Serious fangame making questions

[patrickgh3]

Recently I have been doing some thinking about the various dynamics of making fangames in our community. Sometimes I get discouraged when I think about this stuff. I think this discouragement comes from neither me personally nor the community having clear answers to these questions. These are like murky waters in my mind I would like to try and clear up.

• How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?
• Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?
• How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?
• What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?
• To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)
• Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?
• To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?
• To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

I want to hear what everyone thinks about these kind of topics.

[tehjman1993]

Recently I have been doing some thinking about the various dynamics of making fangames in our community. Sometimes I get discouraged when I think about this stuff. I think this discouragement comes from neither me personally nor the community having clear answers to these questions. These are like murky waters in my mind I would like to try and clear up.

• How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?
• Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?
• How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?
• What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?
• To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)
• Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?
• To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?
• To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

I want to hear what everyone thinks about these kind of topics.

My 2cents on these questions:

• How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?

I do not like using the word 'deserve' for this question, since this implies a sense of entitlement. Appreciation and support is never owed, it is given. That being said, I think this varies from player to player and what they feel is the right amount of praise and support. Everyone has different ways of expressing their own.

• Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?

Yes - criticism is not necessarily negative, and can be used as a talking point instead. The ultimate goal is to better the fangame creator. Any other form of criticism meant to demean, insult, or otherwise not help a creator is not good criticism, nor would I define it as such.

• How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?

Varies from player to player - expectation should be 0 patience and 0 forgiveness. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

• What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?

As stated above, healthy criticism through talking points and brainstorming is the best way to encourage higher-quality fangames.

• To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)

This is a question left to the creator. You can be as proud as you want, regardless of what others think.

• Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?

As long as credit is given where it is due. This is one of the main themes of fangames.

• To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?

Again, 'deserve' is a loaded word and implies entitlement. If you believe your game is "good" but is getting 0 attention, you may want to take a second look at your fangame.

• To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

Up to the individual maker. I don't know of many bigger, more general audiences for freeware games as large as the fangame community. Also add in the support of the community through guides, the pre-built engines, and more, fangames are very appealing to make for some.

[Swordslinger]

I'll answer honestly.

How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?
For me personally, it depends on the creator, someone like you who made things like Jtool and put together Spook Jam (Which I still need to play, but i'm currently reserving a spot for 450 clears so i can't play it yet) This question to me is highly dependent on the creator, if they worked hard on something and poured some sweat into something sure they deserve the support and such, but if it's someone who made a happil medley which we see on sometimes a regular basis then keep walking. (I'm quite picky)

Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?
In my personal opinion yes, while people do make these fangames for challenge or simply for enjoyment how will you know what's wrong and what's correct without criticism even if it's a lot, Haegoe for instance got heavily criticized for his older games and since then hes improved quite a lot. Although since these are games and games do get heavily criticized by game reviewers i don't see these getting special treatment, since they are still games, just made by the fans.

How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?
This is a very person dependent question, since some people can be very patient and not very forgiving and some can be the opposite of that or both patient and forgiving or both not having those traits. It's one i can't personally answer because it depends from person to person.

What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?
This depends on the person but not as much as the last question, criticism is always important fuel to the train, as well as praise and not flat out cursing at the creator because something is too hard or too easy or it's just bad, I think all of us have made this mistake of lashing out one time, and depending on the response you either scared away the creator or you didn't. So really this is a very dependent question depending on who you talk too and who has a spine and who doesn't the way i see it.

To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)
Hard question honestly, Spook Jam doesn't go very far into using other peoples content so lets leave that out of the mix, I personally like it but it's very dependent on the game, to some extent to me how much the original is respected and how much is going to change or if things will not change it just very depends. In a way i'm not sure how to answer the question and to what medleys i enjoy and what i don't, it's usually a hit or miss thing unless something changes that ruins it for me, so i'm proud depending on if i like it or not, if that makes sense.

Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?
I'm guessing you mean something like catastrophe has double speed so you make double speed on your own, if you're talking about reusing a gimmick that other people used then yes i think it's fine if you create original screens with it, if that's not the answer then i don't understand your question.

To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?
Very dependent on the fangame, something like a new big release is usually played for a week by damn near everyone and usually dies down to 1-3 people. I honestly can't answer this question for the very reason that quality fangames if noticed do get attention, just it dies down after a bit.

To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?
None at all, sure you can make fangames for the community here and be very creative with it, however if you were to move onto a different set of games then I think you can still make something creative, experience comes with time and it is really up to you on how you use it.

