Author Topic: What's Happening Nowadays with all the Danmakufu Fangame Projects?  (Read 5447 times)

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Felis-Licht

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Storytime:

Recently I was struck by sudden nostalgia for some old touhou fan games (the ones made in danmakufu in particular) when I first got into touhou and discovered MotK. I remembered stuff like Luminous Dream and non-touhou ones like Juuni Jumon, playing them and having fun despite myself being terrible at these kinds of games in general. Young me didn't care, I liked seeing people actually make their own little games and side projects for the things they loved. As much as I wanted to do something myself, I wasn't skilled at the coding behind these kinds of games, but I took some enjoyment in making cute little sprites for people to use since there were a lot of demands for custom bullets and player sprites in other people's scripts and projects even though I haven't done much in my own thread for quite some time :'D

Happy as I was to find that these still exist on the web, it kinda hit me how there's little to no other new projects being worked on around the community now. Or at least it seems that way to me. For example, Luminous Dream's creator had another game in the works, Tree of Life, which never got finished and remains as a small demo. Juuni Jumon had another game planned, Juuni Jumon - Cultural Festival, which similarly got cancelled at some point and never finished. Another interesting note was someone who wanted to use my Rin player sprites for their own fangame, and then I came to find out that game was also cancelled. Lots of other games either remained unfinished, demo only, or canceled altogether; games such as Promised mystery of moisture, Unification of the Artful Rain, and Len'en's Glorious Memory Lane feel like they've completely dropped off the face of the earth.

It just seems like there's barely any being made or worked on now? At most I've seen are music albums in this thread with ideas for stories and characters, and the last games I remember being finished and talked about highly were Sapphire Panlogism and Bubbling Imaginary Treasures (though the latter apparently had some drama that occurred with the creator).

Obviously times change and people have less time or move on with their lives for other things, leaving stuff like this behind for people like me to randomly remember and ramble about out of the blue. But it feels kinda sad to see so very few new things in the current age. It makes me wonder if people are even bothering with making more touhou danmakufu fan games alongside the newer touhou stuff. Unless they're hiding deep with the pits of Discord, where no one without an account and invite is allowed to see them. Which only saddens me more if new stuff is going to continue to remain hidden behind gated communities far from the surface web.

What is happening nowadays? Are such projects a thing of the past, or is there less time/motivation to work on them? What are your thoughts on my weird ramblings about the past?


SeroVich

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Re: What's Happening Nowadays with all the Danmakufu Fangame Projects?
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2024, 11:27:46 AM »
I don't really know, other than maybe there are better game making softwares that can bring more flexibility than Danmakufu. And possibly that what you said is right; that people nowadays have less time to do things that they enjoy, including making Danmakufu games.

williewillus

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Re: What's Happening Nowadays with all the Danmakufu Fangame Projects?
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2024, 02:49:46 AM »
By "Danmakufu Fangame Projects", what exactly are you referring to? Danmakufu only? Single stage scripts or full games?

I'd argue that in the years since the height of the danmakufu scripting era, fangames have gotten even better and more numerous. Especially from the Chinese side (eios, bditb, uvoi, tdamr and bossrush dude's games, asl, and soon tm CuOO), but the west hasn't really been slacking either (LDQ a recent standout). There's a lot to play outside of the few dead projects you listed.

Felis-Licht

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Re: What's Happening Nowadays with all the Danmakufu Fangame Projects?
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2024, 02:35:29 AM »
By "Danmakufu Fangame Projects", what exactly are you referring to? Danmakufu only? Single stage scripts or full games?

I'd argue that in the years since the height of the danmakufu scripting era, fangames have gotten even better and more numerous. Especially from the Chinese side (eios, bditb, uvoi, tdamr and bossrush dude's games, asl, and soon tm CuOO), but the west hasn't really been slacking either (LDQ a recent standout). There's a lot to play outside of the few dead projects you listed.
Both scripts and full games basically. A lot to play, but there's a lot I've never heard or seen of compared to others and it makes me wonder why they seem to be hidden.