Has anyone in the community made a FE fan game using Unity or Unreal?

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  • Hacking method: N/A
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Hey, I’m new to this community, but I noticed that most of the Fire Emblem fan games on this website are Rom Hacks. Has any developer made a Fire Emblem fan project using a game engine like Unity, Unreal, Godot, or GameMaker? If not, why?

I’m asking because I develop games using C#/Unity in my spare time and I may want to start up a FE fan project at some point. I’d like to know if there is anything that I should be aware of.

Thank you!

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I only know of one FE fangame made with Game Maker and it’s the recently released Heroes Tactics
They made the game from scratch, which is probably the reason why FE fangames made with these less specialized engines are rare. One would have to make an SRPG engine from the ground up if working with something like Unity or GameMaker. So ROM hacking or working with an engine geared towards making SRPGs like SRPG Maker, Tactile, or LT-Maker would be a simpler route to go down for most people

EDIT: Completely forgot to mention the FE-inspired games Stratagem Lost (also made with Game Maker), Astral Throne (made with Unity), Those Who Rule (also made with Unity but apparently started off as a ROM hack), and Eternal Legend (made with Construct) But yeah, point still stands, you gotta work from the ground up like these guys did lol

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Hi SpiritualSalt! I’m the guy who wrote the code of the fangame Heroes Tactics that PKLucky mentionned. It’s a fangame my sister and I developped from scratch using GameMaker. So making a FE game from scratch is definitely doable, though it takes some time. For example, in Game Maker we needed lots of sprites that my sister had to draw. In Unity, you will need 3D models if you want to do a 3D game.

I think the advises may vary from one engine to another. But I think I learned a thing or two that could apply to your project whatever engine you choose:

  • I have an object that is responsible for everything that happens on the map: it stores arrays that contain the information of what tile is occupied, which one is empty, what is the terrain of that one, etc. You update the arrays when a unit moves.
  • Managing skills can be a bit tricky, notably things like Inspiration (damage dealt by adjacent allies +3). You have to decide how you want to code this. Perhaps the unit that possesses the skill buffs adjacent allies. Or perhaps when you start a battle, you look at tiles adjacent to involved units to search for potential allies with such skills?
    • The first option is more natural to me, and you can see the buffs outside of battle. So you can decide to print a +3 atq when an adjacent ally has Inspiration. BUT you have to check for the activation of the skill regularly, when a unit moves.
    • The second option seems less natural to me, but you only check for the skills once, when you prepare the battle. It’s also closer to what is done in FE I think, where the effect of such skills only appears during combat.
  • A tactical can quickly be heavy to run if not optimized. Do calculations only when it’s needed, and not at every step; for example, the danger area should be calculated again ONLY when a unit moves.
  • Managing texture pages properly is important for performance, at least in GameMaker.
  • If you want to code demonic beasts, this is way more tricky to do. Personally, I chose to give them an “anchor point”, which is the tile at the top left corner. I identify their position with this anchor point. You have to keep in mind that the beast occupies several tiles, so you will need to update lots of functions compared to standard units.

And for general tips you certainly know, but that I should have used way more:

  • Use macros!!!
  • Write as much functions as possible, it will make the code more clear in the end. For example, write a function in_map(case_x, case_y) that checks whether the tile [case_x, case_y] exists (it will be quite useful).

I don’t know if it will help, but at least I hope! If you have questions, feel free to ask. And good luck for your project! :smiley:

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Hi, someone who made a complete solo SRPG using Unity once here - I’d rather not post the title since it’d essentially dox me (and it’s pretty bad too), but I can DM it to you if you want. Thought I’d share some of my experience with it, but keep in mind that I’m speaking purely as a solo dev (so if you have a team/the money for commissions it’s not super relevant) and I’m definitely biased towards using fangame tools (romhacking/LT/etc.) nowadays, so it’s probably more of a “I regret ever doing that, it’s a terrible idea” post than what you’re looking for. If someone who prefers going indie over making fangames could chime in that would be much appreciated I think!

(I wrote this from the point of view that you wanted to make an FE fangame and considering using Unity or not, just now realized it’s probably more using Unity and considering an FE fangame or not - sorry, FE fan, can’t read. Tl;dr wouldn’t recommend FE-like as a Unity project either, make literally any other genre)

Development Time

In terms of development time, I made it solo during university in my free time and it took me about 3.5 years to complete. It’s hard to gauge length in FE chapters due to some structural changes, but it’s roughly the equivalent of 10 chapters with 5-7 hours of playtime to reach the ending (around 15 to get all achievements and stuff). I haven’t made a full-length fangame yet, but I’m almost certain it takes way less time for a much longer campaign if the one month contests like CELICA or SIGURD are anything to go by (although input from actual full-length hackers/LT users would be appreciated here).

Content

Content-wise, it is significantly harder to make something from scratch over using a fangame tool - because most of the work has nothing to do with your game’s actual story or characters or chapters. With fangames there are so many vanilla assets/code you can simply use without a second thought, but going indie forces you to make all of these for yourself - and it is a huge amount of work. Seriously, I can’t stress this enough: it’s definitely not something I thought through going in and really burned me out by the end of it. Just fire up the prologue of FE8 and look at all the tiny details players take for granted - battle preview, scene transitions, movement range display, cursor movement, every single menu beep, etc. etc. - these are all things you’re going to have to draw and sequence and code and insert and debug yourself, and unless you love going into this sort of details it’s going to drive you insane. Not to mention the way more prevalent - and more time-consuming - things you can basically skip altogether making a fangame: UI, tilesets, conversation backgrounds, battle backgrounds, battle animations, and so on. Even if you think this sounds fun, this will be what you spend like 80% of the time working on, so make sure you are absolutely on board with it before starting I’d say.

