User:Aidanzapunk/Fanmade Content

If you're reading this, it's already too late.

This is an essay, a page containing the advice or opinions of one or more SmashWiki contributors. You may heed it or not, at your discretion.

“	Simply thinking about including a character in the game and the act of actually crafting the character and making them work are two entirely different things. It's quite difficult for me because most players only think about whether a character is in the game and fail to consider the difficulties in bringing that character to life.	”
—Masahiro Sakurai

Fanmade content is something that will always find its way into franchises, ranging from art of existing content to creations of entirely original content. Smash Bros. is certainly no exception, as there is tons of fanmade content, ranging from mods, to Flash games, to even just basic stuff like writing ideas down, the lattermost recently having a surge in popularity across the wiki, ranging from casual stuff to April Fools' Day jokes. This page is a collection of my thoughts on fanmade content in Smash, and more specifically game-related content, coming from someone who has made fanmade content since late 2015, and has seen tons of other fanmade content throughout that time.

Before we begin...

Let me just clarify that this is not something that should be taken as law. I am not here to say, "this is how things should be done, and if you do it any other way, you're wrong." Making fanmade content is a fun process, since you're adding your own little touches to something you hold dear to you. Tons of people pour their heart and passion into content like this, regardless of what form it takes, and to say that they're doing it "wrong" would just be entirely missing the point I just made about things being fun. This is especially true in the case of Smash content, because there's just so much you could do, in an equally high number of ways. However, these are still my genuine thoughts and criticisms, and while I don't think that they're going to change anything major—I am just a random guy on the internet, after all—if you're thinking of making fanmade Smash content and you happen to come across this, I'd at least recommend giving it a read, and taking into consideration my thoughts. Even if these thoughts are considered, however, I do not think it will hinder the fun process.

Choosing a character

The first important step to any Smash game, fanmade or not, is picking who should be in it. I mean, what's a Smash game without characters to fight as? But with fanmade content comes one major thing to keep in mind: exactly who you choose to make a moveset for. Sure, you can pick anyone you want to—I've seen movesets made for the most out-of-left-field picks, some of which still are around on this wiki today—and I won't stop you from making a moveset for your dream character. But there also becomes a certain point where things become a little much, both in terms of choices and numbers. There's a reason there's an ongoing meme about roster sizes in the Smash community. Time and time again I've seen fangames with hundreds, even sometimes thousands of characters, all for the sake of "yea, they'd be cool." It's not a mindless process, there are good rosters that I've seen in Smash fan projects, some of them even having tons of characters—one project I've been a part of has over 160 characters (double the size of Ultimate's roster), and an expansion on Ultimate I've also seen had over 200 characters. There are really endless possibilities for choosing who you, the fan, want to see in a Smash game, but knowing when a line is being crossed is a good first step. I've never been a fan of just doing something for the sake of having something, and even if it's just a little, I put effort into anything I do.

Making a moveset

What exactly makes a moveset? Surely it can't be harder than slapping a few special moves together and calling it a day, right? You'd be surprised. The thing that sets apart the characters in not just Smash, but also fighting games as a whole (for the most part) is their individuality, and what unique things they bring to the table. And when you're making a moveset, you should at least shed some light on how that individuality is shown. Do you have to be super technical about it? No. Some people choose to, and some people have the time and effort to make it into a fully functioning game, but you don't have to do any of that if you don't know the ins and outs of the series—I don't, so I choose not to. But if you're wanting to show off some fanmade movesets, you'd theoretically want people to understand your vision. Some characters may even have specific abilities unique to them that would help them stand out more from the rest of the cast—like I said, everyone is unique. Even disregarding this, making a full moveset is an important thing as well. Many times I see a moveset with just special moves listed out, and while special moves are an important part of a character's moveset—maybe even perhaps the most important thing, as they are some of the main things that set characters apart from one another—they are not the only thing involved in a moveset, and they shouldn't be. This is also more of a personal preference, but when making a moveset, I try and have as little original stuff as possible. While this is also because I'm not the best at coming up with original content (or, at least, I'm not satisfied with truly original content I come up with), I also prefer to make characters accurately reflect how they are in their home series, which is something even Sakurai does, and it's extremely noticeable in the series—characters like Mega Man and Simon feel like they're straight out of their home series. But often times, I do see movesets with purely original content that, to me, only seems to exist just to fulfill the special move slots, with no real connection to the character. Now, sometimes, you do have to play around a little, especially if the source material you have offers very limited options in the grand scheme of things, but, like I said, it's also very possible to capture the overall feel of the character rather than feeling exactly like a copy-pasted version—characters like Robin and Olimar bring in aspects of their franchise to make a cohesive moveset. There's even times when the source material itself is very scarce and doesn't help you a lot, in which case, you may have to come up with nearly entirely original stuff, but, believe it or not, plenty of Smash stuff has that too—characters like the Ice Climbers and Duck Hunt, while almost entirely original in terms of abilities, still function as the characters in question and, while not an entirely desirable end result (at least, in my opinion), still fills the holes left by the source material. You also shouldn't let the fact that someone else has done a moveset stop you from making your own moveset—Awesomelink234 made his own moveset for Shadow long after my own, and my moveset for Cuphead was actually expanded upon by Drak. Like I said before, there's tons of ways for people to go about this, and you shouldn't let the fact that someone else "beat you to it" stop you from sharing your own ideas.

Final notes

While it's encouraged to have less of a focus on stuff outside of characters (Assist Trophies, stages, and the like) on the SmashWiki itself, to quickly address them here, I think it's fair to say that they follow the same logic as the previous two points: don't do too much, and make it stand out. Fanmade content is a form of art in a community, and you definitely want to leave your own impact on the collection by making something of your own and showing it off. And like I said, you don't have to follow any of this—I'm just sharing my opinions based on what I've seen and what I've come to think about it all. So go out and make your fanmade content (within reason, of course), and remember the most important rule: have fun with it!