Hope this helped, these are the best i can answer these.

[Starz0r]

Opinions are obviously different for everyone. Not everyone is going to have the same standards for fangames than everyone else.

What we are reaching is the same point that killed the original IWBTG forum. We have this mind set that games have to be such a high quality, without many people be able to meet that standard. I believe because of this, we have a higher frequency of needle games than adventure games these days. Adventure games take a lot of time and effort to make great and make them stand out, and doing one thing wrong can stop people from wanting to play that game or even recommending it to others.

Streamers and Players probably should have more tolerance, but this is kinda hard to gauge. Most of the time, bad design choices deserve being talked down, but we don't really have a guide to avoid pitfalls of 'bad design', leaving it open for other future producers to fall in the same hole. Causing them to leave the community after they've yelled at.

For using other people's content, this is a minefield, and not everyone has the same opinion. Honestly, I think medley's can be fun, and creative, but this would be a hypocritical statement since using other people's rooms and design isn't exactly original. Games like the Kamilia Series, Cultured 2, hell even Happil 2, have a high level of polish and great design choices. Though, a bad medley's defined by the community, are ones that too heavily follow the Kamilia formula. What we need are medleys that do something different, even if it is radically different, or at least try to do something new with using other people's rooms. Hiddow and Sandsky0 had a good concept for a medley that did something different while still following the general medley formula.

Stealing Assets is a really, really, bad thing to do... if the game was being sold. We are making freeware games, not ones that are being sold. So stealing assets should at least have credit given to the original creator, and things should be fine honestly.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

[Hectorpaddy]

How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?

I don't think that fangame creators are entitled to an abundance of appreciation or support. People (hopefully) make fangames because they have fun doing so, or because they like watching people play their creation. I've never made fangames so that people would be thankful for it and I personally don't believe it's a super productive motivation but I also think it's fine if anyone sees it as such.

Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?

Yes. I don't see a good reason why you shouldn't be allowed to point out things that you dislike, even  if your opinion is bad you should be allowed to voice it. As I said, people hopefully make fangames because they have fun with it so it's not like they're sacrificing themselves for the greater good. Following statement pretty much applies to all points so I will only say it this once. If you spend a lot of time making fangames and continue doing so despite not having fun with it then I think of you as an idiot.

How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?

None. Players play games to have fun, if they're not having fun they shouldn't be expected to sit through it.

What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?

This self balances itself in my opinion. Higher quality fangames will on average have a higher likelihood of being played more and thus getting more exposure. (Naturally there are plenty of exceptions and other factors.) People will still play less polished games a lot, so I don't see a reason to do anything about it.

To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)

This completely depends on what you're proud of. Personally all I'm proud of in my games (and only a few of them but I won't go into that here) is my platforming design, which I created solely on my own. If you're proud of how your game looks then it depends on how much work you have put into those looks yourself. This can be said for all other points as well.

Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?

Strictly speaking no, unless you have permission. This is really not something I care about though.

To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?

If you judge solely by how "good" a game is then a lot of games get more attention than they deserve and a lot of games get less attention than they deserve, this applies to pretty much anything in every field. It sucks but it's nothing we can change or should change.

To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

A lot and that's part of why I was able to spend so much time with fangames. I can always just sit down and grind some "5000 deaths per save" cancer needle knowing exactly what to expect. I know where to get what I want. I know I will get exactly what I want. I don't have to deal with looking through immeasurable amounts of different concepts, genres, physics, etc to find just what I'm comfortable with, I can just chill out, turn off my brain, go to the wiki, download a game with the word needle in it and in 95% of the cases I don't have to deal with anything new that I have to wrap my head around.

[Sudnep]

These are my personal opinions and not facts but I feel strongly enough about them to defend them. Deserve is a loaded word like TJ had said. I will still use it though because this is opinion based.

How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?

I don't believe creators deserve any appreciation or support but I do believe that they should be recognized for the work they had put into creating their finished product based on their ability to create a unique and interesting experience for the player to enjoy.

Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?

I don't think its right to heavily criticize people, especially if the creator had not asked for it. I find its not helpful to have random_person#244 make a comment on the pixel placement of every individual spike on your game. Part of being a creator is to be able to read the criticizer just as much as the critique itself. If the person who comment on it has little experience and very little knowledge about the entire scheme of things their feedback is usually unimportant and otherwise not worth the time to consider.

How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?