Also, it is much harder to keep things consistently high quality when working solo from scratch. Of course, if you are a talented artist/programmer/musician/etc. this will let your skills truly shine free from the vanilla limitations - but if you have even a single weakness, it can and will be immediately apparent, whereas vanilla/F2U assets can easily cover that aspect for you in fangames. Another reason I didn’t post the title here is that the game is absolutely hideous in every single screenshot… But anyway, make sure you’re good (or at least passable) with all these roles and enjoy doing them (super important!), since you will need to make absolutely everything (or a have lot of commission money). Granted, some things like writing or game design are shared so uh, better practice these anyway.

One last thing: a potential motive - at the very least, it was a big one for me - for making an SRPG from scratch over a fangame is going beyond what vanilla is capable of, but honestly? You can do so much stuff with vanilla nowadays, not to mention LT, that unless it’s really out there like full 3D graphics you probably don’t need Unity for it. Your idea has a custom, non-vanilla campaign structure? Check out the roguelike Embrace of the Fog or open-world The Unbroken Thread. Want to have a unique artstyle? See every game by Not Quite Rodents like Homecoming. Is music your passion? Eislinn’s Last Sunset has a completely custom soundtrack with multiple themes per map. Personal bias here, but you can also check out some MARTH/CELICA/SIGURD entries to see the sort of super cool and unique things people can do with FE8 or LT - it’s really awesome!

Players

This is more up to personal preference and marketing skills, but from my experience game dev is a way lonelier journey. You basically have to constantly fight to get any attention whatsoever among the sea of other indie devs, and it’s really hard to find any players, not to mention feedback. I participated in Steam Next Fest, and got… two whole feedback posts. I was also lucky enough to study in a country with indie dev events for a semester, where I showcased my game and… maybe three people played it? Granted, I am utterly atrocious at marketing and communication, but still. You need to be incredible at marketing to get any feedback or players.

Over two years post-release, it has 14 steam reviews and ~400 downloads. And this is a free game - I’m certain that had it cost even one dollar it’d be like 40 downloads at best. Just as a point of comparison (sorry for shilling again): my biggest romhacking work, The Pen, currently has 181 downloads. And that’s something I made in one month compared to over three years.

I’m not saying that a fangame will be more popular than an indie SRPG - it probably won’t - but if you think like I did that publishing something on Steam will inherently let you find more players, that uh, doesn’t work. Really, really doesn’t work.

One final thing and a big advantage for indie dev though: it’s way easier to showcase & explain to irl friends/family compared to fangames, especially romhacks. I got pretty much everyone I know to play my indie game - but only one friend is familiar enough with what romhacking even is to try out any of my hacks.

Future

Publishing a solo indie project is an incredible portfolio point if you seek a job in game development (at least that’s what I liked to tell myself), although I know that some people also put fangames in their portfolios. But yeah, if your goal is more to get better with Unity/C# to eventually land a job in the games industry (or become a full-time indie), this would be an excellent experience and it does teach you a lot. The only reason I don’t regret making my own project to be honest (aside from finding out I hate game development and the industry in general).

Anyway, this ended up being longer than I expected and more of a rant, sorry! Hope there’s still something useful for you in there. If you have more specific questions feel free to reach out :slight_smile: The game’s also open-source if you’re interested in more technical reference, but again, I made it during university so it’s an absolute mess. And good luck with your project!

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I’m trying to make a SRPG inspired on FE, I’d rather use a game engine with original assets so I can use it in a resume and avoid legal troubles in the future. I tried Godot but for multiple reasons I’m thinking about moving away from it.

@ScreamingSouls Do you mind if I DM you questions about doing a game like this on GameMaker from time to time? The other aspiring game developers I know use Unity and Unreal.

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Thanks for the shout-out!

And yeah, for OP, Stratagem Lost is made with Gamemaker. GM is honestly pretty good for SPRGs, it just has a greater investment since you have to make everything from the ground up like has been stated.

What I’d recommend thinking about is whether or not you’d be down to learn something like Lex Talionis or Tactile, or if creating an engine from the ground up is what would be better for you. There are Unity/Gamemaker/etc tutorials on Youtube that can help streamline the initial bulk of the work, but once you reach a certain point, you’re on your own.

Hope you find what works best for you! I personally would love to see more custom engine fangames out there!

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For sure! I’ll be happy to help if I can!

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Yo! FE hacking was the main thing that got me into programming when I was a teenager. Set me on the path to study compsci, become a software dev for my day job, and eventually make my own game using Unity/C#.

If you have any specific questions about Unity I’m happy to answer here or in DMs (Discord: tlja)!

It’s a grind that will take a lot of time, but if it’s something you’re interested in the best advice I can give is just to start! Do something small first like generating an empty grid and highlighting tiles on click, then add a character that moves to where you clicked, then make them move only when selected, etc etc. I find breaking things down into small tasks made the process much more fun and easy to focus on if you only have a little bit of time a day.

If you hate it, you at least tried and learned some new skills along the way. If you like it, you’ll be surprised how much even a little progress every single day can get you in a year or two. :slight_smile:

Edit: as for making specifically a fan game in another engine, “fan games” kind of imply using the main game’s assets/IP, which is a big no-no. You would likely get a take down notice wherever you host it.

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