Ok. I haven't been able to watch FSS's latest video yet due to the fact that I'm at work but from what I'm reading in this thread I assume that they have decided to drop Touhou Smash as a Touhou derivative game and make it with non Touhou characters (please correct me if I'm wrong). If that is the case, then I want to express that I am extremely disappointed with this direction for a number of reasons.
First off, your game, in its current state, is fundamentally nothing more than a Super Smash Bros clone with Touhou characters. Take out the Touhou characters and you're left with nothing but a Smash clone. Quite frankly, unless you change up the gameplay significantly from what it is currently, what reason would I ever have to play this when I can play the official Super Smash Bros games? And if I'm looking for a more competitive Smash game with Melee mechanics, why would I play your game when I can just play Project M? This game is going to need a lot of changes if you expect it to achieve a unique niche next to the official Smash games and their mods.
One of the biggest appeals of Smash and what truly got it off the ground was the ability to play as your favorite Nintendo characters from multiple beloved franchises. Touhou Smash had a similar appeal as you could play as your favorite Touhou characters. A smash game with ORIGINAL characters only, simply isn't going to appeal to people, in my opinion, at least not as much as the original Smash Bros and Touhou Smash would have. Regardless of how good the gameplay might be, few are going to want to even try it. I'm not trying to say that your original characters are going to be bad/uninteresting, but thinking they're going to gain as much attention as characters that people already know and love is just foolish.
There are a few reasons that I assume are why you are choosing this course of action. One possible reason is to avoid future controversy over the Touhou name. Given all that has happened up to this point, I can certainly understand that point of view. However, there will be no further controversy now that the IGG campaign has been cancelled. You can simply continue development and release it in increments, if time is an issue. The only thing that anyone took issue with was the IGG campaign, and that has disappeared.
The other possible reason is that you REALLY wanted the crowdfunding but can't due to ZUN's rules, which I assume means you will try to run a new IGG campaign for your original smash game. I really hope you don't expect to raise even close to the same amount of money when you take Touhou out of the equation. Saijee, you mentioned in one of your videos that a previous IGG campaign you ran for an original game flopped hard. For the reasons stated above, I severely doubt you will do much better with a non-Touhou Smash game. I know your group has more exposure now but, let's face it, Touhou is why we all initially cared for this project.
Furthermore, I have to question why you think you need crowdfunding at all. What's wrong with releasing the game in increments over a long period of time? It seems like you want the game to be this huge masterpiece AND for it to not take very long to make. Moreover, I know you've said that you don't want to make any money off the game but by making the game to be this huge thing I can't help but feel like you wanted (and still want) this game to make FFS famous and to be the launching point for a possible career as a game dev. I have no problem with that, but that kind of aspiration may partially go against being a Doujin developer, I think. Doujin devs make games as a hobby, not as their career and certainly not to be famous, nor do they very often turn their hobby into a career, AFAIK. In short, I know you said you don't want to make money off of THIS game, but how far am I off the mark would I be if I were to say that you want to EVENTUALLY make money off of games you make, thus making it into a career? I have also noticed your intent to publish for the Wii U and Steam, which seems to be what you wanted to do with Touhou Smash from the start but were not able to while keeping it as a Touhou derivative. This also convinces me that you are less interested in making a fangame simply as a Touhou fan and more to gain notoriety as a game dev and to further your careers.
If my last point is correct, then perhaps you are better off making this an original game, since a Doujin development path doesn't seem to interest you as much as a Western Indie development path does. Sorry If I was long winded with this post, but with all the time I've invested into this project by following and posting in this thread I am a tad frustrated to see it all going to waste, in my eyes at least.
In case it wasn't obvious, if this game is truly going to be Non-Touhou, then I am unfortunately 0% interested in it any longer. I know I cannot be the only one who feels this way. I wish you guys luck with whatever you choose to pursue, but with your current course of action, I will not be supporting or following this game in ANY way, for the reasons stated above.
I will be copypasting this to places like Youtube where they're more likely to see it after I watch the video. I may also be editing this post to reflect changes in my opinion when I am able to see the video. Let me know if I have any information wrong in the meantime.
