Fan Wants To Build An Open World Simpsons: Hit & Run

Hey, remember this time last year when Reubs whipped up a more modern version of the classic Simpsons: Hit & Run in just a week? Well he’s back in 2022, and has far more ambitious goals for the project.

The original August 2021 video was more of a concept thing, cobbled together with various third-party assets and editors so that just the first mission could be made playable within a week. It was very cool, so cool that the original game’s lead designer said at the time that it was “impressive work,” but it was also more of a stunt than any attempt at building a full game

Now, though, via Eurogamer, Reubs is back with much bigger plans. He wants to rebuild the entire game in Unreal Engine 5. And make the game truly open world (the original would load between a few gated “levels”). Oh, and also add online multiplayer.

That’s…a lot of work for one guy, but as the advertisement in the video below explains, he’s not just doing it for the laughs, he’s also doing this as a showcase for his own work building a narrative/dialogue editor:

You might be wondering about the legal implications of this. Well, in an attempt to head lawyers off at the pass, Reubs says, “This is a fan remake for entertainment purposes, this game will never be available to download. Please do not pester my poor discord mods for a download link!”

I have no idea how effective that’s going to be, or whether it’ll even remain the case by the time the project is finished (if it’s ever finished), but seeing as he’s advertising his own product throughout development this could also just be the most inventive piece of software marketing I’ve ever seen. Why buy ads when you can just…start remaking a beloved video game and get over one million people watching your vids?