Happy 25th MFGG!

[KrystalPhantasm]

(Link to the art on my Bluesky here! : https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:g5tp3o2...6gfxpyos22 )

Happy 25th to the site that's had a HUGE impact on me and why I do creative hobbies! And unlike Bluesky, I'm not constrained by the character limit to gush about it >
(And also all of my other forum posts at the time of writing this are mostly from when I went under an older username as a teenager with rather embarrassing behaviour so... figure it'd be good to post more and push those older posts out...)

I'm 20 now at the time of writing this post, and I started posting on the forums and engaging with the discord community at around 15-16ish years old? But I've been on the site ever since 2015 or so? I'd be 7 at the time, and that feels SO weird now that I'm actually thinking about it >_>;
Time feels like it passed by so quick once you're no longer living in it...

Regardless, as someone who lives in a country where Nintendo isn't exactly much of a thing (its all mobile games and AAA PlayStation fans you'd find most of the time) it was kinda my gateway to Mario games in general before I was able to find a way to play them. But, even then, I always just kinda kept coming back, it was always so fun to just see people making fangames regardless of the varying degrees of quality, and that always inspired me...
Games like Psycho Waluigi, SMB Dimensions, and the Charisma Series (yes i know this ones a bit of a weird one but hush, its just as important in my heart ok) and I've still retained that utter love for fanworks to this day (even if obviously I have more taste and sense of quality now lol, a lot of the rougher fangames were funner as a naive kid unfortunately)
It pretty much kickstarted my interest in game development as a whole and helped boost all of my creative skills because I wanted to make fangames of my own ^_^
(and in turn, responsible for me pursuing my current college degree [Software Engineering] because I knew I wouldn't be able to make a living off of art here, gonna be honest)

Anyways, I really do hope that more Mario fangames get made these days (and more games that are willing to get a bit more out there than just remaining in the overly Nintendo-like pile I've been seeing a lot of recent fangames fall into, and had a discussion in the discord server about) more people need to really put their heart into making stuff about the stuff and characters they like and just having fun with it; I've made a few fangames in the past (that either are unreleased, barely games because I made them as a kid, or games I made as a teen that im slightly embarrased about but still glad I made), and I'm still currently working on some right now (alongside fully original stuff) at the time of writing, a Touhou-Mario crossover (my current priority), and then later probably my dream game that's a Mario AU that's just full of the stuff I just love personally in other media too, AND I've contributed a fair amount to the current Community Fangame Project (Tusk Trouble)

(Also, brownie points for the people who can name the characters in my art, teehee...  )

[VinnyVideo]

Thanks for making this and sharing it with us - it is awesome indeed! I know we've already chatted about it a little bit, but I want to reiterate that this is a really, really cool piece - one of my all-time favorite bits of MFGG art. I love how you squeezed in so many classic characters into this.

MFGG has had a huge influence on my life - I know it's crazy to say this, but my education and career paths would've been a lot different if I'd never discovered this place.

Course clear! You got a card.

[KrystalPhantasm]

Thanks for making this and sharing it with us - it is awesome indeed! I know we've already chatted about it a little bit, but I want to reiterate that this is a really, really cool piece - one of my all-time favorite bits of MFGG art. I love how you squeezed in so many classic characters into this.

MFGG has had a huge influence on my life - I know it's crazy to say this, but my education and career paths would've been a lot different if I'd never discovered this place.

Thank you so much ^_^ and I think I touched upon it briefly, but same here about my own education too!

you call it 'skill issue', I call it 'deficit of effort'.... we are not the same.........

[Louis Paul]

Now it's July 9th on my timezone, so happy birthday MFGG, I remembered playing so many fangames on this website. From the art I recognize the masked guy from The Purple Coin, Dudim from Charisma series, and Polter from Super Mario Bros. Dimensions.

Signature reserved for future use

[fireball3k]

happy 25th, mfgg!

i didn’t sign up until a month or two after the foundation of this site, but I was an early member. Yes, that Mighty recolor in Mario Left the Cheese Out is me. to paraphrase what Vinny said above, MFGG has had a profound impact on my life. In addition to just finding tons of Mario libraries for The Games Factory, I met lifelong friends through this forum. I don’t think I’d be the man I am today without it.

it also helps that I never touched the Thunder Dragon statue, but I figure that’d be like pressing the History Eraser Button anyway