Adventure Ponies

Adventure Ponies is A simple 8Bit style platforming (2-D) game based off a tongue and cheek advertisement comercial on the Hub (Under the same name). The Commercial features the partying, Pink Pony named pinkie Pie as she plays a 8Bit version of herself fighting an 8Bit Hydra. The Commercial ends with the phrase "It could Happen", and by this games creation and launch during comic con, it did. The game starts out with one character (Twilight Sparkle [Purple unicorn]) with the object being to reach the goal then beat a boss from the show. After 6 levels, and fighting through a Dragon, a Hyrda, A bull, A Griffon, Diamond Dogs (Dogs with Razor claws), and Discord the god of chaos, the player is awarded an additional character with a completely different play style. With 6 unlock-able characters (The main characters of the show), and the overall style, you'd expect this to be a fan made game. The Most impressive part about this game, it isn't a fan game. Hasbro created the game and gave out codes during comic-con to access the game on their website: http://www.hubworld.com/hubworld/specials/mlp8bit/ (Code: HUBMLP8BIT). Several fan made games were made in a similar style after the commercial aired, with The Story of the Blanks (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/573755)  as the only 8 Bit style before the commercial. Similar to the earlier posts, this shows a unique take on Copyright issues, and helps showcase how the remix generation can create a new standard between consumer and parent company.

Legends of Equestria

Another Fan made game currently in Pre-Alpha development (Non-open beta), Legends of Equestria is a MMO, free to play game based in the world created by Hasbro in the television show My little pony: Friendship is Magic. Character creation and customization is an important part of any MMO/RPG, and this game provides 3 playable species (Unicorn, Pegasus, Earth), RGB (Red Green Blue) color editing, and Cutie mark (Tattoo that determines occupation and Fate) obtained through completion of tasks to identify what the player is best at. Unlike many Free to play MMO's this game features a fully 3-D world that has interior rooms within every house, a combat system, and many other features a full price game offers. A demo is shown below.       

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klzDkDsbNAk&feature=player_embedded#t=194s 

The project is a large group of fans programming, drawing, and even serving as a legal Team. From their legal team on the Legality of the project, Hasbro has allowed them to construct the game, they are not for or against using the world in the game but in regards to the characters from the show: "Due to potential copyright issues, we instead chose to allow players to have their own unique adventures". Although this is still an unofficial name, I feel the Remix Generation is an adequate name for this generation, especially if companies begin to put copyrights aside and focus more on the consumer. Hasbro is an inspiration as a company to allow so many people to use its copyrighted characters, and as a result their profits have increased due to more fans of the show learning about it from these remixed creations. The game will also be 100% family friendly with no blood, extensive word filter, and a skilled team of moderators. 

Fighting is Magic

Fighting is Magic is a Fighting game staring 17 playable characters from the My little pony universe. As weird as the concept of a fan made, Mortal Kombat style fighting game is for a TV show My little pony, programmers from Mane6 (http://www.mane6.com/) have been working diligently to make this into a reality. Taken from their FAQ on why they are creating the game:

           "In Twilight Sparkle’s words [Purple Pony, Pictured (And probably just reappeared)]:

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, I learned a valuable lesson.

Sometimes, your friends might be too stubborn to see the truth, but you can always beat some sense and friendship into them. Hard.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle.

P.s. By the way, How is your eye healing up? I hope I didn’t go too hard on you!"

They go on to explain that they had the idea for a cool game and thought that with a little work, they could create a fun game playable by all ages. True to the show, the game features non-lethal K.O.'s and cartoon violence. They started with an Outdated (2002) 2D fighting game engine and repurposed and re-programmed from the ground up for play movements and style. The Game is still a work in progress and no playable demo has been released, but once a week they do a livestream of the current progress to show it off. At a recent event, players were given a chance to demo the current build(game),

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJoxPrNfM2M&feature=player_detailpage#t=2737s

. This game will be released (eventually), and is not backed by Hasbro or the Hub, however according to their Legal team, Hasbro is allowing them to continue work and will not be calling copyright infringement. Unlike several companies such as EA and the NFL which will fight tooth and nail for intellectual property, Hasbro has allowed this and several other soon to be released large third party games. This shows a level of intellectual property sharing not seen before in this industry, and with the eventual completion will mark an exciting trend for the future. This game will not be sold for cash, and is currently not accepting donations.  

Portal 2 (PC)

Another game created by Valve, Portal 2 the sequel to Portal (2007) released on April 19, 2011. Portal was initially packaged as a bonus game concept on the "Orange Box" and was met with overwhelming approval. Portal places the player in an Aperture science laboratory (A competing company to black Mesa, the main company of the Half life series), in a series of seemingly simple puzzles to get the player used to the controls and concepts of testing equipment. Soon they introduce portals, a two way gate that can be moved to any white wall by firing a portal from the provided gun. After completing the first game, Valve released a teaser of the character being taken back inside after escaping (And being knocked unconscious). Portal 2 was significantly longer and introduced Co-Op testing. The problem with puzzle games is that once you learn a solution, the puzzle is no longer fun. If you are playing on a console, once you beat the game (and the separate Co-Op story) there is nothing left for you to do. On the PC however, Steam has made mods easily accessible through Steam Workshop. Allowing anyone to download custom maps without needing to understand how to install mods. Valve promised that they would release a easier to use map editor than previous editors (New version shown above). Currently the quality of the maps is generally high, with difficulty ranging from low to impossible. Players can also create custom storys with audio. Because portals are involved, levels do not have to make sense, a box from one side could take you to the past version of a level, the other side the future, with the middle being made out of ice-cream.

