Thank you for the reply BaconWizard17!
To try and effectively address some of the concerns you brought up:
(If i forget something, call me on it so i can fix it please.)
How do we avoid getting hit with killjoy buzzkill copyright claims?
Just don't add established characters to the base game. The only official mugen character is karateman. Despite the engine itself absolutely bursting with representation from every form of media you can think of. Same thing goes for OpenBoR and its modules. Its an engine with no characters or story of its own. Can't C&D you for a blank engine. Unity not only allows for this, but is also free, and will work on all modern computers.
I DO (very much so) understand all the work an undertaking like this entails. I already design AND Deploy, 2D retro-games on my own for fun and profit, but that's not the point. The point is, what you're saying is 100% valid, but needlessly over-complicated. Lets simplify this down to it's absolute basic first steps, and no more. We don't have to climb Everest fresh out of the gate. That's crazy. We're just gonna try and cross the street.
A Full on story mode would be wonderful to have, but not entirely necessary. To actually see this game in action you'd only really need 3 original entities, and a level. I'm talking about a simple product demo. Or, for this example :
1. A playable hero -
2. A fodder enemy to knock around. Like a henchman -
3. A Boss entity that spawns after you KO a set amount of fodder enemies. Doesn't even have to be a different
enemy. a palette swap of fodder henchman dude would do just fine. Scale factor it up a little if you're fancy. -
4. A level for them to inhabit and interact. Honestly, one small rectangular shaped room is absolutely serviceable.
Add two walls, and two doors, BOOM! Spawn room, Battle room, Boss room. Done, roll the credits. -
Next, those original entites would have to be created from scratch... Wouldn't they?
The short answer is no. Not, really. While there are some excellent Model creators and editors here, their numbers are far too few. It wouldn't be fair to ask a tax on their hobby time like that. It would also be much more difficult to achieve uniformity in art design. I think most of us are just hobbyists who really enjoy this thing we've got. To address this, I'll try and better explain what i stated earlier.
Pretty sure everything in these games has been ripped at this point. Characters, Environments, Effects, Baubles, Odds / Ends, etc. An effort is already underway to bring these models over to 3ds max, maya, blender, and the like. if pre-existing models have been exported to these modern formats, We can just reskin them like we do now. Keeping the art style and charm of the original game, while simplifying the process of character mod creation in the future. Again, we'd only need two reskins at bare minimum for a complete working demo.
How do we overcome the huge hurdle of community coordination?
we really don't have to honestly. You don't need an entire community of chefs in the kitchen to make a turkey.
Again, Mugen and OpenBOR have been doing this successfully just under around two decades. It's not impossible at all really. You guys have been injecting new fun into an old game, time and again ON YOUR OWN for how many years now? Outsider's catalog alone is absolutely PROLIFIC at this point.
Realistically, what I'm proposing (with the plethora of free to use tools available these days) can be, and has been done by one sufficiently educated person numerous times over. That's how an Earthbound romhacker made Undertale. Unfortunately, I am NOT that sufficiently educated virtuoso. I'm making the jump from 2d Game design to 3d game design, but I need a little more time to study. When that time comes, I'd like to put together a group of 5-10 people, work out a product demo that will be simpler to mod for, and leaves expandability open ended for futute fun and development. If you're a person reading this, who thinks this is a terrible idea. Sound off on why you think so. I'm using this experience as my sounding board. If you stump me, then there's very obviously more studying i've got to get done. Just try and keep decorum, and civility in mind. I wont assume what you do or don't know / understand. I'd ask for the same simple respect. Capiche?