I think people who stream fangames should have some patience and forgiveness but to say how much is an entirely another story. I think its fair to say that if you simply just do not like the game you should not play it but its hard to say how patient and forgiving a streamer should be considering how a lot of fangames are very much the same and you can usually take a good guess as to what will come next and if its worth your investment to play.

What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?

There is no good balance for this and there will never be. There are people who are make their first fangame and get entirely destroyed by this community. I've seen it several times where its shoved down their throat about how bad they are which bothers me a lot. Potentially good creators aren't good creators right now and so their ability to judge and criticize the critique itself isn't there yet. As it stands right now I believe a lot of the community is extremely harsh in their critique.

To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)

As proud as you want to be about it. There isn't any issue being proud with making a game like this. However, I do think that if you don't build off of the creativity of others its not as rewarding or deserving of recognition or respect. As an example I think Spook Jam is unique and creative in its own right and is not the creation of just one person but many.

Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?

I do not feel this is appropriate and it bothers me a lot even though its not my own. It makes me lose respect for the people who do this.

To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?

There are fangames that I think are quality fangames and there are fangames others think are quality fangames. There is a very large difference of opinion on something like this but I do think there are many good fangames that don't get the attention they deserve.

To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

I think after making several fangames of the same type you limit creative growth as a gamemaker, but not as a fangame creator.

[WetWookie]

   

How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?

I think there is a ton of support for creators right now during the creation phase. I don't think I've ever seen a question go unanswered in the gamemaking section of discord. As for post release I think we can do better. Every time I check twitch there are the same 5 or so games being played. It seems that when you release a game it will be played for maybe 2 days or so and then be forgotten.

   

Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?

As a content creator there is nothing more important to me than taking in people's criticism and using it to make my next game better. It also important to get feedback from multiple people as nothing will please everybody.

   

Code: [Select]

How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?I think we get an appropriate amount right now.

   

Code: [Select]

To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)Personally I don't really understand the draw of medleys but I'll leave that to other people. As for music, sprites and sounds, most of us simply cannot create these assets. I try to take content that is generally available without restrictions.

   

Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?

I would never and especially not without permission. Assets can be hard to find and I'd like to shamelessly plug this thread which I still update fairly regularly with new assets freely available to any maker. There's no excuse for generic brown blocks anymore.

   

To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?

I think there are a ton of good fangames that get no play. I think that makers with established reputations get a lot more leniency and attention for their releases. I think we could do with a 'game of the week' promotion on delfruit similar to the streamer of the month in order to push some of the lesser known but quality games.

   

To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

I think think this is really much of a concern. We're all here because we love fangames. There's nothing stopping anyone from branching out.

[klazen108]

How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?

In general I feel the same way as the other guys in the thread so far, no one is entitled to any appreciation and support. As someone who's been involved in making a few fangames, I don't feel like I deserve any kind of special recognition for doing so, I just had fun doing it! If you're making a fangame (or really, anything) because you want public adoration, 99 out of 100 times you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?
How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?

I believe it's ok for anyone to do whatever they want. You want to make a "happil medley" style fangame because that's what you enjoy? That's your right, you should be able to. Are you playing a "happil medley" style game and hate it? I don't expect you to bottle your feelings and force yourself to pretend you enjoy it. And you can insert whatever genre you want into those quotes, because for every style of game that someone hates, there actually is someone out there who liked it. Sometimes games are heavily railed on-stream, and the opinions of the chat are often just a mirror of the streamer, and so it kinda blows out of control. Sometimes I wish that streamers would be willing to give a game more of a chance, but I certainly don't expect anyone to. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I've experienced my fair share of being criticized, but I don't hold a grudge against people for that. Either they had my best interests at heart, and have helped me grow, and so I'm very appreciative; or they just wanted to shit on me and therefore their opinion didn't matter to begin with

What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?

This goes back to my statement above - do what you want to do. If you want to throw together some screens in jtool and release it a couple of days later, go for it. If you want to sit down and plan a storyboard for your game on paper for months before you even open gamemaker, sure! The wiki isn't a zero-sum game; just because someone releases a short needle game it doesn't mean that the slot that an adventure game could have gone in is full now. As far as I'm concerned, all fangames of all types are welcome.

To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)

As I've participated in medley projects before I don't think I can give a non-biased opinion here, so I'll leave that one to others.

Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?

