Earthbound may not be the first Nintendo game on the list when it comes to remaster wishes, but the classic RPG did have its own niche following. It seems one of those followers have taken it upon themselves to recreate the game, but in 3D.
As spotted by GameRant, Earthbound: Dimensions is a fan project taken up by antourenein and supported by a few others. They kicked off the project in early 2020 as an experiment to try out Godot Engine 3D and Blender. The developer continued with the experiment, showcasing the progress on the Earthbound: Dimensions Twitter Handle.
“The goal up to now has been finding ways to best adapt the source game we all know and love to the third dimension, and, as a direct translation is pretty much impossible, there will be a few new mechanics to help everything feel right at home as a modern 3D game,” said the dev on the project’s website. “I also intend to include some modernized text/scenes, completely rearranged soundtrack and maybe even a few new secrets, as there are a lot of new places to hide things in three dimensions!”
While this seems like an ambitious project, antourenein has said that it is still in early stages and they aren’t in a position to recruit anyone as of yet. However, They’re open to looking through any work that you may send them. They’ve mentioned that the project is made using Godot Engine 3.3, but has been waiting patiently for Godot Engine 4. Blender has been used for the 3D aspects, ArmorPaint for material painting, Krita and GIMP for image editing.
As is with most fan-projects, the progress is slow and cyclic, so antourenein has mentioned that there’s not even an estimate of a completion date as of yet. As for the question of legal issues, the dev has cited some other projects that have not faced any issues.
“Well, this is a project I've been working and experimenting on for quite a few months now, just for fun and love for the original game, plus it's all non-profit,” said the website’s FAQ page. “Basically it's just like any other Mother fan project out there, such as Mother Encore or Mother 2 (check them out!), which don't seem to be having any problems related to this matter. Bottom line is, I'm not really seeing a compelling reason to just keep it to myself for now. Where's the fun in that, anyway?”