MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Welcome to the MFGG submission page. Because this is your first time making a submission, please review the rules below to ensure your submission gets posted on the site. After you complete your first submission, you will not be shown this page again.

You are free to submit content to MFGG, as long as it is kept within the rules. Any content violating these rules will not be accepted into MFGG's archive.

Version 1.0.1 (last updated on: July 14, 2019)

1. General Rules of Thumb

1.1 - Do not steal content from others, as it is highly unethical.

1.1.1 - We at MFGG have our ways of determining whether work is stolen from others, and will readily punish thieves if a work is proven stolen. Anyone submitting stolen content will be banned from the site immediately.

1.1.2 - Please keep in mind that while rips from official games aren't technically being done with permission, they are permitted given the (rather obvious) circumstances.

1.1.3 - If your submission is based on someone else's work like edits/revamps, please make sure to include proper credits.

1.1.4 - You are NOT allowed to upload submissions made by other user unless with the author's explicit permission.

1.2 - No inappropriate content, MFGG is meant to be kept SFW (Safe For Work) and generally family-friendly.

1.2.1 - Unnecessary vulgar aspects such as pornography, fetishes, and anything of a sexually explicit nature are strictly not allowed.

1.2.2 - Keep swearing to a minimum. If you must, clear warnings are required.

1.2.3 - Violence is acceptable but submissions are required to include a content warning/discretion.

1.2.4 - Preview screenshots and thumbnails should not contain any NSFW content at all. This also applies to violence/anything mentioned as being acceptable within limitation.

1.3 - All content should demonstrate basic care and effort. Rushed or useless sprites and hurried, empty games will be declined. Further explanation below. We will not tolerate lazy tile rips yanked directly from YY-CHR or similar applications.

1.4 - All submissions are required to be filtered by their respective franchise except reviews and hacks. We have the right to modify the submission if any of the tags fail to adhere by the content. However, we will notify the user if such action was taken. Repeated failure to properly tag your submissions may result in a warning and temporary ban from being allowed to submit content to the site, although such cases are very unlikely to occur.

1.5 - Animated submission thumbnail and/or screenshots are not accepted anymore, no exceptions.

1.6 - The rules will apply to any submissions after the date the rules are updated. Any submissions prior to the update date will be excluded unless it is under special circumstances.

2. Guidelines for Games

2.1 - Any external files required to run the game must be included in its download, with the exception of files listed under the Miscellaneous category of the Downloads section and commonly-used external libraries (such as DirectX or XNA Framework). Game that requires installation of game creation software such as ClickTeam, RPG Maker, etc will very likely be declined. As a general rule of thumb, the more effort we have to go through to play your game, the less likely it is to be accepted.

2.2 - Games packaged with installation mediums are not allowed due to security concerns. In some cases, some installers can easily hide malware which is difficult to detect until it is already installed in the system - which could be too late to properly deal with.

2.3 - Levels files such as those for "Super Mario Bros. X" or similar games that produce level files you can share with others will be declined automatically if submitted as a game. It is best to submit level files under our Miscellaneous category, just please make sure the category is set to "Levels" when doing so.

2.4 - There must be some tangible form of gameplay in games.

2.4.1 - No disorganized mass of objects. Games with very little gameplay or a lack of effort will likely be declined. Submitting a basic "Pong" clone will not yield positive results, for instance.

2.4.2 - Games that lack in proper instructions to play will also likely be declined. Games with cryptic controls, menus, and navigation to start the game will most definitely be declined.

2.4.3 - Your game should be possible to complete, and not just a level you can only walk halfway through.

2.4.4 - Demos (or yet to be completed games) must contain at least one full-length level for a developed engine and at least two for a more basic one.

2.5 - No engine clones! This is an extension of our "general effort" policy. For example: A game made with Hello Mario Engine with little to no graphic changes and rushed level edits. If your game is an edit of an existing engine that you didn't make and does nothing substantial to the engine's features/presentation/etc., we will absolutely not accept it. Using a pre-existing engine is totally fine, but lazy engine edits are low effort and not worth preserving on the site.

2.6 - Games should have a defined beginning and end; games that end with an unintentional error message will most likely be declined

2.7 - Joke games with very little gameplay will not be accepted. In addition, joke games must be as family friendly (see rule 1.2) as possible unless discretion is posted in the description.

