Some General Rules

[Slingerland]

Don't fucking say that shit. A case study proves that if you say that shit, you look like an idiot.

BlazeHedgehog, who probably put a response to such a statement the best, says:

If you sent a game like this to Sonic Team and they used it, you would probably save the Sonic series

I'm pretty sure doing something like this would do one of several things.

A) Absolutely nothing. With too much red tape involved in acquiring the rights to such a game and the feasibility that a company such as themselves would publish a game made in Multimedia Fusion, Sega and Sonicteam continues to turn a blind eye to SFGHQ, pretending we do not exist so that they do not have to sue the very people who pay them money for software.

Horrible things. Sega and Sonicteam are offended that anybody would have an ego to say their fangame would "save their company", because in their opinion, their company does not need saving. Because of this, they stop turning a blind eye to the community and shut us down.

C) Sega and Sonicteam misinterpret your message and their lawyers jump to the rescue, concerned what you are doing is a threatened breach of copyright and intellectual property. Because of this, they stop turning a blind eye to the community and shut us down.

Never, ever, ever think that you can or are going to "save" Sega or Sonicteam with your fangame or you will likely destroy us all and make a total fool out of yourself. This is so important it should practically be a rule for this community, added to the sticky and everything.

Consider your game better than Sega or Sonicteam's work all you want - but do not ever under any circumstances try and tell Sega or Sonicteam that. It's like spitting a nasty loogie directly in to their face and is the worst idea you could ever have.

Understand?

Good.

[Slingerland]

In the threads of the "General Fangaming Discussion" forum, asking for engines, sprites, and/or resources is highly frowned upon. Why? Most people work hard on their own projects and to give them away to some asshole who cannot program, let alone type correctly, is foolish. Therefore, most people NEVER give their hard work away, so if you are new at SFGHQ, I advise you not to ask for their materials out in public.

The same rule applies in private messaging. They might give it to you or lend you a hand, but if their answer is "NO," then the answer shall remain "NO." Harassing users privately for their materials is also forbidden.

If you play a cool fangame and want to learn how to do something, ask a question in the "Fangaming Assistance" forum and learn the old-fashioned way: by yourself. In the end, you will be a better fangamer, because of the work you put into to learning how to do something yourself.

There is also a fully-fledged engine available for download and it is called "Sonic Worlds." Check it out.

To recap, if you ask for someone's resources in public, action will be taken against you. If you harass someone privately, action will be taken. If we catch wind of any of said illegal activity, we will ban you so hard, your kids will inherit the shame.

[Rael0505]

When you make a thread here, you CANNOT just post a lot of information on the game. Anyone can come in and say they're making a game with 12 characters, 40 levels, and Super/Hyper characters in every level, but until you show us something, we have nothing to talk about. You have to give us at least some kind of proof that this game exists, whether it's artwork, music, screenshots/mock-ups*, videos, or anything. Logos do not count. You can show off whatever you like, as long as it's not only text. Also, engine tests have to be something more than a couple seconds or simply posting one from the site with minor changes.

Threads that don't show anything even remotely substantial are subject to being locked.

* [2/13/09 edit] If all you're ONLY showing mock-ups in your thread, it is only permitted if they contain some of your ORIGINAL artwork in them. Anyone can take graphics and sprites other people made off MFZ and slap them together in mspaint and call it a mock-up, but that doesn't count because it's not your work. If you want to show off mock-ups that don't have any of your original work, you'll have to also show some other evidence of your game (engine tests, videos, other in-game screenshots) in your thread as well.

[Aaron C-T]

I'm not sure I fully agree with the sprite/title screen bit. Posting a Sprite seems more like art forum material and title screen seems more like "I made this, I can has topic."

[Rael0505]

Eh, I thought that was kind of the deal when I nuked the screenshots thread. But I see your point, I'm modifying the post now.

[Rael0505]

That's the worst idea I've ever heard. It'll only encourage people to spam 25 or 100 posts so that they can make a thread. And I'm not about to think of punishments either. This problem isn't that big.

The forum description needs to be revised to sound more assertive. It makes it sound like it's nice to show some proof, but not required. I don't think Brad and I have the admin privileges to change it, though. If anyone else wants to, be my guest. I made this thread because of that.

[Rael0505]

Edited the rule on mock-ups. I also deleted everyone else's posts in this thread, because it was one of the worst discussions I've seen in this forum.