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[Discussion] Line Between Fangame and "Inspired By"?

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    • Seen Apr 28, 2018
    I recently had the idea to make a game inspired by Pokemon, but with a quite different theme/concept. At the same time, it would be almost the same game mechanics as Pokemon and borrow quite a few conceptual ideas. So that got me thinking...where's the line between a fangame and a "game inspired by another game"? To elaborate and exemplify my question, I'll go into a bit more detail about my game idea, and then ask whether it would be considered a Pokemon fangame or a separate game inspired by Pokemon.

    Game Idea For Example And Discussion
    Spoiler:


    So with those details, the question remains: would something like that be considered a Pokemon fangame, with all its creatures and those borrowed mechanics, or is it considered too different and more like an independent game inspired by Pokemon? And where exactly is that line?
     
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    Interesting. I don't think there's really any way to figure out exactly where the line separating fangame and inspired game is, at least not in some mathematical sense of "knowing the location of the line." I'd call your game "inspired by Pokémon".

    I think the biggest factor is just whether or not you call it a Pokémon game. If you don't, then it's not. There are several other games that feature battling styles similar to Pokémon, so despite the fact that Pokémon is far and away the most popular, I wouldn't merely call your game a fangame for including certain elements common to this class of RPGs.

    On an unrelated note, I really like the descriptions you've written for each type class breacher. Good work!
     
    So I guess now the question becomes a bit more of a practical one: the games posted in subforums here are all Pokemon fan games. If a game like the one I'm working on isn't really a fan game, would it be appropriate to be posted here anyway, since it's still inspired by Pokemon?
     
    This section is called "Game Development", not "Pokémon Fangame Development". Besides, not all game threads here are for Pokémon fangames anyway.
     
    You have a point about the title of the forum. But other than a single Digimon game, literally every thread in the completed or progressing games subforums is a Pokemon fan game XD (The farthest thing from a Pokemon fan game is one thread of a fan game for a Pokemon ROM hack, which is basically the same thing as a Pokemon fan game :P ).

    Which is why I was wondering whether a non-fan game, but one inspired by Pokemon, would fit in cohesively with the rest of the games in development here. Depending on whether it does or not, that sort of helps classify it as one category or the other.
     
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