2.8 - MFGG now accepts game submissions as large as 100 megabytes in size. We’ve had requests from our users to allow bigger submissions for a while now, mainly to accommodate higher quality music and other assets. However, please do not abuse this privilege. Take care to keep game sizes manageable by removing unused resources and by encoding audio to minimize file sizes. For instance, if you submit a simple minigame that uses a 40 megabyte .WAV file for background music, we will likely decline the submission for being needlessly large.

3. Guidelines for Hacks and Mods

3.1 - ROM hacks must be submitted in patch format (.BPS is highly recommended) and contain as little copyrighted code as possible. If your upload contains a ROM file, it will be declined, no exceptions. If your mod is intended to be run using a real-time file patching method, such as Riivolution, include all necessary files required to run in a .ZIP archive - including, if applicable, the configuration file.

3.2 - All hacks are required to specify the base game (the one to apply the patch to), region, and hack types.

3.3 -If you're not too certain what kind of hack types to choose for your submission, this may help you:

Cosmetic: the game plays the same but looks different
Tweak: nearly the same game but with minor gameplay differences
Full Conversion: games with heavy/full modifications

3.4 - Same to games, all hacks must demonstrate effort. For instance:

3.4.1 - A very basic cosmetic hack with changes only applying to the player or a few selected enemies will likely be declined unless there is a substantial reason for such a small change.

3.4.2 - Hacks should actually be beatable. Impassable final levels with no ending dialogues/messages will be declined.

3.4.3 - Levels/maps filled with random globs of tiles and/or glitched graphics are not acceptable.

3.5 - To play most hacks, find a ROM file of the base game (this will not be provided for you - consider yourself on your own, there; We advocate dumping your own ROMs) and patch it using our online patcher or a patching program of your choice. Select the base ROM and then the patch you wish to apply. Run the resulting ROM file in the emulator of choice.

4. Guidelines for Graphics

4.1 - All graphics submissions must be in its proper format.

4.1.1 - The accepted formats for sprites and backgrounds must be lossless such as .GIF and .PNG. We will not accept .JPEGs.

4.1.2 - If you have multiple sheets/backgrounds to submit, we highly encourage you to archive them in a compressed .ZIP file.

4.1.3 - All graphics submission must be still images. Animated .GIF, .APNGS, or any other animated format will be declined, no exceptions.

4.1.4 - Although we have officially retired the Clickteam (or Klik) libraries in their many related formats, we acknowledge their historical significance to the website and have main site moderation who are able to view (as of 2019) the latest Clickteam source files and back.

4.1.5 - Sprites must be kept in a 1x format. Any resized/cropped sprites will be declined.

4.1.6 - Make sure that tilesets tile properly before you submit them. Any practical size is permitted for the tiles; 16x16 is a common size.

4.1.7 - Sprites are recommended to submitted as a set. Any sprite submission with few frames unless noted would likely be declined. We do allow exceptions for sprites not submitted with a set in the past (i.e. were excluded by accident) or specialty sprites that do not fit in larger groups but are of usefulness (i.e. visual FX frames, unusual extra graphics, unused sprites, etc.)

4.2 - Graphics submissions, whether in the form of sprite sheets or Clickteam libraries, should be complete enough to be of use to fangame makers.

4.2.1 - A sprite sheet should include enough frames to comprise a complete animation.

4.2.2 - Custom-styled tilesets should generally provide enough content to design a simple level. Quick and small tileset/sprite will not be accepted unless it is an addition to an existing set like SMB3 styles.

4.2.3 - We will not accept useless sprites. Even if they are of decent/acceptable quality, sprites can still be entirely useless to others. A perfect example is a Super Saiya-jin Luigi holding a shotgun... standard sprites are accepted, but not absurd edits.

4.2.4 - Character sprites have to be of official characters respective to the franchise. Any OC, popular or otherwise will not be accepted (i.e. Bowsette, Sponge (see VineSauce), etc.). Contents containing any of such sprites will not be accepted even if it includes useful sprites.

4.3 - All Sprites must demonstrate that effort was put into them. Recolors or other simple edits of existing sprites will generally be declined. Sprites that are not too recognizable of the respective character and/or object will also be declined. For example: Barely recognizable SMW Toad sprites that are based off from SMW Mario.

