If you quit your project, would you let someone else continue it?

I personally wouldn't give my permission for someone else to finish my projects if I was forced to abandon them (*touches wood*). The only way I'd agree to it would be if the person continuing carried out my exact plans for everything down to the last detail, which would be pretty pointless. A) Who wants to be dictated to when taking up a project like this for fun, and B) if I feel so strongly about it, I should continue it on my own, right? Part of me would always be annoyed with myself for not finishing what I started, and if it was a case of lost motivation I'd like to think I'd want to come back to it someday. That's just the view I'd have on it if I was in that position, anyway.

I'd never let anyone finish my project unless I'm able to tell them everything I want to do, and I'll be angery if they want to do something that I didn't

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.

One thing I've learned while studying computer science is the importance of using open source. Does that leave potential for the project to be different than how I envisioned it? Yes, but the prospect of it being completed and released to the target audience is more important to me. This is a very subjective topic, but I'd absolutely be willing to hand over a project to a competent individual(s), just as I'd be willing to adopt one that I see potential in.

If more people shared that mindset, maybe we wouldn't see such a large plethora of awesome hacks drown in the sea that is the Progressing Rom Hacks sub.

My fangame is almost complete - all that's left is half of the Battle Frontier and another extra I'm including in the postgame. Although I still won't publicly release the remainder of it until my spriter has enough time to sprite again, my part of it is nearly done.

But in an alternate timeline where this wasn't possible and I didn't make it this far, there are a handful of people who've helped me that I'd trust to continue with it if they wanted to. The main thing I'd hope for is that the atmosphere is the same. Some aspects of my game are based on my spiritual beliefs (I believe Earth is a simulation and that our real planet we were born on and will return to after Earth is Cerri). For example, in my game death literally doesn't exist and the physical aging process stops (at different points for different people depending on their emotional strength; but no one physically ages to the point of being wrinkled, weakened, or having memory loss). As long as this is kept in mind when doing dialogue, I think I would be okay with it.

I wouldnt either for the same reason : down to the last detail in the way I envisioned my game to look and feel like. That being said if it was taken over by someone who has created the type of game Im trying to reach like uranium or spectrum I would gladly allow them to take full control.

If I'll be quite frank, the matter of whether or not I'd let someone else take it is just a matter of communication of vision. I've recently had to step away from a project I had lead for years with over forty people under my ideas. Really, what it came down to is that I see it as a sign of moving on. What I want changes many times. I'm very cerebral about my projects. If the project I'm working on does not line up proper to the potential endgame, then I won't derive any satisfaction from making it. So I'll hand it over.

Sure, my vision won't be exactly how I'd imagine, but that's the risk of passing it down. If I communicated my vision to them and they had accepted it, cool. Otherwise, I wouldn't lose sleep.

I know a lot of developers whom spent sooo much time crafting, improving, and updating their games, the pride in handing it over because you couldn't do it is justified. But I'd rather my vision be altered for a release which has a following that I can say I was proud to be a part of, instead of no release at all. Speaking back on the subject, I do have my colleagues that I'd trust with my life if I had a project to be handed over. I hope they want that workload, to be honest.

Absolutely, I'd pass on any project of this kind I ever made. I feel like it's owed to any fanbase, however small!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a control freak, and I'd have some mad long discussions about map design and balance philosophy, but in the end I know I'm not the de facto best person for the job of delivering ANY vision (let alone my own). There's not a change I've enacted that I couldn't probably justify reverting. I'm not dyskinesia, I'm not drayano, I'm sure I could grab a better replacement than me.

But heck if it ever comes to that I doubt I'd ever let anyone take my final patch down. auld lang syne etc.

Le pug said:

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.

Click to expand...

Was nice to hear your thoughts on this; it seems you've weighed it out quite carefully.

Enthusiasm / favourable life situations for ROM hacking seems to go in spurts and then gradually drop off based on the history of this site. The myriad of almost-finished hacks would no doubt fare a lot better if more developers were willing to have this discussion.

If someone wants to continue your hack under a different name (even an only slightly changed name), I don't see what the problem is. If/when you want to revisit it, you can pick up right where you left off, completely ignoring any child projects you may have spawned; you're not obligated to start off from where the new person left off.

I always like to finish creative projects myself because often when you leave such a thing in somebody else's hands, they will always try to add their own unwanted elements to it

If I were to quit a project I was heavily invested in, I'd probably release all the files up until that point to the public. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all making just fan-games, and if I'm not going to work on something anymore, why would I not let someone else use my work?

The argument that I'll let other only work on it if they follow my exact orders is moot to me. I mean, you aren't really quitting then. If I had to quit, I wouldn't give a shit anymore and probably just upload my RMXP files and hopefully make someone's day with them.