Let me heavily revise my answer:
I have cancelled at least 4 fan games in my life.
I started my first fan game in 2004, right after I graduated from college. I used to love to play video games as a kid and became heavily addicted during my more stressful days of college. My first attempt was way too ambitious. I tried to make my own RPG that would resemble Fire Emblem.
Of course, I couldn't figure out how the AI worked.
I couldn't easily make graphics.
I couldn't reused my code to make new enemies and challenges.
In short, I had not idea as to what I was doing.
After screwing around for 4 years, I decided to make my own platform game instead in 2009. It would resemble a space age version of Ninja Gaiden. Have any of you watched the Metal Hero series from Toei? It came to the US as VR Troopers. My superhero resembled Space Sheriff Gavan.
Of course, the animation was gawd awful.
I didn't realize that the best sprite length was a power of 2.
I didn't know how to build the collision mechanics.
The lizard enemies were drawn horribly.
The pigeon boss monster would die from one hit. I couldn't figure out why.
I then tried again, this time making a game that would meld Zelda and Kirby. I called it Wizard of the Leech. I didn't make many of my previous mistakes but I realized I had been too ambitious again. Programming all of the entry points and NPC's was a pain in the neck. I was beginning to learn my final lesson: How to design and build my own game engine, library, classes, code, etc. that could be easily reused.
My first successful fangame was Bubble Bobble. I started work on it in 2013. This time, I carefully planned the code library that could easily be reused to make new enemies and items. Since I am not much of an artist, I downloaded a lot of 16-bit sprites from Spriter Resources. By 2015, I had built a game with 20 mini-stages, 12 enemies, all 3 bubble dragons.
With the game engine that I used for Bubble Bobble, I finally was able to build my Super Mario fangame. I started work on this in 2016. I didn't like the first twelve stage I built so I redesigned some parts of my engine and started again. With 40 stages completed, I finally feel like I graduated from learner to, if not master, at least journeyman game-maker.
But now I have a different problem. Working on my fangame now feels really tediousness. I am putting pressured on myself to output one stage every two weeks. It is starting to feel like... work. I already have to stare at the computer all day at work. This year was especially brutal, as I had a big audit and an equipment verification project. I already spend 8 hours a day looking at computer photos of substation equipment.
Sometimes, I wish I became a game programmer instead of an utility engineer. But then, it wouldn't be as secure a job...
I have cancelled at least 4 fan games in my life.
I started my first fan game in 2004, right after I graduated from college. I used to love to play video games as a kid and became heavily addicted during my more stressful days of college. My first attempt was way too ambitious. I tried to make my own RPG that would resemble Fire Emblem.
Of course, I couldn't figure out how the AI worked.
I couldn't easily make graphics.
I couldn't reused my code to make new enemies and challenges.
In short, I had not idea as to what I was doing.
After screwing around for 4 years, I decided to make my own platform game instead in 2009. It would resemble a space age version of Ninja Gaiden. Have any of you watched the Metal Hero series from Toei? It came to the US as VR Troopers. My superhero resembled Space Sheriff Gavan.
Of course, the animation was gawd awful.
I didn't realize that the best sprite length was a power of 2.
I didn't know how to build the collision mechanics.
The lizard enemies were drawn horribly.
The pigeon boss monster would die from one hit. I couldn't figure out why.
I then tried again, this time making a game that would meld Zelda and Kirby. I called it Wizard of the Leech. I didn't make many of my previous mistakes but I realized I had been too ambitious again. Programming all of the entry points and NPC's was a pain in the neck. I was beginning to learn my final lesson: How to design and build my own game engine, library, classes, code, etc. that could be easily reused.
My first successful fangame was Bubble Bobble. I started work on it in 2013. This time, I carefully planned the code library that could easily be reused to make new enemies and items. Since I am not much of an artist, I downloaded a lot of 16-bit sprites from Spriter Resources. By 2015, I had built a game with 20 mini-stages, 12 enemies, all 3 bubble dragons.
With the game engine that I used for Bubble Bobble, I finally was able to build my Super Mario fangame. I started work on this in 2016. I didn't like the first twelve stage I built so I redesigned some parts of my engine and started again. With 40 stages completed, I finally feel like I graduated from learner to, if not master, at least journeyman game-maker.
But now I have a different problem. Working on my fangame now feels really tediousness. I am putting pressured on myself to output one stage every two weeks. It is starting to feel like... work. I already have to stare at the computer all day at work. This year was especially brutal, as I had a big audit and an equipment verification project. I already spend 8 hours a day looking at computer photos of substation equipment.
Sometimes, I wish I became a game programmer instead of an utility engineer. But then, it wouldn't be as secure a job...