// The FNAF Effect – GDC 2016

I meet with the fine folks over at Gamejolt on this past Friday at GDC. As a growing place for new and old Indie developers to share there games and development ideas, Clickteam appreciates Gamejolt’s service to the Indie scene and we discussed on ways CT could help support that.

During our discussions Five Nights at Freddy’s came up specifically about how it has impacted the world in not just as a commercial success and viral social media hit, but it’s effect on generating interest in young people in to the art of game development. Clickteam does not condone or support users that will shamelessly rip content or code from Scott Cawthon’s work. However beyond that I think it’s worth examining the following thoughts below, about how it is entirely possible a new generation of developers is born out of Freddy and his cohorts adventures.

Read on and decide yourself! Visit the news link below for comments from various Gamejolt users on the article.

“I’m so sick of seeing Five Nights At Freddy’s fan games everywhere. You don’t have to comment, I know you are too.

I know because it’s the only thing you tell me when you find out I work at Game Jolt. Then you go off on a rant about how we should remove all FNAF fan games and ban any user that mentions FNAF in chat, forums, and comments.

While you’re talking at me with your self-righteous tone, as if you’ve got the answers to life’s most challenging problems, I’m actually looking into your eyes for clues on why you think it is in the best interest of the indie community to ban groups of kids who are genuinely interested in learning and making games. Especially since remaking a game is a great way to learn game development. Even if all they are capable of right now is creating a game page for an idea so they can call themselves “developers”, how do you not see that all they want is to be just like you? They want to be involved with games outside of the norm of consumption. They want to create games alongside their favorite developers.

I personally believe that instead of measuring the success of an indie game by the money it makes, we should measure it by how influential it is. Thanks to the never ending marketing dollars of big publishers, kids are force-fed AAA titles from infancy. It’s a wonder in itself that they even want to play, let alone make, indie games.

If you’re sick of seeing fan games, do something about it by encouraging developers to make original games. We really need to do a better job as a community to encourage those interested in making games, because if everyone goes back to only playing the games they’re told to play by marketing dollars, then how is the industry supposed to support your career as an indie developer?

Don’t get me wrong, I think game discoverability is crucial for gamers. It’s also key for developers to succeed and we have plans for Game Jolt to revamp the home page and our game listings to show off the best new games (it’s much harder than I make it sound).

We started last year by moving all FNAF fan games to their own section on the site. This solved the problem for both worlds. Those who wanted to keep up to date with FNAF games and publish their own got to do it in a featured section of the site, and those who wanted nothing to do with FNAF could go on with their day. However, we’re not done; our vision is to allow sub-communities to form on Game Jolt so everyone can enjoy their specialized interests within the larger indie gaming community. We are doing just that with the new chat and the upcoming forums.

I don’t think the answer to “crappy” games is getting rid of them and excluding their creators from indie communities. I think the answer is to reach out to budding developers and help them find their own style and voice.

In the comments, I’d really like to see ideas on how we can solve the bigger issue of helping young developers make better games online as a community.”

Original Article as posted to Gamejolt: http://fireside.gamejolt.com/post/future-indie-developers-need-your-help-ukrybhgn

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Article by @thoro (Gamejolt)

Date: 03/21/2016

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