Tell about your longrunning projects

[dusted]

We all have them don't we? Those projects that we started as "a little something to do when bored" that kind of evolved into something much larger than we intended. Some project that you started years ago, which may be outdated, and may be irrelevant, but represent a signifigant investment in time over the years. A project not really super-relevant anymore, one could say, to be blunt "too bad to finish" but yet too good, or atleast, something you're too involved in, to throw away.

Wizznic is mine, she's old, she was made to run on a piece of hardware long out of production, with a 500 mhz arm cpu and 320x240 display.. Since then, it's been ported to Playstation Portable, other hand held consoles, and even some phones.. It runs, ofcause also on Linux and Windows, but its legacy is clear. I'm going to finish Wizznic one day, ofacuse I am, releasing that good old 1 point O, then I will lean back, and watch the world ignore it, at least for a while, until I charge mentally to start the next thing, maybe SDL-Ball 2, maybe that Speedball clone, maybe my own original idea (which is secret because I think it's good, too good to share, because I want to be the one to do it, we all have our motivations right? Mine is partly vanity, but at least I'm honest).

I've done almost nothing to Wizznic over the past year and a half, it's always above my head, haunting me, making me feel guilty that I've not finished it.. The work left is mostly trivial.. But everything is hard when you don't want to do it. I can't start a new project, I can't throw Wizznic away, it needs to be finished first, I cannot accept throwing all that work away, even if it was really fun to do, it feels like too much of a failure, a loss, unexploited potential.

That was my story, am I alone with thoughts like those?
Feel free to share and comment.

[devnewton]

I played Wizznic, it's a cool game! The only thing to be improved is the resolution!

[dusted]

I played Wizznic, it's a cool game! The only thing to be improved is the resolution!

Thank you for your kind comment!
I do agree, the resolution is an issue with Wizznic, for me, the resulution situation is two-fold,
firstly, I could argue that I consider the blockyness an aesthetic, however, the true reason behind this choice is that the target-device was running 320x240, however, the resolution is not purely a limitation, it is also a grant, as I am by no means an artist, I did however find it easier to create acceptable graphics in this low resolution, had I been able to make blocks at 128x128 pixel resolution instead of the 20x20 pixel, I personally would have been unable to accomplish anything satisfactory, and the project would likely never have launched at all. Another thing is that I'm using lot's of pixel-plotting effects, on the CPU, something that I couldn't have done if the game were to run in a high resolution as these operations are quite expensive. So the same thing which allows me to actually lift the burden is the same thing that limits the success of the project. An equilibrium exist between the allowed graphical quality of the game and my ability as an artist and programmer.

Once again, another weekend passed without a single line of code touched.

Again, I'm very interested in reading other stories, be they good or bad, positive or negative

[devnewton]

Another thing is that I'm using lot's of pixel-plotting effects, on the CPU, something that I couldn't have done if the game were to run in a high resolution as these operations are quite expensive

Maybe you can keep your pixel plotting rendering to a low resolution texture and let the GPU do the scaling?

[dusted]

That's actually what I'm doing on linux and windows, using opengl to scale it to fullscreen, but that does not change the "real" resolution, it's still 320x240, just blown up ^_^

[farcodev]

Developping FAR Colony since August 2009.

It's not from scratch since this iteration is the third one, I failed the two previous ones by lack of good organisation in design and overall vision of the game.

I started with the universe generator in 2002, made 3 versions of it, full of bugs, and the FUG integrated with FARC is the 4th and finally done version.

The iteration 0 of the game was a top down 2d one, never passed the stage of some UI and graphics, it's why it's not really a game iteration. Iteration 1 was a hybrid 2d/3d turn-based only but was coded as badly as the 3 version of the generator. Iteration 2 was the same but I lost 1.5 years to work ONLY on the designer of the space units, and the lack of a core game design document, added to the fact that I moved to Canada and had other priorities, killed this iteration.

So there is, the actual FARC is the third baby that apparently passed the survival stage and will go into completion of its core features... in 2015 if all goes well.

I also played Wizznic, you made a very cool game

[dusted]

Farcodev, thanks for sharing!
Far Colony looks like a big undertaking and well-underway, keep at it

[farcodev]

Big, yeah that the word, a big burden... oops lol
Thanks to you too