Dropped Projects

A place to discuss things that aren't specific to any one creator or game.
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Glasskitten
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Re: Dropped Projects

#31 Post by Glasskitten »

Letting go of projects I've publicly kvelled over always fills me with enough shame to WANT to leave whatever public it was--all without anyone encouraging me to do so. >_<
(Well, actually a lot of things make me want to leave a place, such as making any kind of mistake or being too shy to look at the answers to my own questions. So I guess I'm not an optimal model of human psychological functioning.)
Grand list of things not officially canceled:
Salt -- the heartwarming story of brain-eating space worms
Tangent -- an epic poem and/or novel about a borderline-autistic Martian imp and her relationship with God
Kittens of the Darned -- a grimdark soap opera about sexy catgirls (Indefinitely postponed until I learn to draw and color realistically)
The Other Mary -- the most perfect fic about the most perfect Mary Sue EVER
Rockheart -- a short story about a monster who kills everyone
Corrupted -- a completely different short story about a monster who kills everyone (late Worst Visual Novel Ever)
Checkpoint 36a -- the transcription of a short multi-ending dream about time travel and undead schoolgirls
In Which the Princess is Kidnapped -- an entry in the "ordinary girl ends up in an alien universe and tries to save it" genre
Pictogram Scramble: Magical Friendship Bunny Ivy -- a Flash game about a magical girl making friends (Indefinitely postponed until I learn how friendship works)

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Re: Dropped Projects

#32 Post by Sapphi »

Glasskitten wrote: (Well, actually a lot of things make me want to leave a place, such as making any kind of mistake or being too shy to look at the answers to my own questions. So I guess I'm not an optimal model of human psychological functioning.)
You're not the only one... :oops:
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Re: Dropped Projects

#33 Post by teacup »

Sapphi wrote:
Glasskitten wrote: (Well, actually a lot of things make me want to leave a place, such as making any kind of mistake or being too shy to look at the answers to my own questions. So I guess I'm not an optimal model of human psychological functioning.)
You're not the only one... :oops:
I'm also guilty of this. >.>
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Re: Dropped Projects

#34 Post by Wertville »

teacup wrote:
Sapphi wrote:
Glasskitten wrote: (Well, actually a lot of things make me want to leave a place, such as making any kind of mistake or being too shy to look at the answers to my own questions. So I guess I'm not an optimal model of human psychological functioning.)
You're not the only one... :oops:
I'm also guilty of this. >.>
Longtime lurker showing up to agree :P

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Re: Dropped Projects

#35 Post by IonicMomo »

I agree with whoever spoke about working individually. This is my biggest problem. I like to work individually, because I prefer to be dependent only on myself...and I also don't like letting people down if I find that real life takes over and I have to place a project on hold. But for that reason, I make myself responsible for all the writing, coding, and art, which is a lot of work. And I don't really announce most of the projects I begin (because I made the mistake of doing that once, and have made little progress a year later). As a result, without support and encouragement from others, and having all the work to do on my own, I find it very easy to drop projects without facing any consequences.

But yeah, if I ever do ask others for help with the art for a project, it wouldn't be until I've completely finished the script for the game. (And I feel a lot less urgency to make games myself, now that there are so many more in progress than there were even a couple of years ago. That's very poor logic, I know...)
Current Project: Untitled GxB Game, Untitled NaNoRenO 2011
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Re: Dropped Projects

#36 Post by Efreet »

Bumping this one up - is it me or does anyone else find it really disenheartening when projects just lose steam?

This project I got going on since early February with a writer started off going well, we compromised and we planned out the plot with the different flags and endings. A bit of preproduction work was done - the main menu, preference screen and NVL text box coded in with a first page 'prototype'. Though we might not have had a dedicated artist, we've got one picture following one of our styles, maybe another one (unless he thinks I'm not good for his faith... >_>). To make matters worse, it feels like my writer has dropped off the face of the earth due to some personal issues.

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Re: Dropped Projects

#37 Post by gekiganwing »

A number of projects which I started didn't get past "rough demo" level. And most of the others barely got started. Yeah, I have a lot of shame and regrets.

Starting August 1 (aka Monday morning), I will get started on a new visual novel. I'll be waking up each weekday, and giving myself about an hour to write, code, edit, and implement images/sounds. By the end of August, I fully intend to have a short story done. More about this in my new project thread, which I'll start writing tomorrow at the latest.

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Re: Dropped Projects

#38 Post by LVUER »

@Efreet:
That is one of the reason why you should do your project alone. There's a saying "If you want to get something done, you gotta do it yourself."
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Re: Dropped Projects

#39 Post by Aleema »

LVUER wrote:@Efreet:
That is one of the reason why you should do your project alone. There's a saying "If you want to get something done, you gotta do it yourself."
^ That's basically the honest truth. Don't start a game you can't do by yourself if you needed to. Relying on people is a risky thing to do. It's wonderful when it pays off, but putting your hopes and dreams in others hands can leave you with nothing. If completion isn't important to you, then that's no big deal. If it is, you should make sure that something out of your control can't completely stop everything.

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Re: Dropped Projects

#40 Post by Blue Lemma »

Yeah, running out of steam sucks :(

It shouldn't be this way, but I'm reminded of what a venture capitalist once told me: For every 10 projects you invest in, 6 will die horribly, 3 will never do more than break even, and 1 will be the success that keeps you going.

