Do you guys ever just feel like canceling a fangame?

[OddieTheRock]

Or at the very least, put it on a long hiatus that'll probably not end?

Because I'm feeling like doing that with almost every fangame I did progress on.

List of projects I eventually plan to finish after the indefinite hiatus is over, assuming I don't abruptly cancel them:

Spoiler

Mario's Rather Unusual Trilogy (Mario's slightly unusual Boss Rush (Completed), Mario vs. Some Unusual Foes (In development), Mario's VERY Unusual Final Frontier (In development))
Sonic's Foray into Random/Unusual Zones (spin-off of Unusual Trilogy, in development)
Angry Birds Slingshot Frenzy (In development)
Super Mario Flashback: Really Good Edition (In development)
Super Hilda DX (In only conceptual phase)

Yes, I am aware that I have about 6 or so fangame projects currently in development at the same time. And yes, I am also aware that all of this is very ambitious.

+ List of projects I'm helping out with in some small capacity during my hiatus:

Spoiler

Super Mario Bros Dimensions 2 (as a spriter, only for Mario's sprites)
MFGG Community Fangame Project 3 (as a spriter)
WordGirl ReWired (as a artist)

[G-Rex Studio]

I had my 20 mario fangame projects and most of them were cancelled because of unfixable bug-glitches and poor gameplay

Then, I had my one mario fangame that was finished as demo (It was released in 2020) and I cancelled the progression because I didn't wanted to make any updates on it

Any bug-glitches can lead me to give up for anything.

SUPER MARIO BROS MMXXI. - 28.11.2021

[VinnyVideo]

Yes.

(But I make myself finish them anyway.)

Course clear! You got a card.

[TonyBalonneViper]

i just left a lot of mines unfinish.

         

[darkblueyoshi]

Yes, real life responsibilities getting in the way unfortunately.

[MDragmire]

sometimes I would go through a month of steady progress.. followed by months of not touching my game.

[LellyLL]

Yes.

i just took a big ol dump'a s***

[Q-Nova]

I sometimes get that feeling -- the feeling where you feel like your game is going nowhere and cancelling it seems like the best move. The best move, in reality however, is to take a break. Do something that isn't related to your game, whether it's getting a good night's sleep, taking a nice walk, doing a jigsaw puzzle, or spending time with friends. Your break could last from a few hours to months to even years! Eventually, that game-making itch will come back, and when you come back to it, you should find yourself feeling better and finding new solutions to problems that had once stumped you. Perhaps you'll finally fix that darn glitch or figure out how to implement the complicated boss you had planned.

There may be some aspects of the game you aren't proud of. Perhaps you want to redo the one level that is just not fun to play, or replace a sprite that doesn't look right. It's nice to refine, but do be careful with how far you go, especially if it's something major like the art direction or general gameplay. If you just keep on refining your game as your skills improve, the game may never be finished. Sometimes, you just have to accept what's in there and just get it finished. At least in your next game you can implement what you think will be a better art direction or a better story!

That's how it sometimes goes for me! In Battle in the Future for example, there was a pause function that wouldn't work in the way I wanted to. I took a little break from it, and then when I came back to it, I decided that the pause function wasn't really necessary and so I removed it. Perhaps it's not the best move I could've made, but it's better than scrapping the game because I couldn't figure out how to get that one part right! (I actually considered cancelling the game just because of that, believe it or not.)

Even if your game does get cancelled, don't view it as a total waste of effort! Maybe when you're making your next game, you'll find out that there's some ideas in your scrapped game that would work perfectly in your current project! I sometimes recycle ideas from games of mine that are either unfinished or really old. The Moleys and Sqeeks seen in the Revenge of Mortimer trilogy, for example, were actually carried over from a scrapped Keen mod!

Quillax Ship - Where you can download all of my cool, keen mods and super-marvelous fangames!

[GeneSu730]

Let me heavily revise my answer:

I have cancelled at least 4 fan games in my life.

I started my first fan game in 2004, right after I graduated from college. I used to love to play video games as a kid and became heavily addicted during my more stressful days of college. My first attempt was way too ambitious. I tried to make my own RPG that would resemble Fire Emblem.
Of course, I couldn't figure out how the AI worked.
I couldn't easily make graphics.
I couldn't reused my code to make new enemies and challenges.
In short, I had not idea as to what I was doing.

After screwing around for 4 years, I decided to make my own platform game instead in 2009. It would resemble a space age version of Ninja Gaiden. Have any of you watched the Metal Hero series from Toei? It came to the US as VR Troopers. My superhero resembled Space Sheriff Gavan.
Of course, the animation was gawd awful.
I didn't realize that the best sprite length was a power of 2.
I didn't know how to build the collision mechanics.
The lizard enemies were drawn horribly.
The pigeon boss monster would die from one hit. I couldn't figure out why.

I then tried again, this time making a game that would meld Zelda and Kirby. I called it Wizard of the Leech. I didn't make many of my previous mistakes but I realized I had been too ambitious again. Programming all of the entry points and NPC's was a pain in the neck. I was beginning to learn my final lesson: How to design and build my own game engine, library, classes, code, etc. that could be easily reused.

My first successful fangame was Bubble Bobble. I started work on it in 2013. This time, I carefully planned the code library that could easily be reused to make new enemies and items. Since I am not much of an artist, I downloaded a lot of 16-bit sprites from Spriter Resources. By 2015, I had built a game with 20 mini-stages, 12 enemies, all 3 bubble dragons.

With the game engine that I used for Bubble Bobble, I finally was able to build my Super Mario fangame. I started work on this in 2016. I didn't like the first twelve stage I built so I redesigned some parts of my engine and started again. With 40 stages completed, I finally feel like I graduated from learner to, if not master, at least journeyman game-maker.

But now I have a different problem. Working on my fangame now feels really tediousness. I am putting pressured on myself to output one stage every two weeks. It is starting to feel like... work. I already have to stare at the computer all day at work. This year was especially brutal, as I had a big audit and an equipment verification project. I already spend 8 hours a day looking at computer photos of substation equipment.

Sometimes, I wish I became a game programmer instead of an utility engineer. But then, it wouldn't be as secure a job...

[Merit Celaire]

Nah, not even thinking about "canceling" the fangame project ideas that I have. The only issue that always gets in my way is definitely "real life situations" as well as horrifying mental block triggers that are caused because of them.

Been slowly trying to get back in the groove of things just because of my love of certain characters I'm always wanting to see in that "lead role" territory for us.

[DiggingJam]

You know I always have trouble actually coding the fangame itself like all I usually do is just come up with ideas, code little bit of it and then procrastinate, but I never cancel the fangames I'm making, I just leave it unfinished.

.