Be inspired by these ambitious video game fan projects

What’s more impressive than a development team slogging through long work days in order to get a game out to countless fans? Unpaid fans working the same hours on a project that nobody but them cares about. Well that’s a bit harsh, other people do care about them. Once a few screenshots of your fan made Mario-Samus RPG mashup get leaked, fellow fans will flock to your folds like frolicking foals.

But just what are the best fan made projects out there? Fans come in all shapes and sizes, and so it makes sense that their projects would as well. From budding directors to cross country joggers, here is a list of some of the best fan projects based off of video games.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “man, I wish they’d make a sequel to that game that I loved so much?” If you had that thought, did you then continue to think, “hmmm, ok, guess I’ll just go make it myself?” If you haven’t you’re lazy. Just kidding, but that thought process is exactly what fans of the late MMORPG City of Heroes went through after the closure of their beloved game.

Under the banner of Missing Worlds Media, these super fans have been working around the clock to create the spiritual successor. Their first goal: a successful Kickstarter that raised a whopping $678,189. Wowzers. If that doesn’t inspire faith in this team, then maybe their dogma will: “We are heroes. This is what we do.”

Brace yourselves, this one involves running. The glory of the fan projects on this list is that they take unique skills from a fan--other than their love of video games. Pac Manhattan is no different, and combines to usually distant skillsets of artistry and long distance running. Originally concepted by student’s of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, this rendition of the classic game takes 20 block of Manhattan and turns them into the playing board of Pac Man.

And then you run. If you’re Pac Man, you get the added bonus of precise and updating coordinates of the ghosts chasing you. If you’re one of the Ghosts then sucks to be you because you’re just running around blind until you spot the brightly clad protagonist. Does it sound like fun? Yeah, it doesn’t to me either. But it does go to show that there are people out there who go outside after playing games everyone once in a while. An inspiration to us all.

Before you move any further, you need to watch this Portal short film. Gorgeous isn’t it? Such mystery. So Portal. Wow. This isn’t some campy handycam home movie from the backyard, this fan project has some meat and bones to it. That would make sense, since the fan behind this movie is Dan Trachtenberg.

You may know him from such projects as The Totally Rad Show and Geekdrome, or you may not. All you need to know is that he knows his way around hollywood. This is what happens when there’s a fan with power. Magic. Beauty. A short film that could hypothetically be picked up for a series or indie movie.

Minecraft is just rife with ridiculously beautiful and immersive fan projects. Would you like to take a walking tour of the USS Enterprise? It exists in Minecraft. Want to stage a pixelated reenactment of Game of Thrones? Yup, there too. Minecraft is like the Legos of the digital age, with the added benefit of not being constrained by real world physics. It’s obvious then that some people go absolutely bonkers with their creations.

Which leads beautifully into the recreation of the entire Johto region from the Pokemon Universe within Minecraft. Like, the entire region. From New Bark town to Blackthorn City, from Route 29 to Route 45, you can stroll along the very same paths that you and your team barreled down in the game all those years ago.

From Smash players who are better than you to Smash Bro's secret moves, GamesRadar has been in a pretty Super Smash Bros-y mood these days. But however much excitement we can muster about this game is no where near the excitement the creators of Project M muster on a daily basis. Project M’s modus operandi is this: to give you the gameplay of Melee with the characters and graphics of Brawl.

It’s the best of worlds, but as with all fan project, Project M is more than just the sum of its parts. Here are just some of the many, many edits that will make the average Smash fan squeal: each pokemon of the Pokemon trainer have been made their own characters and had their exhaustion taken away, same with Zelda/Shiek/Samus/Zero-Suit, tripping has been eradicated, Mewtwo and Roy are back in, old stages have been revitalized, and in general characters have been balanced to avoid God tiers. Beautiful.

Feeling inspired yet? You should be. Everyone here at one point was sitting behind a computer or in front of a TV with just pipedreams and daydreams in the mind. What has differentiated these fans from everyone else? They turned off that computer and TV. So get out there everyone! Inspire! Create! Do Good! While you do that I’ll just be sitting here behind my computer...playing some League of Legends.