Abandoned game developments

[Mark Sheeky]

Looking around on Gamedev, it seems that there are a lot of programmers who just give up on a game and move on to something new. For me this is very rare. Of the 40 or so freeware and shareware games I've done since 1991, I've only abandoned 2 projects and one of those I came back to and re-programmed from scratch. Just out of interest, I was wondering if abandonments are common or whether most people stick with a game even if it drags out to over a year or two.

Mark

[Dan MacDonald]

We'll I've got a project that's dragged on for over 3 years now, it's on the back burner for a smaller project right now, but still very much alive.

[SonSon]

Since I'm a developer I've finished two projects. (not really games but a 3D tech demo and a real time 3D website ).
Now after 10 months of hard work I'm close to release my first game.
I try to never abandon a project.

[Rainer Deyke]

I finish one game every two years. I get about four good game ideas every year. I don't like abandoning projects, but the numbers say that I can only turn one idea out of eight into a finished game.

I've found that projects tend to reach their "point of no return" after two months of work. Once I've invested that much effort in a project, I can no longer abandon it.

[DDustin]

I've abandoned many of my projects. But the projects I undertake are usually purely so I can learn and understand the concepts that drive them. If I decide a system being used by one of my projects is too slow or not expandable enough, I'll very easily abandon it.

[Teq]

No abandoned projects here, just those that we put on hold for a while, have one that is 4 years old now and hasn't had development in a couple of years, but its still not abandoned, honest!

[Nemesis]

I had a number of abandoned projects during my teenage years... back then, the opporutnity to sell games was in its infancy as Internet connectivity was not yet commonplace in Malta. Also, most of my projects were for my own education really.

A year and a half ago I teamed up with an old friend of mine and I embarked on a 3D game (first time), using C++ (almost first time!). So far, I'm still going at it.. I give it at least 20 hours a week fitting it around a day job, a girlfriend, family, furnishing my own nest, exercise and a social life.

From my own experience I can say it is not easy to finish a project in these conditions. My friend had to deal with finishing a degree, getting married and settling down. The two other members of the team have their own commitments too. Still.. the project is shaping up and I'll probably be posting an update soon.

I wish I had taken on a smaller project as I really needed to master an iron will to persist this long! However I committed myself to finish it and I'll do my best to see it done.

[DavidRM]

You gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run...

That about sums it up, I figure.

Not every project you start *has* to be completed (unless you suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder) because not every abandoned project is a failure, and not every completed project is a success.

Myself, I have no idea how many projects I have started over the years (books, board games, computer games, relationships, business ideas, landscaping, home improvement, etc) that have been abandoned for a variety of reasons (lack of resources, too large a scope, irreconcilable differences, change of goals or interests, and so on).

I dream big and I dream often. Sometimes new dreams push old dreams aside. Sometimes old dreams just fade away. Sometimes a dream weathers all distractions and becomes a reality.

I relish it all.

-David

[Kai Backman]

In the last few years I have only started two major projects. Of these I dropped the development of the first one in 2001, it was a non-commercial GPL project with a too limited scope to be viable in the long run. I completed Space Station Manager, and am currently working on finishing a new game.

Like anyone, I've done small spikes to test specific technologies but you wouldn't really count these. I have tried to eliminate projects before their inception, if market conditions so dictate. However, I would be completely ready to halt an almost completed project if it looked like an unfixable bad concept.

[Uhfgood]

Deliberately, only 2, just as a matter of circumstance, many. I just usually get sidetracked into stuff i have to do eventually abandoning an old project. And when I think I might want to go back, I remember, that i've forgotten most of what I did in it.

Keith

[svero]

I have about 4-5 incomplete beginner games for every 1 I finish. I play around with a lot of ideas before I finally settle one something I want to complete.

[kevryan]

I've got quite a few completed designs sitting on the shelf - some had some coding done on them before being shelved. Some of them I will never do anything with, but sometimes they will end being pulled off the shelf and completed later with quite a time gap.

For example there was a very early version of a gadgets type game running on the C64 that was put on the shelf so we could work on Arctic Fox for the Amiga back in early 1985. In 1992 I made The Incredible Machine that was roughly based on the early game concept.