Someone has used one of my self-made assets before, and I'm always releasing code and tutorials to the community, so I feel like I can speak on this point. In my opinion, we grow stronger as a community by pooling together resources and combining them in different ways. When I see things I've made being used by other people, I feel far more proud in those moments than when I see people playing my games. We are constantly borrowing resources from other projects, both commercial and non-commercial, and in my opinion it's a form of praise to want to use something someone else has made.

That being said, if you are taking something someone else has made and trying to play it off as something you made, then you're kinda a scumbag Credit where credit is due.

To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?

I don't think any game deserves attention, it's not an intrinsic property. A game gets attention because the people giving it attention wanted to. If there were people that wanted to give the unrecognized games attention, then they would be getting it. Of course there are games that I wish were more popular, but I'm not about to start streaming and make them popular, so I have to accept things for how they are!

To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

Well, I guess it really depends on what you personally as a person want to get out of this. I make fangames as a side hobby, as I already have a secure job in a programming field. However, I was able to leverage some of my experience as talking points in interviews recently, and it always makes for good conversation, so that's been neat. If you are aiming for a strong resume then it's probably good to make some fangames and then move along, because GameMaker experience is not going to land you a job.

That being said, I think that the fangame community is great because I've never seen another place where so many game makers and players have come together with such transparency. Games come out daily, there's always a stream online, commentary flows constantly. The growth potential for an aspiring developer here is incredibly high, higher than anywhere else I could think of, so in my opinion, being active in this community is in no way a waste of time. There's plenty to be learned about being a creator than just the toolset you use.

[patrickgh3]

This is a reality check for me. Over the past month or two I subconsciously built up this entitlement and expectation of praise, maybe because I got too emotionally invested in Spook jam, and maybe other reasons too. My motivation for making fangames shifted to something wrong and unhealthy. I've been reconciling my feelings based on what you guys said, and I hope to be out of this funk and have a better attitude toward things soon. Thanks everyone for your thoughtful responses, they are all really helpful to me. (The thread is still open)

[dopaminecowboy]

I just want to give a quick, broad response. I think much of it has been said anyway.

When we make something, of course we want people to like it. I want that very badly. But once it's out there, it belongs to the player. They will do, feel, or say whatever they want about it and there's nothing we can do. That is an essential part of the creative process. Every player is different and every creator processes criticism differently. It is very hard to expect anything when it comes to that.

Releasing something you've made is a risk. It is hugely vulnerable. You can no longer control what happens to it, and I think that is, in part, why so many games go private.

However, giving your game (your time, your idea, your effort) to the players is a healthy transition, and for better or for worse it is eventually purgative. Later you can look back at everything you've done, forgetting the criticisms and just remembering where you were and what you put into it -- and that you did something with your time on earth.

That's all you can do.

[kadykunde]

I suck at formating so no quotes

-How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?

Sometimes I do wish some creators got more appreciation than they get, but thats just my opinion on the stuff they made, in general I think they get what they deserve.

-Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?
 -How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?
 -What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?

I think criticism is very important for the makers to grow and make better games, but sometimes people put too much "emotion" on their criticism and end up begin more of an attack than a lesson. Please keep it cool when criticizing a game, specially for newer people, dont want to scare away any new makers.

-To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)

Just as proud as you are with your other projects (at least for your own part, or you can be proud of your team/as a team).

-Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?

It makes me really happy when someone uses something from me (unless its completely copying chunks of the game), but please ask, everyone feels different about this and it's important to make sure the creator is ok with it.

 -To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?

Personally, there are a lot of games that I wish people would give more of a chance/gave more attention, but thats just because I think its good, others might not think the same, so I guess its all fair(?) (ended up begin the same thing as my first answer)

 -To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

I have a lot of ideas that I want to make but dont fit in fangames, so I end up begin lazy and forget about them, but I dont think they are limiting my creative growth, just the comfort of making fangames is making moving to non-fangame-games harder.

   ------------------------------

I enjoy making fangames (enjoyed? idk it has been some time), but praise and seeing people play them is what moves me, and I always wish more people played my games (even if they are played quite a bit), but I think thats fine, just dont let it bring you down.

[Artardss]

• How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?

As others have said you're not entitled to anything. I think if you enjoy making the game then you shouldn't need appreciation in the first place, even though it's very nice to get and will be a motivation to work on other games for some creators.

• Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?

Long story short:
Depends what falls under critique in my opinion. If you have critique that people can use for later projects/updates then go nuts. If you're just gonna drop a "the design in this game is bad/good" then keep it to yourself, it's not useful to anybody. People should also keep it civilized, critique is usually fine as long as you don't make it personal.

