Please allow me, maybe to say a little thing. :)
I think it's pretty hard for a game creator to keep the same level of motivation for entire years when making a good game, especially a free one. I congratulate you for what you already achieved, even if, you said yourself that it isn't as good as you'd hoped it was. I read 28 pages a bit fast so I don't remember exactly everything. Though, I know you are one motivated by challenge. Challenge is quite thrilling, and that's what (in part, at least) got you to start Dark Future/Energy to begin with. Now maybe, I don't know, but I assume, the lack of challenge in it, in addition to other things linked to the hack itself, and your own life (other projects included) are why you may feel like Dark Energy isn't worth achieving.
First of all, I'm grateful to hear you paid
this much attention this project. I haven't gotten this positive feedback about it, or maybe I have but I don't think anyone has praised it this much before.
I really did my very best on this project and wanted it to be the best I could make, and I think I succeeded in that over time. However, I didn't have what it took to start a hack of this level when I begun. Let me explain for once :D
There are lots of ways to plan what the game will be like; what kind of storyline it has, what are the main events, personalities of important characters, worldmap look related to the events, and so on. When I started this hack, I first planned a few main ideas which Oak somehow describe you in the beginning of the game when you meet him in the university. That was mostly all I had decided at the time (in early 2011).
I kept going on and on; mapping new areas, creating fun events that didn't have much to do with the story though, and planning more story while at it. I kinda thought it could work - until I by the late of 2012, or so, figured how I wrong I had been.
Now that I have been taking university studies of IT, I have learned about the importance behind planning. Unless you plan things out from the start, they won't work out in the end.
Now I know what I should have done from the start - a "tree model" containing information behind the hack (Dark Energy). Trunk which would contain the main storyline, and essential ideas related to it. The trunk would have a couple of roots which would contain the next important things related to the game - in this case probably the most significant events and related to them, the worldmap design (where each significant event is going to take place). From them, a few other roots would branch which would contain information about minor events and character personalities. After them, at the end of the roots we would have things such as area maps, and their functionality and so on.
Now what I did wrong was to start from the end of the roots by mapping areas and designing the trunk part while at it. But how to describe it... it's like I have the ends of the roots, but some of the most significant parts of the roots are missing which would tie the storyline to the ideas.
Hard to tell how much this notion, and my problem, makes sense but actually, instead of it being too easy to continue with Dark Energy, I find it too difficult! It's not the programming part - I can handle it, but the storyline and planning just won't fit together.
I have taken lots of time trying to figure out a way for the hack to continue after the point when you reach Rocky Mountain, and I've got the most issues under control, but there are also issues I just can't solve. And I wouldn't want to finish a hack with a story that wouldn't make any sense- or even if it did, if the story was too generic and stupid I wouldn't want to get it done either.
I guess I just demand a lot from myself, but yeah... what I have planned out just won't do. That's also because if players at our age (judging by the creativity in your post, I'm quite sure you're no kid anymore) beat a game and find the story and planning stupid, they will probably feel the same about the creator. "Can you believe it!? This guy was born in 1991 and he still comes up with this kind of ******** as a 12-year-old would do!" Surely the programming behind Dark Energy is really good, but I wouldn't want to be remembered as a person who has the mindset of a child because that's just so untrue.
So there is more than just the hack - it's also about what kind of contents you want to release in public as yourself. And when, and if, I release this project, I want it to become something I can be proud of, and also in a way that I could easily tell any young adult I know about this and make them think: "Wow, you actually did that!?" instead of "A hack of...pokemon? Hahha! You're childish :P"
Also what comes to taking a break... I have been on a break for almost 6 months by now :P *haven't got much done since June when I released beta 4. I had plans for beta 4.1 sometime this fall but didn't get it done. Pretty much due to the though:
"What's the point since I can't finish this hack anyhow (, at least the way I wanted it to be) ?"
In final, everything is up to you. Thanks you for your attention.
I certainly did read everything you wrote, part of it even twice since I had to read some of it again to be able to reply well enough. And of course, thanks again for your attention to this project as well! :)
But well, it's just as I wrote there. If I wanted to continue this, I'd like it to be brilliant in the end because anything other than that wouldn't just be worth it. There are lots of other things in life besides rom hacking and I'm pretty sure it would take me at least two years to complete this hack. So it ain't an easy task to keep motivated to it, and if you aren't sure you absolutely want to do it, there is no reason to even try to continue.