Tuesday 25 January 2011

The End - an announcement

I've held off making this post for quite a while, but I think looking back now, that its obvious, and it deserves to be made given the recent lack of activity on Kharne.

I'm abandoning any further development on Kharne.

This is for a number of reasons, which can be summarised below:
  • I suffer from on-going depression, and I find it very difficult to work on coding in my free time. This has been ongoing for some time.
  • I have no interest in using Delphi to do any coding that I do partake in from now on (anything I do do will probably be either in C++ or in C#).
  • The idea and what I've implemented so far is much much too ambitious for it to be completed.
So....

What happens now?

As far as Kharne goes, as its now open source, and therefore anyone is welcome to take the project on, if they so wish. Additionally to the code, I hereby release all game data into the project domain. By game-data I mean monster-speech text and so on.

If you wish to take it and use it, feel free and good luck. I will always be available for advice.

That bears repeating: Kharne is open source. Its yours. Run with it, if you wish.

As far as my own coding in general, I'll be resurrecting my C#/Libtcod project, Stygia, with a view to producing a smaller but complete roguelike in a matter of a few months.

But for that, I'll probably create a new blog, and eventually close this one.

So what I have learned from this?

The main lesson is to limit your objectives to ones you know are easily achievable. In hindsight, its obvious, but at the time, it is easy to get carried away on the code.

It is also important achieve and maintain sufficient momentum. And Feedback and involvement with the community are important in getting a roguelike out the door.

I've failed, in the end, in that respect. But it wasn't a waste of time. I've gained knowledge, I've met people, and I've learned some belated lessons.

And in that respect, it was a success.

6 comments:

Matt said...

I'm sorry to see it go, and I hope your depression doesn't prevent you from enjoying other pursuits.

Anonymous said...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo ok

Mario Donick said...

I'm Sorry for you.

However, it's absolutely possible to develop a RL even with 6, 8 or even 12 month - breaks. It's a question of how ambitious you are and if you can live with an unfinished state and still love your work. So I hope you will return to Kharne some time.

(I abandoned LambdaRogue officially in 2007, but gained "momentum" again in 2008)

Brian Jeffears said...

Rough doings, especially as I understand Point #1 myself all too well this past while now...

Otherwise, all the best and I generally agree with Mario---the future is largely uncertain but I reckon you'll get up to something nifty of some stripe or another down the line.

Darren Grey said...

Sorry to hear this, but I'm glad you say you've learned some lessons and maybe you can build upon what you've done in future. Making your work open source is nice too.

For a lesson in limiting objectives the upcoming 7DRL competition is a great teacher! It's very satisfying to get a game out of the door at the end too.

1 Chat a Day said...

Greetings,

I am late to the game, I wish you best of luck and let us know once you've vanquished your depression.

T.