• How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?

None, that being said I think some people would be better off quiting a fangame earlier if they don't like it for the most part. I personally don't understand why somebody would force him/herself to beat a fangame if they dislike the experience as a whole. I feel like a lot of salt and attacks on certain games get caused because of this. 

• What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?

I think as long as the feedback is constructive "good creators" will not be scared off by critique/feedback. Just keep it nice.

• To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)

I would not by proud myself if all I did was copy some rooms and put them in a medley without adding something significant myself. That being said I would not be bothered if someone else would be proud, more power to him/her.
With collabs you can always be proud as a team or proud of the things you contributed to the game.

• Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?

Nobody can force you not to, but asking would be nice. If they say no you could always consider using something else, there are plenty of assets out there for you to use without making people upset.

• To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?

Quality is too subjective to me, hard to say. I think everybody has games in mind that they think are good and are not getting the attention they wished they would get. I don't think it's a major problem.

• To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

Probably to some extent, but I don't really think it matters that much if that's what they like doing right now. It's all about having fun. What drew me into fangames was the amount of absurdity in the first place, which would probably not be well suited for a more general audience anyway. I think there is a lot of creative stuff you can pull off in this community that you wouldn't be able to do in others.

[Arclooper]

Might have misinterpreted a few of your questions, so if any answer doesn't make sense, sorry.

How much appreciation and support (if any) do fangame creators deserve, and are they currently getting enough?

Mostly agree with everyone else here, don't think anyone is entitled to anything but it's nice to give people credit/support for their work.

Is it okay to heavily criticize people’s fangames that they made on their own time for everyone to enjoy?

It's ok to give heavy criticism but if by harsh you mean going overboard in how you say it, then it's technically still the person's right to do so, but wouldn't say it's really ok. As someone who constantly exaggerates/fail to express my opinions properly, I often catch myself regretting the way I said some bit of criticism and see many other people that get too carried away as well, especially in stream chats where there's always some degree of hivemind going on. We shouldn't stop criticism but maybe try to be more careful of how we do it, focusing more on praising the effort than bashing on results we might find negative.

How much patience and forgiveness (if any) should fangame streamers and players be expected to have?

No patience should be expected imo, if someone doesn't like a game and doesn't want to play it then they shouldn't feel forced to, though giving the games a chance to prove you wrong is generally good attitude. On the forgiveness part it gets kinda tricky, as in generally we should give the same amount of respect we would expect for ourselves, but if the makers themselves were doing something disrespectful to begin with, I don't particularly find myself too forgiving, the only problem is that this relies a lot on opinion and impression, so there's room for a lot of misunderstanding.

What is the right balance of encouraging quality fangames while not scaring off potentially good creators?

Don't really have a good answer for this tbh, best you can probably do is be mindful of how each creator you talk to takes criticism and try to balance the amount of criticism/encouraging on a case by case basis.

To what extent can you be proud of a fangame that heavily uses other people’s content? (spook jam, medleys, and in general using music+sprites+sounds made by others)

You can be fully proud of any work you do, even if that work is "just" importing and organizing screens to make a medley, finding good sprites/songs/sound effects to use, there was still effort in that. And for projects like spookjam, like kady said, nothing wrong with being proud of the team/as a team member as well.

Is it okay to use the self-made assets of other people’s fangames?

Might get hated for saying this, but I actually find it kinda annoying and hypocritical how some fan-based communities get so touchy about people taking assets from within the community while taking a truckload of assets from outside is perfectly ok. I mean, if you can reach out to the maker of a sprite you wanted to use to ask it's only polite to do so, but when people get so mad about someone not asking, it's not like we as a community generally reach out to companies, or even indie devs, to ask if we can use their content for fangames a whole lot as well, that always felt like a double standard to me.

To what extent (if any) are quality fangames not getting attention they deserve?

Like others said already, deserve is not really a good word, as no one is automatically owed attention for what they do, but if you feel like something should get more attention than it got, nothing wrong with saying so or trying to promote it, just don't be forceful about it.

To what extent (if any) are fangame creators limiting their creative growth as opposed to making freeware games for a bigger, more general audience?

There might be a few makers who stick to fangames because it's their comfort zone even though they could probably make good original creations, but for the most part the people creating fangames aren't really trading the time they would otherwise be making these other projects. In fact starting with fangames, that already have engines and other tools to work with, plus an active community to give feedback provides a place for new devs to grow and maybe make their own stand-alone projects later if they feel like it.