Fake Video Games: The Internet Culture Around 'What Ifs'

Fake video games, despite existing on the internet for many years, continue to fascinate many people online as a way to bring the impossible to life.

While many film and TV productions have long used fake video games to avoid legal troubles in showing actual licensed games on the screen, the internet is ripe with people creating fake video games for the sake of it.

Reimagining Classics with a Twist

A common trend in fake video games is how they become a platform for people to reimagine beloved classics in modern video game styles or to apply different gameplay mechanics.

Since not all games have the chance to receive a remake, it often ends up with the fans creating the games themselves, or at least pitching the idea of how the proposed game should look.

This usually involves characters from different IPs and franchises finally interacting as seen with this popular fighting game crossover between Disney and Nintendo characters.

Bringing Popular IPs Into Game Format

In the same sense, fake video games can also be used to imagine how a popular show, movie, or franchise would look in certain video game formats. Not all fan requests to game developers are realized. Most were even abandoned due to licensing, technological, and planning constraints that only fan artists can realize this dream into a probable idea.

Others even go as far as creating supposed game assets and sound designs to make the idea even more believable.

Exploring New Game Ideas

As noted in a Super Eyepatch Wolf YouTube video, fake video games can also become a medium for aspiring artists to share their game ideas without going through all the rigorous work in game development.

One popular fake video game creator is the Japanese artist @ HOSHIBACKYARD, who created intricate details about a fictional game, Lost Property Control Organization.

The project has been ongoing for nearly a year now as the artist shares supposed in-game screenshots of what the game would look like on their X (formerly Twitter) account.

Setting Up Alternate Reality Games

While made-up games like Petscop and The Walten Files can fall under the same category as Lost Property Control Organization, these fictional games are intended to set up alternate reality games rather than just become a game idea pitch.

These games often span across social media as viewers try to look for hidden clues to solve a mystery its creator inscribed inside the made-up game, either to uncover the game's lore or as a little easter egg for the most devoted fans.

ARG video games have grown over the years as communities dedicated to solving their mysteries have propped up in addition to other content creators like the Game Theory bringing the internet puzzles to the mainstream.