Hey everyone!
I wanted to make a post clarifying something about The MakeCode Forums and projects inspired by it.
First of all, I want to say that I genuinely appreciate people enjoying the game and wanting to create things based around it. It seriously means so much that people still care about the trilogy and are interested enough to make their own ideas from it. I don’t know what else to say except thank you, for that alone.
However, I do kind of want to clarify the difference between taking inspiration from The MakeCode Forums and recreating The MakeCode Forums itself.
I am completely fine with people being inspired by the game and the general concept. In fact, I think it is really cool when people take something they enjoy and use it as a starting point for their own creativity. You have no idea how I’d be jumping with joy if I saw “Inspired by The MakeCode Forums” under a game title, like, seriously, I would… ahem, anyway…
The main thing I ask is that your project becomes its own thing.
Make your own story. Make your own characters.
The reason I say this is because the most interesting projects are usually the ones where the creator adds their own ideas, rather than trying to recreate something that already exists. The MakeCode Forums became popular because it did something never seen before. I don’t want this game to starve anyone of that chance, to make something super special and different, while still inspired by a big game.
So uh… yeah, that’s basically what this is about. This is less of a rule set and more of a way to show you that you can actually make a game inspired by this without it… not being your own.
Characters
I am asked about this so much, and I never have a concrete instilled answer. I have thought about this for a while (and for a while I mean 2 days), and I feel like people can use scamma and Vortex… to a degree.
By that I mean, there is an exact line I’m about to draw for just how much I think makes sense for their usage in a story, or just… any form of art at all. Think of it like this:
- Fanart? OH MY GOODNESS YES PLEASE.
- Easter Egg? Sure! That can be cool.
- Full playable character? No…
- Main villain? Definitely not.
- Story continuation? Goodness no.
The point is, I am happy with you using scamma so long as:
- He doesn’t have any story-altering character development.
- You credit me like… a little bit.
But instead, it’s waaaayyyy more fun to create your own characters!
A new villain, a new protagonist, a new group, or an entirely new concept can make a project feel much more unique! And again, I feel that’s what made TMF so special. I went more on the metanarrative side with Vortex because that is the type of character I’m really good at writing.
But there are still so many other types of villains out there. Have you ever thought of making yourself the villain in the story? I did at some point. In the first draft I was the one saying randomusers game was bad, but then I inevitably changed it. It would be so cool if someone used that idea and made a game on it. Or even maybe that some user made an extension that lets characters from their games join the forum? The possibility are on the absolute verge of being endless.
Also, just to clarify: forum members themselves are obviously not my characters. I am referring specifically to the fictional characters created for The MakeCode Forums, because I mean… I don’t own the concept of having the forum in a game.
Assets
With assets… now, I thought about this for a solid bit because these are all basically my final decisions on all this, but I do feel assets should be made by you guys, and not taken from TMF.
Please do not directly reuse things like:
- sprites
- art
- animations
All that stuff, primarily for forum UI elements.
A big part of making a game is developing your own style, and creating your own assets is a great way to make your project feel unique. Honestly, I want to see you guys make your own forum UI’s. Mine looks similar enough to the real forums, but… there is always room for improvement… or creativity! Like, think about it, if you look at the TMF3 UI, it doesn’t actually end up looking closer to the real forums UI, I sort of just had fun with it.
Of course, inspiration is completely fine.
For example, seeing a mechanic, design idea, or style in The MakeCode Forums and creating your own version of that idea is completely different from directly copying it.
But I mean… I’m not delusional. I know I wouldn’t know if you did actually copy some assets or not. All I ask is that you don’t make it incredibly obvious.
Oh yeah, also, about assets created by other people…
Some parts of The MakeCode Forums 3 were made by @Luke and @InvalidProject. Normally, I would personally say not to reuse like… anything from the game, but if you really really want to use the super special stuff, please ask them first. They created the best parts so like, it’s up to them honestly.
