Hello Fan-Users. Creator speaking and i’ve got some bad news:
There is no Fangame…and there won’t be any. Kind of...
In this post I’ll explain everything that I want to inform about the discontinuation of this project:
“There Is No Fangame” is a fangame created by Bit Studio and released on 29th August 2022 (over 6 months from this post publication). It was inspired by “There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension” made by Draw Me A Pixel (2020) as a gift from Fans (it kinda overlapped with TING:WD 2nd Anniversary). The game was mainly made by one person - me - Bitowsky, but I’ve also gotten a hand from a lot of my friends, which I’m very thankful for. At the moment of writing this post, the itch.io page for this project has been visited over 600 times and the fangame has reached over 150 downloads. It got a lot of positive feedback, but there were also some propositions on how to improve this fangame.
“There Is No Fangame” has the similar “shape” to the original game. It’s a point & click game with a lot of 4th wall breaking and humor. The current Act 1 has about 30 minutes of gameplay in which Fan-user interrupts a peace that Fangame - main character - had for a long time. Game is full of puzzles that player need to think “outside the box” and also have the hint system for those who can’t think “outside the box”.
As much as I would like to develop the rest of the fangame, there are of course some obstacles that might (or already do) make it next to impossible. I’ll try to explain them as precisely as possible:
I can’t express how much I love the non-game that was a main inspiration for this project. That’s why one year ago I wanted to make a fangame that would have a similar system and with an equally good storyline. Act 1 might not win a medal for a good story but I wanted to improve it with the release of the next act. But, it wasn’t the only thing to do. There was also Act 2 (and also Act 3) to be made at the same time. But then I realized that the project has a lot of things to do. And by looking at the fact that I was the only one developing the project, it made me scared that I might start hating working on the project (and maybe even in the original game itself, which was bad, considering how much I love it). In fact, I even started feeling like that when having a progress of 30-35%! That’s why I decided to take a pause for now.
Some of you might be surprised that the fangame originally had 3 plans for the release. The first one (before starting the project) assumed making one full fangame (with all acts), which is ridiculous considering the limited estimated time. Then, when I was ready with Act 1 and started making Act 2, I felt that burn-out that made me depressed. That is where I thought about releasing Act 1 as a full fangame and nothing more. But then I thought of making something similar to what Deltarune does - releasing each part individually, each having a long time interval. This is when I released a trailer on YouTube (6th August 2020) that promoted the first act of non-fangame. After the release I thought about the lore for the Fangame and that’s when I realized that making over 4 acts would be way too time-consuming for me (especially with that occasional burn out) - I saw that the plan, that I was originally going for, was not a good idea. I just simply planned that wrong.
Making non-fangame was a pretty fun experience, but I also had other plans for my future life as a game developer. Besides, I also thought that focusing on the project that wouldn’t give me any sort of earning (donations don’t count here) would not be a good adult-life start. I don’t want to say that I’m greedy and only looking for money, but if I want to have a successful life, I need to finally get to work and show the bigger world that I’m also a passionate game developer that can also make something good and life-changing. And, as I always say to myself, “There’s no progress without a step back”.
In fact, as a small sneak peak, me and my team are working hard on a game right now. I can’t share any details for now, but it’s gonna be pretty unique in gameplay.
Looking at how much I’ve for this project, it would be a shame if I would just throw it away and never come back to it. I will try to resume the development of this project somewhere in the future, when I’ll be in a good state of my life.
The non-fangame will still be downloadable via Itch.io - it won’t go away anywhere. But I thought about making something as a last mark for this project. That’s why I would like to announce the last update of the fangame. What will it be like?
Thank you once again everybody for supporting this project, even by a little bit. This meant (and still means) a lot to me. That’s why I would like to highlight some of the members that were special members in this mini community. So, I would like to thank:
I always liked the Russian language, so I really wanted to have it implemented into my project. Thanks to Blazer88, who I met on “World Of Goo Community Server”, it became possible. He always messaged me, when something wasn’t clear in translation and that made the translating process very smooth. He’s one of my trusted translators and friends. Большое спасибо!
The non-fangame was already a big present for Draw Me A Pixel team, but I wanted to add a cherry on top of it, by adding their native language - French. That’s why I asked VolcanoJungle (who I also met on WoG Community Server) for help with it. A lot of school stuff happened along his way, but he still managed to translate the first half of the game. Even though these obstacles were on the way, I’m still thankful to him that he put his time and energy for that French translation. And also for being one of my best friends that I know on the Internet. So, merci beaucoup!
Since the French translation was made in half, I wanted to find a person to finish the second half of the non-fangame text. So I was very happy when Xcvazer accepted my proposition for translating the rest of the file. He was very informative and also asked a lot of questions when something was not clear enough. He also managed to fix some of my typos, which I’m even more thankful for. So, merci beaucoup aussi!
As I said before, I made some typos in the project. And by “some” I mean A LOT! Thanks to AnomeQ (he came to me by himself) the fangame is now typo-free! …or at least I think so. Anyway, he did a really good job with fixing some of my misspellings. Also he’s from the same country as me so we got along very easily. Dzięki wielkie za pomoc, nie wiem co bym bez ciebie zrobił!
There were some additional test playthroughs to be made before the global launch of the non-fangame. Thanks to Jagi, _conveyorX and _ThroneX it was possible. They were able to successfully test the project. Thank you all!
Though the Fan-translation wasn’t so successful, Ibrahim was able to provide German Language to this project, which he nailed very well! This made me happy, because, besides Russian, I’m also interested in the German Language. Seeing that this will be also supported in this project made me very satisfied. Ibrahim is also a game developer so I was also able to get along with him. Vielen Dank dafür!
Polvunak was the first person that joined our community in a long time. He also was so kind as to do fangame advertising. Even though I never asked him to do it, he was able to invite some people to the Bit Studio community. Kinda unexpected, but I’m still thankful to him for doing it.
Yenterary was not exactly one of the first community members, but he also provided support for me in these trying times. He is the only person who donated me with real money. This was a step forward for me, because I haven’t got any kind of money for providing content to people. I know it might feel like this place is not so deserved and “pay-to-win”, but I really wanted to highlight Yenterary for doing this. Thanks a lot buddy!
I would like to highlight Chivi as well, because of attempting to stream my project. Even if it was a big failure from my side, I still want to credit him for trying.
The other people that I would like to thank are TotorRuns, Solar, Huraccane and Typicyl. Thanks a lot for showing some of the early support or helping in any other tiny way.
There’s also one more person, that is not exactly a Bit Studio Community Member, but is still important to mention. The person who was the main foundation of this project. The person who started all of this.
Pascal Cammisotto.
If you are somehow reading this, then I would like to send a big “Thank you” (or “Merci” lol). You were able to showcase to the world what the meaning of “non-game” is. And you did it with 300% success. Breaking the fourth wall, laughing at Free2Plays, messing around with credits. It’s just phenomenal that something so odd can be so much of a perfect experience. You were able to make a lot of fans, including me. You are such a big inspiration for me, when it comes to making games. Even if all you said was “If you want to make games, make games”, it’s still a big part of the reason why I like to make games. So thank you, Pascal! And the entire Draw Me A Pixel Team! This was an unforgettable experience for me. I wish you all the other successes of making lots of great and odd games!
And that’s all that I have to say. Thank you all for reading this. I hope you will look forward to this new mini update as well as another take on Fan-translations.
See you another time!
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