Why do people make fangames?

[AGAFURO]

so then why don't they just come up with their own ideas?

Actually... in most cases, "coming up with their own ideas" is exactly what they ARE doing. The characters and worlds might already exist, but everything else - new locations, possible new characters that can interract with the already existing ones, the whole storyline and every single event that occurs in the game are all still original ideas that requires the imagination of the creator.

People who make fan games - including myself - are usually attached to certain characters/stories and want to make a "tribute", or something similar. Why do people make fanart and fan-fics rather than drawing their own, original stuff all the time? Sure, there's usually quite a difference in time and effort spent between a picture or a 5-page fan-fic and a whole game, but the "reason" is still pretty much the same, usually.

Sometimes it's just more fun to use characters that already exist, but that you really love, than coming up with ones of your own that you personally don't anywhere near the same level of affection for.

...and just like others are more likely to click on and check out a "Flandre Scarlet x DMC Dante" fanart, thinking; "holy-crap, it's Flandre and Dante!" than checking out your completely new and original character fan-art, I believe especially people who are making their first games are more likely to get their games recognized than people making something completely new.

Finally... especially when making a multi-fan game that's not simply "an FF fan-game" or "Bleach fan-game", but more like a; "Super Mario x FF x Touhou x Xenosaga x Shakugan no Shana fan-game"... then, it's REALLY a creative challenge to make it all go together and make the characters interract while remaining true to the originals.