/angry_facts/status/1...2443372544

Now, I recently had the idea of making this scrapped version of the game real either in the form of a fan game in it's own engine or possibly a mod of Angry Birds Classic. Though I already have a Angry Birds fan game in development, so.. yeah.

Super Hilda DX/Super Hilda HD remaster:
..This sounds confusing so let me explain some background info..

Hilda the Series is a Netflix cartoon released in 2018 which is an adaptation of the Hilda graphic novel series (with the first entry released in 2010) created by Luke Pearson (who is also involved in the show as a creator and developer). If you want to know more about what it is I'd just give you the show's Wikipedia article as I ain't gonna describe the whole show here (because I don't think anybody cares).

Around 2022 or so my father recommended my brother (JC) and I to see the show's feature film “Hilda and the Mountain King”, based on the last book of the series. Now, JC and I had never heard of the show at all before watching it, but we ended up seeing it anyway. Without giving away spoilers (even though I doubt anyone cares), we thought it was a good movie, and made both of us later see the rest of the show prior to this.

Later on I was doing development on the first entry of Mario's Rather Unusual Trilogy, Mario's slightly Unusual Boss Rush*, and I got this silly idea of “what if I were to add a level and boss based on that show that JC and I saw”.

*By the way I've released a feedback demo for the 2.0 update so y'all can check it out if you like.

I looked around and found that an animator on the Netflix series (Scott Lewis) had actually made two Hilda fan games based on the original Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda (the name of the games are Super Hilda and The Legend of Zilda, respectively).

https://twitter.com/little_digits/status...7863145479

After finding the games and playing through them a bit I ended up taking some of the sprites from Super Hilda and using them for the boss rush project, though I did modify some of the sprites and create my own for the project as well.

Fast forward to now, I was having this idea of doing a simple test animation based on Super Hilda (which by the way I have done some minor work on it) and I thought to myself, “you know what if this game had a bit more substance or at least more levels”. In terms of levels, I thought maybe they'd be adaptations of episodes, while for the visual style I have two ways of going about it;

1) It'd be still pixel art but will now have some more colors, shading and not be constrained to the “#RETRO NES like look”:

(by the way these sprites are for the third entry for Mario's Rather Unusual Trilogy; Mario's VERY Unusual Final Frontier)

..or..

2) It'd be in the visual style of the show, kinda like the previously mentioned 2D Artwork-Based Mario Fan Game Proof-Of-Concept, which honestly sounds terrifying to me (LARGE IMAGE):


I'd probably just make that animation test and not actually make this into a game, though.

Arcade Classics: Donkey Kong & Mario Bros. Remakes:
So this is perhaps the only project out of these which has actually escaped my mind and exist in the form of code, visuals and sound. I've previously showcased videos of me attempting to recreate the arcade versions of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.; I was also planning on adding more elements to them like various modes based on other content, e.g for Donkey Kong maybe the 25m stage would be flipped like in some ports, or possibly some elements from DK'94 (like Mario's moveset), while for Mario Bros. it may have modes based on Punch Ball Mario Bros., Mario Bros. Classic (the GBA version bundled with the Super Mario Advance series and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga), and Mario Clash.

Here are some gameplay videos/.GIFs/images of the project:






END:

Alright so, I guess y'all can now list your own projects that ye'd like to do but can't/won't.

List of projects I eventually plan to finish after the indefinite hiatus is over, assuming I don't abruptly cancel them:

Spoiler

Mario's Rather Unusual Trilogy (Mario's slightly unusual Boss Rush (Completed), Mario vs. Some Unusual Foes (In development), Mario's VERY Unusual Final Frontier (In development))
Sonic's Foray into Random/Unusual Zones (spin-off of Unusual Trilogy, in development)
Angry Birds Slingshot Frenzy (In development)
Super Mario Flashback: Really Good Edition (In development)
Super Hilda DX (In only conceptual phase)

Yes, I am aware that I have about 6 or so fangame projects currently in development at the same time. And yes, I am also aware that all of this is very ambitious.

+ List of projects I'm helping out with in some small capacity during my hiatus:

Spoiler

Super Mario Bros Dimensions 2 (as a spriter, only for Mario's sprites)
MFGG Community Fangame Project 3 (as a spriter)
WordGirl ReWired (as a artist)