TF2 Hale Versus

Probably the most random thing I have come across while playing Team Fortress 2 (Or any game for that matter) is "Saxton Hale [...] a daring Australian, President and CEO of Mann Co.". Mann Co. is the in game store provided to sell weapons and hats at large prices (2.59$ for a key...).

A small list of his accomplishments

• Fighting off a lion while simultaneously having his hair cut.
• Single handedly wiping out the Indonesian berzerker shark (and making it cry).
• Retrieving a stolen puck from a thieving tortoise, despite its thirty minute head start.

As a joke and to boost sales, Valve created a series of events themed around a "Buff Australian" named Saxton Hale, even creating several fake comics to showcase his manliness. In the newest event, Saxton Hale asks the players to deliver Austrialium (All purpose element) to a rocket ship, so that Mann Co. can sell commemorative plates of the death of Poopy Joe (Monkey Astronaut) in the resulting "unavoidable" crash. The Plotline of these events often make no sence, but players enjoyed them; creating events and a special game-type of their own. A mod labeled "Saxton Hale VS", which allows one player to become Saxton Hale and fight off against the enemy team of 26+, was released and added to several in game servers. . The Game mode is very simple, One player spawns with  [(n+250)*n]1,155 Health (in non-mathematical terms: A lot!), but is only allowed to use their fists. To balance the game out, Saxton Hale can "Super jump" (Jump eight times higher than normal, has to recharge) and after a large amount of damage can go into Rage (Invincibility). From my experiences Saxton Hale is the victor 99/100 times. 

Pyromania

Back in 1999 programers created a tongue and cheek mod for quake called Team Fortress, which was later bought by valve and sold. Team fortress was a class based multiplayer game where two teams: Blu and Red, fight over "Intelligence" simply because the other team exists. In 2007 valve released a sequel, with an updated source engine onto xbox, playstation and PC (Later added to mac). The PC version was changed to free to play and was encouraged to make their own levels. Valve introduced micro-purchases, in game items that can be purchased for real currency, creating an in game economy (http://tf2spreadsheet.blogspot.com/) that buys and sells items by how rare, demand, and difficultly to get. To advertise the game, Valve created "Meet the ___" to show off each of the classes. After five years, Meet the Pyro has been released, starting an in game ARG (Augmented reality game). This event is similar to usual holiday events, where players can complete an objective to earn an exclusive item, but by equipping the goggles (Provided on log in), you see the world through the eyes of the pyro (See video). Valve makes a lot of money off of these updates, by charging the player 2.59 for a key to open an exclusive crate that is time limited. Each crate has one item that cannot be obtained through crafting or randomly throughout the game, and often has a "Strange" weapon that counts how many kills you have gotten with it. at 2.59 a piece, nearly every player will end up buying at least one.

Mass Effect 3 (New Ending DLC)

Mass Effect 3 is a game made by Bioware and published by EA in 2011, and is meant to be the finale in the Mass Effect series.  The series follows an Earth commander named Shepard set in the distant future. Without giving any of the plot points away, the series focuses on Relays that allow travel between galaxies possible. The Relays were built trillions of years ago by an unknown source for a different cycle of life, and currently allow species to interact and cooperate/kill eachother.  In the third game, an enemy you learn about in the first two (indirectly) known as Reapers, comes to kill off the intelligent civilizations of this life cycle. The game is an RPG (Role playing game) and throughout the game you make difficult choices that kill off entire species to save others. These are the biggest choices you are forced to make in the series, but the original ending does not portray these. The original ending gives you a choice of color: Green, Red, or Blue. Before choosing an ending, the game gives very little information, for red they give a single sentence of what will happen. Each choice shows the same ending with a different hue, with the idea you will imagine what happened differently. The Green ending was incredibly vague and only accessible from playing multiplayer or from searching for 100% of the single player. Bioware faced a huge backlash by the players, who claimed their choices did not matter in the end (Included is a video of what players thought of the ending, and to prove how vague the ending is, It's not a spoiler to watch it...[Mostly because it doesn't show whats being activated]). In a pressured decision, Bioware produced a 1.8 gig (or 1,800 megabyte) add on, that added more clarity on the choices, and a video showing the end result of each civilization. The game does not go into detail as many would prefer, but it answers several of the initial questions regarding the ending. In the first play through, Red was the only path that made sense, and would benefit the universe. With the increased clarity, both blue and green were a difficult decision. Red is the safest ending, with blue and green making a morality choice. Personally I spent three minuets trying to decide between which ending to choose, and finally decided on blue. As a joke ending, Bioware created a [Refusal] option; the premise being that Shepard walks away from making the choice and everyone dies. Although this ending is completely out of character it is a hilarious way to end the game, especially with so many people complaining about the previous ending.