Story
Something I need to say to people a lot is the fact that The MakeCode Forums trilogy is a finished story, and I personally designed the end to be… very final. I know it’s super tragic of an ending but hey… I like my stories sad lol.
Uhm, so…
It tells the story that I wanted to tell, and I will never be continuing it ever.
But as I keep saying, that doesn’t mean people can’t make projects inspired by The MakeCode Forums. I don’t think you realise how loose I am with this fact.
You can make whatever you think will happen next, so long as you follow everything I’ve said. You can write that story, make that game (though you’d need to leave out my characters to the extent I said), and give it a different name (I’ll come to this next). That can be your “sequel” or “prequel” or whatever it is, but it’s still completely yours, if you know what I mean.
But the fun part isn’t in doing that. It’s making a completely new story!
Oh my god, the ideas are literally endless, I just have to give an example.
Now it took me about an hour to think of this, but it has jaw dropping potential. Anyone heard of The Begginer’s Guide? If you haven’t… it’s very good, though a bit dark. If you have… I think you get the idea.
Imagine this… you figure out about a topic that was made and sent by a random user (ARG style), and when you enter the link, it leads you to a very small game. There is a narrator who edited the code to have their voice lines subtitled into the game, though you don’t know who they are. They explain that it is, in fact, not their game, but the game of another user who was temporarily on the forums. They explain that they are going to show you several games by this person, each one representing a change in his mental state. You can even add changes, maybe you go back to the forums and tell people about it first. When you finish the first game, you could use the link sharing idea (anyone can do that in their game, I don’t own the concept) to bring the player to the next game. And then… you add your own Wifies type lore from there. For people who know The Beginner’s Guide… that could work out to be a very cool and eerie game.
The Name
The name is a particularly important part, yet surprisingly straightforward.
Please do not use “The MakeCode Forums” as the name of a new game.
This includes names that make it appear to be an official continuation, such as:
- The MakeCode Forums 4
- The MakeCode Forums: [something]
- The MakeCode Forums Remake
The reason is simply that the name is connected to the original trilogy, and I want to avoid confusion between the original games and other projects. I also don’t want it to seem like you’re just completely pinning down the concepts in your game to just “The MakeCode Forums”.
Instead, give your project its own name!
Take @CopySprite, for example (sorry for dragging you from the void), his game is called “The MakeCode Journey”, which is AMAZING. I know it was initially The MakeCode Forum something something something but whatever! Point is, this gives him a lot more freedom on what he wants to do with the game. If he wants to stay similar to The MakeCode Forums, that’s cool. But if he wants to go off on a wild tangent, the two games are more easily disconnected.
Same goes for @josef and @marioeligi’s “The MakeCode Show” (sorry for being a necromancer), which… I think came before The MakeCode Forums anyway? I don’t know. Whatever. Point is, they gave it a name of its own, and that makes it super cool.
Honestly it doesn’t even need to have “The MakeCode” in it. It depends on your story. In the story I mentioned earlier, if I made it a game, I’d call it “The Archives”, or something. “The Forum Archives”. Nevermind, “The Archives” sounds better.
So uh… yeah.
Final Thoughts
I want to make it clear that this is not me saying “don’t make things inspired by my work.” I mean, given all the suggestions, I think I’ve made it very clear that the opposite is the case, but… just to really drive it home, like, I think fan games are COOL. I just don’t want it to uh… be like I’m restricting you, really. And also, I quite like having the game as it is. I know I feel like I’ve been an extra pain about all this, there is always this background question of, is it really that deep?
I honestly couldn’t tell you.
Anyway, The MakeCode Forums was my own idea that I built into something real, but I’m always interested to see what you all make! This is gonna be officially it, I can’t change up now because it is now cohesively on paper for everyone to see. I need this equally as much as y’all because I feel I’ve been super unfair to a lot of people. Hopefully that stops now.
Have fun coding in… MakeCode? I mean… making code? Do you even make code? You write code, I think, which is just coding, right? Nevermind, my brain is being weird. Bye.
ChimbroDaPro
that’s true… I… sorry 