4.4 - Sprite sheets and tilesets should be easy to use; sheets with large amounts of wasted space or obtrusive watermarks will be declined.

4.5 - In the case of graphics ripped from official games, make sure that the graphics are not already available elsewhere on MFGG before you make a new submission. Redundant graphics rips will be declined unless the new submission provides additional content or substantially improved organization compared with any original rip(s).

5. Guidelines for Reviews

5.1 - A review is a critical analysis of the game you're reviewing, so it's a little more substantial than a comment on the page saying "This is great!!! 10/10." When writing a review, you're trying to help other people determine whether or not they should play the game. To that end, you need to be descriptive. Simple descriptions like "GREAT!" for gameplay and "Really really bad" for sound don't cut it. You need to explain why you think they deserve the scores you give them. For example, explaining the basics of the gameplay and then stating what works and what doesn't will help the reader not only get the gist of the game, but influence their decision on whether or not to play it. The same goes for graphics, sound, and replay - although to a lesser amount, as they aren't quite as important.

5.2 - Ironically, your final words are the first thing the reader will see of your review on the game's page, so it should project your overall opinion of the game. Keep them short and to the point. Your final score should be determined by what you think is best - it does not have to be an average of the other scores, or even a weighted average. It could be a score you simply feel the game deserves to have regardless of its individual qualities. Just do not make it too wildly different from the rest of your scores without good reason.

5.3 - All reviews should follow the basic guidelines of proper English. While an occasional misspellings or punctuation errors won't affect whether or not we accept it, poorly written reviews will be declined regardless of actual quality as criticism.

5.4 - Comment rules still apply in reviews - don't be a jerk, be mature and unbiased in your analysis, and do not make reviews simply to troll the game's creator. Beyond that, feel free to be yourself in your review, injecting it with your humour and personality to make it an entertaining read.

5.5 - Reviews outside of the 1-10 score range are not permitted unless the staff permits them on special occasions. Any of these reviews will be automatically readjusted or declined in queue.

6. Guidelines for Tutorials

6.1 - Tutorials should generally demonstrate an element or elements from games. MFGG also accepts general-purpose tutorials that demonstrate general-purpose game design information - for example, how to use external files in Game Maker or how to make an action RPG in Clickteam Fusion 2.5.

6.2 - We will allow a tutorial for simple concepts if designed in a user-friendly and helpful manner, but tutorials for anything as simple as scrolling, which in most programs is one or two lines of code, will not be accepted. Simple problems like these are best addressed on the forums.

6.3 - Tutorials that focus on programming should be user-friendly and reasonably easy to understand. Such tutorials should teach proper coding habits and sufficient commenting that users can understand how the code works.

6.4 - Tutorials that are riddled with bugs are not allowed. Double check your work before submitting.

6.5 - Tutorials that covers on something that has already submitted at the main site are not allowed unless it is an improvement of the existing tutorial.

7. Guidelines for Sounds

7.1 - Sound files must be as high quality as possible. We will not accept poorly recorded or fuzzy sound effects that would not be useful in fangames.

7.2 - Please submit all recorded music in .OGG format. .WAV music can take a huge chunk of storage and they are not allowed. .MP3 format are highly discouraged due to compression loss.

7.3 - .MIDI music must be your own composition and not taken from another website, even if you cannot find the original composer's name. This also applies to formats such as .IT, .MOD, .S3M, etc.

8. Guidelines for Miscellaneous Files

8.1 - The Miscellaneous section is designed specifically for resources which prove helpful in either running or creating Games. Feel free to submit resources such as fonts, 3D Models, system files, but not archive gimmicks such as screensavers or wallpapers.

8.2 - Saved level files are also permitted in this category - when submitting levels, please put which game/level editor is it for in the description. Similar to hack rules, levels must demostrate effort. For more details, please see Rule 3.4.

9. Other Things to Consider

9.1 - Remember that submissions must be checked by multiple main site moderators before they can appear on the site, and since MFGG staff have lives outside of the site, it may take a few weeks before a submission is accepted or declined.

9.2 - If you have any questions or issues with the guidelines or the interpretation thereof, please send a message to a main site moderator or administrator.