Topic: 2010 - Do we continue with the April Fools' jokes?

[JonLeung]

Do we want to discuss what the 2010 April Fools' joke could be?  But firstly, do we need one?



The last two years' jokes in particular were really big.  The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Hours and Metroid Dread took up a lot of my time.  Almost every day from the beginning of December until literally March 31.



Sure, the jokes get a lot of attention.  The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Hours bombarded my inbox with countless requests to make it into a fan game (do your own work, gamemakers!) and Metroid Dread was mentioned a few times on other sites, even if most of the hits didn't come until about two weeks after April Fools' Day.



April is cetainly a peak period for VGMaps.com, mostly due to the April Fools' joke drawing in curious new visitors.  There's no questioning that there is some value to them.  But compared to the amount of time it takes to make them - at least at the scale of the past couple years - they almost seem to be not quite worth the time and effort.



Consider that I've usually been the only one doing them.  The biggest two took nearly all of my available time for four months each (not including the incubation of the ideas in my head for a while before the actual work).  This is time that might be better spent finding ways to improve the site, perhaps.  Okay, the constant talk of a possible revamp is almost a joke now, if it isn't already - but I certainly don't need another reason to put it off.  I'm sure some of you would rather not have me say "I'm putting the revamp off so I can work on a joke set of maps."  Especially maps that some people might say "hmm, that's neat, but I'm not fooled" and move on.  Sure, some people are fooled, some people do come back, and either way some people do tell their friends but overall there's not a lot of permanence to the effects of the April Fools' jokes.  Or a smaller one might have the same effect with less effort.



The jokes are almost tradition now.  (Does that count for anything?)  And that's not to say I didn't derive any enjoyment from making them.  There's still a chance I could make another elaborate April Fools' joke all by myself if I felt I had the spare time and/or felt they could be prioritized over other things whether they should or not.  But however likely or unlikely the status quo is for next year, I think we should consider more options.  Notice I said "we", not "I"...



1. I could make an April Fools' joke in the same format as the last few years.  Perhaps scaled down.

2. We could make an April Fools' joke together as a group.  Like Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks.

3. I could hand off the April Fools' joke to a person (or persons), though I'd want to approve it and then trust that I will like what they come up with.

4. I (or we) could come up with some other kind of joke altogether.



I have to stop being so wordy and let you guys let me know what you think.  Should the April Fools' jokes continue?

[Will]

1. Create maps for a game that hasn't been ported from an old console to a newer one e.g. "The Little Mermaid" (NES to SNES).

2. Create maps for a cancelled game e.g. Warcraft Adventures (PC), Darkwing Duck 2 (NES).

3. Creates maps for a game based on a motion picture that has never been on videogames e.g. Chip n' Dale (Classic version not Rescue Rangers), Mad Jack the Pirate.

4. Remake maps of an existing game (like Prince of Persia) into a mapset for a cancelled console (like Sega Neptune).

5. Create maps for a crossover or an entirely made up game.



The third and fourth choices have not yet been done, so there can be something new. So what will it be?

[TerraEsperZ]

My problem with the April Fools' maps is that they require so much work with so little payoff. Except for Link's Awakening Advance, I don't think there's been one that really fooled anyone who's familiar with the classics.



Because let's face it, if you've been playing games for a while you'll usually recognize re-used backgrounds and tiles, and original sprites just don't look good enough to be believable. I'm not saying that to belittle anyone's work, as I wouldn't even be able to do anything that looks close to a real game, but fan works often look and feel like fan works.



I must admit that I liked the idea of Oracle Of Hours, because even to someone who knew it wasn't real, it still looked like it could be.



To me, the ideal April Fools would either be maps for a totally original game based on an existing property (which would require real artistic talents and lots of work), or a long lost sequel. For example, if anyone had done the maps from Rockman 7 FC as an April Fools, *that* would have fooled a lot of people because the graphics feel like 8 bit versions of the SNES game, and the sprites are faithful NES adaptation of their 16 bit counterparts.



Anyway, I don't want to spoil this for anyone. Clearly, there are other mappers who love seeing and/or working on these, and anything that gets people mapping is a good idea. But, well, you now know my reasons for not helping, given how in addition to all I've said, I also want to keep  mapping on my own.



---

Current project: Not sure yet



Upcoming project: Not sure yet either

[marioman]

Just had an idea...  Since the first SotN map has been finished, why not have the second map (the inverted castle) be the April Fools' joke?  Of course, it wouldn't be the real map of the second castle, but merely an inverted version of the first map.  That wouldn't take a lot of effort to set up.

[DarkWolf]

I guess we lost some posts from this thread?  Anyway I'm still for doing a regular map.  After all April Fools' is only one day out of the entire month.  Or maybe do a fake map for a few days then put a real one up; perhaps on April 5th.

[JonLeung]

I'm still open to ideas, but I think more than likely we'll end the "tradition".

[marioman]

What about "mapping" a common Windows game such as Minesweeper or Microsoft Solitaire?  Or, better yet, someone could map a few "test levels" from Duke Nukem Forever?  Just throwing out ideas.

[RT 55J]

Duke Nukem Forever would be interesting, especially if we mapped the Atari 2600 version.

[JonLeung]

Last year I started work on Metroid Dread on or about Dec. 1.  Seeing as how it's December 2 this year, I'm pretty sure the April Fool's thing isn't happening next year.  Or did I say that already?

Unless saying there isn't going to be an April Fools' joke is actually part of the joke and I really am busting my butt working on something in secret.  (Especially seeing as how anyone with access to this board hasn't ever been fooled in past years, that might be a good idea for me to try to fool you guys for once.) 

Either way, we'll see in four months.

[RT 55J]

Are we gonna do anything about this?

[JonLeung]

*looks at watch*

Hm.