So, I have not completed a single fan-game yet, but I have some basic experience and knowledge about making games, copyright stuff and most importantly, ponies.
So, everything you will read is what I know and what I think, I am here to say my opinion about things and I don't know everything so if you think/know I said something wrong, please let me know.
I'll list every single PRO/CON I know about making fan-games, as well as PRO/CON about making things about ponies in general, so it will be more generic and less specific (because there's people that make fan-games of other brands / other things about ponies too).
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So, the list won't be like every list on the web, I am not showing PROs first and CONs later, I am starting from the most known and then important stuff and continuing in a descending order.
So, Copyright here is the most important stuff to take into account. If you don't own the rights to do something, you shouldn't do it in the first place.
Saying that you don't own the right won't always save you, if the copyright owner doesn't want it, you can't do it.
So, I would like to analyze three cases I know about projects getting Cease and Desist letters from copyright owners.
First of all is Guitar Zero, a Guitar Hero clone which was looking too good.
Activision sent a C&D letter because not only of the too similar name, but also because they ripped the whole graphics from GH3.
The project was not stopped however, they changed the name, changed the graphics and everything went fine.
Second case is Piano Hero, now called Synthesia. Activision didn't quite like the name.
Changed it, and now Synthesia is OK.
Third case is Sonic GL, this one hasn't got any C&D letter, the developer stopped making the game because, when Sonic 2006 was coming out, he though that SEGA would have released it on PC too and his game would have been an obstacle to the official title.
This is sad, because the game was looking really good and SEGA stopped making games for PCs, so I doubt SEGA would have ever bothered to sue the creator.
So, it might be a real problem if you get one of those cursed C&D letters, but now let's talk about Ponies.
So, why did a project like Guitar Zero bother Activision so much?
Well, it looked exactly like Guitar Hero 3, and why would someone buy GH3 when he could get a good clone for free?
Think about Ponies, why did Hasbro make a cartoon such as My Little Pony: Friendship is magic?
The answer is: To sell toys. (And I guess it worked, at least for me)
The cartoon is pure advertising for the merchandise, we all know that.
So how can a fan-game hurt Hasbro? I don't really know.
Though I am not saying that making fan-games about ponies is really safe, I think that if someone tries to sell anything about ponies, it's going to bother Hasbro for sure.
Also, With My Little Pony: Friendship is magic you're not dealing only with Hasbro but also with The Hub, so you have two possible companies wanting you to shut down everything.
So, as you read before, Guitar Zero and Piano Hero got themselves out of trouble changing title and graphics.
But how can you get your game to NOT have ponies if you would ever need to?
It depends on many many factors.
I think we can all agree that it wouldn't be easy.
To me, it's impossible, I am making fan-games about ponies because there are ponies in it, they are my motivation to go on and if I were asked to take the ponies out I would probably delete the whole project.
Sadly, this is not restricted to ponies only, a fan-game about Sonic would not be that indipendent too.
There are things you should consider when making a fan-game or anything about ponies and this is what i think you should focus into before publishing stuff.
So, as a person who likes to draw I am on deviant Art and I followed the Equestria Daily Training Grounds thing for a week or two.
When I stopped making drawing for the Training grounds I decided to upload them on deviant Art, let's say it took 2 minutes for each drawing, well, when I was done publishing one drawing and was uploading the next one I got already 2/3 favorites.
It never happened to me, and there are still people viewing them.
So, Ponies are popular now, if you make something about ponies, they will be easier to find, as the fact that they are based on MLP:FiM is actual advertising.
The bad news is that there are people who don't like things like games, drawings or even YTPMV because they're about the show.
As the saying goes, Haters gonna hate, so using MLP:FiM is a double edged sword.
So, finally, something good with absolutely no drawbacks.
If you follow the /collab/ board on Ponychan, you'll see many project with many people working at them.
The cool fangames about Sonic are often made by one or few people (Sonic GL is made by one person) while the most known Pony projects are made by mostly more than one person.
There are groups of talented people who met because they're all willing to make stuff about ponies.
Some examples of that is Mane6, Equestria Online and the great and powerful Equestria Daily.
If you see Equestria Online, I can say that I have never saw so many people involved in a single fangame project.
So yeah, as I said before, Ponies are free advertising.
For now, I don't have anything more to say, I know you probably already knew everything and if I took some of your very precious time away from you, I am sorry for that, but I need to eat too.
I MAY expand this article with some other stuff, but I am pretty sure that it's long enough even now.
So, I probably don't need to say that but if you want to say anything, feel free to email me or write a comment, I will be happy to reply!