The inspiration for my second fangame closed down yesterday

[VinnyVideo]

My second fangame, which I started in 2007 and finished in 2008, was based on a real-life experience I'd had. The institution that inspired this game closed down yesterday after years of hilarious and surreal drama. I have very mixed feelings about this.

Have you ever made a game about a real-life experience? My first two fangames (which I never released) were based on real-life experiences, and my current Career Fantasy project alludes to a lot of people and places I've encountered. Names and details have been changed to protect the innocent (and not-so-innocent), but I've found "real life" events, both positive ones and negative ones, to be great sources of inspiration when I make games.

[Vitiman]

Almost all of my joke games are based on real events/real people/real in-jokes. Everybody knows about the Charisma games, that really goes without saying, but did you know my old old joke game Super Mario's Bro Party was primarily sourced from in-jokes between myself and my girlfriend at the time? Oh, what fun we had. I think some of it was also from another friend, but I can't really remember at all.

This is notable because I remember sharing that game on MFGG and lying and saying it was a friend and their friend's in-jokes, and I had a reason for doing that but I don't really want to explain that because it's rather complicated, honestly. Nonetheless, it totally wasn't a "friend of a friend" thing going on, it was mine and my ex's various weird in-jokes surrounding some stupid stuff circa August 2012 (when the game was made, but not when I released it).

Other than that, an early concept for Mario Teaches Flying was that Mario would meet a bunch of real life friends during the second act, but then that whole thing got canned because I stopped caring about making games around that time. Pity, that.

[Mariotroid]

A lot planned for my indie game Headphone Holidays is real life experiences. The main character, Fluffy is based off my pet hamster Fluffy. The watering jugs and flowers in the Valentine's Day level is planned after experiences of watering my parents garden. The planned art style is based after my life at home during holidays as a kid and playtime in general where I would play with all my stuffed animals.