Just adding on to fangame history stuff.
After the success of IWBTG, kayin tried to make a sequel called I wanna save the kids. It was never finished, but he released a demo. (This was sometime mid-2008)
While I wanna be the Fangame was the first fangame that uses the engine we know today, people were trying to create games similar to IWBTG months before. If you want to see some examples, there are some primitive threads on the kayin forums. (
https://prntscr.com/7myrtg) I wanna be the fangame was initially released in october 2008.
tijit, the creator of IWBTFangame, was the first person to beat IWBTG on impossible.
In january 2009 tijit created I wanna be the Engine.
https://iwbtg.kayin.moe/forums/index.php?topic=2926.0This was the first appearance of standard fangame physics we know today. Old fangames such as I wanna be the Tribute, i wanna be the Retro and even I wanna be the Dallas were created on this engine.
Probably the only "good" fangame released back in those days was Fangame: The game, which wasn't even made with the engine.
The first japanese fangame was I wanna be the GB.
https://kayin.moe/iwbtg/forums/index.php?topic=4976.0 . Everyone thought this was the hardest thing ever and they praised it for some reason. The game sucks, but it was still better than most of the crap put out there.
Fangames started picking up in 2010. Acutally skilled game makers and not 12 year olds who found out how to install game maker tried their hand at making one. Even our very own patrick made one
https://prntscr.com/7myx5v unfortunately, he never finished it because kayin said some mean words.
This was also around the time that solgryn started work on i wanna be the boshy. his main tester was michael1985, a streamer on justin.tv (twitch didn't exist at that time)
This is the oldest footage of the game I could find:
I stumbled across this thread from late 2010 called "I wanna be the guy: gaiden"
https://iwbtg.kayin.moe/forums/index.php?topic=9718.0And this is one of the comments: "Na sounds lame, not another shitty fangame."
Funnily enough, when gaiden finally came out it was pretty lame. this guy was on top of it.
Nekoron also released his engine, and I wanna be the lovetrap sometime that year. That game is old and terrible, but it was also the beginning of such great ideas like Corner jumps, miku fights and the big kid!
Next january Geezer released the first version of I wanna kill the guy, which is still not finished. But the game stands as one of the best fangames, even 4 years after.
Japanese fangames became more increasing, i'm not quite sure where they put them, but they were there. The kayin forum people hated japanese fangames because they were "all spike jumps, cherries and bullet hells". While they praised old games such as tribute and ultimatum. Gotta love this classic stinkycheese post
https://prntscr.com/7mz3elThe wiki was made sometime in 2011/2012. I can't get into detail on this because i can't read japanese and even google translate couldn't save me.
Yosniper made his first engine in 2011 called "I wanna be the better engine", which is debatable.
Skipping forward a bit, the wannabes team on twitch was created in june 2013. The I Wanna Community forums were also created around this time.
Delicious Fruit was launched this year. It's a cool alternative to the wiki with a review system and everything.
Today the twitch community is thriving. We have met tons of great streamers/creators as well as seen some great fangames. The first annual "Fangame Marathon" was hosted on June 5th 2015.
This is all i feel like writing, this post is probably pointless blabber, but it's cool to look back.