It's funny because I'm living this scenario ... so I figured I'd post about it. Maybe my situation is what inspired you to ask about it, who knows.
There is a lot of circumstantial things that will always affect a person's choice in this matter.
Personally, I'll touch on the reasons why I handed over my more popular project:
- The easiest reason is because I can no longer continue it based on data loss. I committed a lot of time to re-perform the first beta to make the graphics, scripts, and story a lot better. Coming home after a five-month deployment to my five-month old daughter left me busy for the first few days and before I had time to backup my hard drive onto my Dropbox, it broke. This was actually depressing.
- Another factor was the fan base. I have always been bad about updates and making deadlines I try to give myself and I would do all of that because of the demand. People enjoyed the project and watching people do Let's Play videos to it or comment that it is there favorite ROM hack is one of the inspirations for making it in the first place. Who am I to deny the fans of the project progression because I am sour about the loss of my data?
- When it comes to handing over a project, you wouldn't want it to be someone who is a no-name that you're sure will destroy its value. In my case, I discussed with my relief basic things at first. He was curious as to how the story was to play out and since I retired myself from the project, I had no problem spilling the beans on the story. After a few months of discussion, he made his intentions clear that it is something he would like to do and I agreed. Along with this, when you think about it, how awesome is it that your project is so inspiring that someone who is skillful is willing to take it over just to ensure it is completed? Someone is taking your vision and is building off of it to complete a project you created so that the fans get what they want. That's something to be proud of, in my opinion.
- While there will definitely be creative differences, you are calling it quits on your project and you need to acknowledge this. The ideas and discussions I've had with my relief has made me feel good about what is in stores for the future. He is a critical thinker and has come up with great ideas that I wish I could've thought up myself. If you really care about your project, there is no reason to cold turkey your project. In my case, I still have input as we still discuss the game and I try to give inspiration and ideas and he can choose to go with them as he likes but regardless, I know he'll do fine. Depending on the person, they should still be compliant in letting you give criticism to maps, scripts, events, etc.
- Another factor (again in my case) is the amount of projects I owned. Granted it is only two, but my projects require a lot of bandwidth in terms of storytelling and events. I could never balance the two projects at the same time. It was either work hard on one or the other which only significantly delays updates and releases. Releasing one of my projects frees up more time to work on the other.
- In my personal opinion as I am sure it is for others, my current project is definitely not as popular as my released one. That comes with building serious projects versus comedy projects to begin with but also there is no release for the second project so maybe I'm just beating myself up about it. Regardless of popularity, I honestly enjoy making my comedy project more than I did my serious project. It matches my personality and it makes it more fun to work on.
Those are my reasons for releasing my more popular project to a fan. He is competent and is doing great things, as expected. I feel it was the right choice. For the longest time I would get emotionally sad thinking about the loss of my data. Even though this is a hobby, it is something I have put years into. My relief has brought back the joy associated with my first project. That makes me happy.