Maybe substitute in visual novels, and you get the idea? :lol:

Despite all the different motivation techniques, I think the best thing is to just work on it. Easier said than done sometimes, but it's simple and it works if you can clutch up!
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Re: Dropped Projects

#41 Post by Hayzel »

Aleema wrote:
LVUER wrote:@Efreet:
That is one of the reason why you should do your project alone. There's a saying "If you want to get something done, you gotta do it yourself."
^ That's basically the honest truth. Don't start a game you can't do by yourself if you needed to. Relying on people is a risky thing to do. It's wonderful when it pays off, but putting your hopes and dreams in others hands can leave you with nothing. If completion isn't important to you, then that's no big deal. If it is, you should make sure that something out of your control can't completely stop everything.
Heh. To be a devil's advocate, I think it's more fun, rewarding, and beneficial to work in a group. You build friendships, there's someone to party with once a job is completed, and you have a wider base of people to pull interest into your project. Though it is true if someone drops out you might be in trouble...but that doesn't' mean the project is a lost cause. There are plenty of people looking for projects to work on, just gotta know where to go to find them.

I find that people putting your projects down very discouraging and I've seen it put a lot of people out of shape and make them want to give up on things ;-;

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Re: Dropped Projects

#42 Post by Aleema »

You're adding a huge risk factor to your project if you absolutely must have random-person-C from the internet to do a part of it. That's the reality of it. That's not a 100% guarantee your project will fail so you definitely shouldn't do it blahblah, not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if you really want a finished game (which you should, since you're wasting other people's time now, not just your own), have backup plans for worst-case scenarios where everyone's dropped. That's all.

That said, I never said it wasn't fun to work in a group. It most certainly is. :D

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Re: Dropped Projects

#43 Post by Efreet »

Haha thanks guys. Well I initially started my project since it was nearing the end of my course and tghat I wanted to do something during the summer. It's fun working with my writer, I've met him in person (same with the artist) and we share quite a few interests - work wise he's just slow though I've been very mindful not to push him (cause this is voluntary work, the only pay is the awarded statisfaction of finishing a VN game!).

I always thought my artist wouldn't really want to be with us, so I've taken steps to improve my drawing. Though with all that said and done, I think I'm going to have to sadly drop my current project or stall it until my drawing catches up/writer comes back/etc.

Not all is lost, I just need to distance myself from this project (haha it's become my own "Guilt") and now make a shorter one!

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Re: Dropped Projects

#44 Post by Camille »

Efreet wrote:It's fun working with my writer, I've met him in person (same with the artist) and we share quite a few interests - work wise he's just slow though I've been very mindful not to push him (cause this is voluntary work, the only pay is the awarded statisfaction of finishing a VN game!).
Without saying too much and getting myself into trouble, I know exactly how that feels. You want to push them because you're so excited and ready to work, but you can't for one reason or another. If you don't communicate and make sure that you guys have the same energy, drive, and feelings about the project, it could lead to a lot of misunderstandings later, which is a bummer. You should never assume that one of your teammates is as motivated as you, but you shouldn't assume that they're not motivated, either. XD Sometimes you guys just need to talk it out seriously without you trying so hard not to step on anybody's toes.

But hey, if you distance yourself from the project a bit, it could always pick up again later. And now you can work on something fresh and new on your own without worrying.

I guess I'm the type that sort of needs a team to operate. Err, at least an artist. I find it very hard to keep motivated when I'm working on something alone. But for MJ, my artist is my best friend of like 8 years and we're very communicative, so I think the risk factor isn't so high. We sort of keep each other going, too. We've had some arguments regarding the project, but because we both keep an open mind and try to listen to the other person's concerns, we've worked through all of those rough patches really well. For BCM, I originally commissioned Auro, so uh. I think when there's money involved, the other person is a lot less likely to just disappear on you (plus when I "hired" her, it was only after I saw that she had worked with other people before and not dropped off the face of the planet XD). And now the two of us get along great and she's definitely more like a partner and friend to me than just an artist I commissioned. She's given me a lot of ideas, too, that I definitely couldn't have come up with on my own. I guess that's the biggest benefit of working in a group: two heads work better than one, and so on. Like Aleema said, it's risky--but it is wonderful when it pays off.

But I do agree that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket/rely on someone for your project to get done, in general. The moment your project's fate is in someone else's hands, that's never safe. You always want as much (creative?) control as you can, otherwise it's very easy for the whole thing to collapse.

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Re: Dropped Projects

#45 Post by blakjak »

Taleweaver wrote:By the way, here's one addition to my Wall of Shame:

Inside/Outside
Inside/Outside was a great idea in concept, but beyond my programming abilities at that time. Essentially, it was a VN without any choices, with a real-time interface, and only one interactive feature: Your protagonist, who was telling his story from a first-person narrator's view, had a split personality, one being a meek, gentle guy who allows everybody to walk all over him, the second being an aggressive, intelligent sociopath who takes from life what he can get and who never has any trouble getting what he wants. You had one button that would let out that second personality of yours, thus the title Inside/Outside. At certain points, your meek real personality would take over again, and if you held your aggressive self inside for too long, it could sometimes break out on its own at the least inopportune moments. I relied on someone else's programming skills to do this, and when this person left, I had to drop the project with a half-complete script.
You're very kind not to mention my droping out from Inside/outside, still, I feel responsible for not going through with this. Crazy part is that it wasn't even that much work, and the script was awesome...I don't know, I think I'm just lazy.

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