I Just wanted to do a quick poll of how many people on this forum actually complete the games they start. I am new to the allegro communmity, (downloaded it 3 weeks ago), and working on my first allegro based game. I find it interesting that almost none of the projects in the depot have ever been completed.

i finished 1 game so far and am close to finishing another. relative to how many projects ive actually started, thats about a 1% finishing rate. dont fret though, most of the projects i didnt finish helped me greatly learn valuable lessons that enabled me to finish other projects.

I completed 3 out of 6 games that I started. But they are all extremely simple games, something you can do in a couple of days or maybe a week if you're a complete beginner. I can't keep interest in a complex project for long enough to even start one. I've had a ton of ideas but as soon as I figure out what exactly it is that I want to do and how to do it, I loose interest and start thinking about something completely different...

I have been working on and off on a an add-on library for over a year now though...

I finished 2 games with Allegro of a total of more than ten started. But I lost them. Both! One was a really simple tetris and the other just a sequel of a QBasic game I made (I may do another to complete the trilogy).

It seems that I keep more interest if doing libraries: AllegAVI is complete (version 2.0 will come), AlText is almost complete, and I'm doing a GUI library that works pretty well right now So I expect finishing 100% of the libraries/add-ons I start.

But certainly all code I write serves me as practice, so I don't mind not finishing something.

I've finished only some games I've done for a show-off or for some competition. My projects tend to be pretty big. I and a friend worked on a 3d rpg engine for over a year and still did not finish it fully

I've completed 3 out of 4 allegro games. If I were to include QBASIC games that figure would be about 7 completed out of 9.

It depends on what you mean by finished. For example I've finished Slugs 2 but now I've decided to make a single player mode (which is what I'm working on at the moment).

There is never a point at which there is nothing left to add to your game! No matter how simple it is.

My RPG I've been working on for years now! I still haven't sarted making the story but stuff like the battle system,item system,NPC interface,graphics etc are finished.

haha....I would say I've been programming since the Apple IIe, and I have finished a grand total of zero projects. None, zilch, nada. I've started at least 20 good projects during that time. I almost finished a 2d fighting game in the veign of street fighter2 for my c64, but the disk broke 3/4ths of the way through the project. I may have nearly finished a few text rpgs, but finished is a relative term here. I have done about a million engine tests.

My last failed project was a 3d shooter in the style of starfox, but due to poor programming, was abandoned(can we say HUGE memory leak?)

My current project WILL get finished. I've already got the game part of it finished(a big step.) Now I just need to add some story, sound, and the secret ingredient X to make it stand out, then I'll release it. I promise

Don't feel bad if you never finish a project, I don't. I've had some stuff that is nearly complete that I feel is good enough for me, but not good enough to merit me polishing and releasing to the public. So long as you're satisfied with what you're doing, why bother?

I, however, hope you finish something, just for the sense of accomplishment. Look at people like Sirocco and J. Peitz. Use them for inspiration like I do. (I'd add chris's name to that list if he had something released...that guy never gives up )

Anywho, best of luck with whatever you're working on,
-Flecko

I find that if you look carefully, there are actually quite a few games on the depot that ARE finished. Many of them are from a small group of authors though, so you need to know where to look. The good games tend to drown in the see of unfinished / unplayable projects.

This may actually be a point to address for the depot: it would be good if there was some way to look for finished games. I suppose an old problem returns: for this you need some kind of system to judge games, where one or more non-biased people actually determine if a game is really finished and playable.

A possible solution could be a sort option, to show only projects that are finished above a certain level (say 75% or so). This would definitely help in weeding the masses of 10% finished engines and try-outs. Sorting by ranking would also help: games that are ranked (and get more than 2 or 4 points) are usually worth downloading and trying.

I consider a game to be finished when:

1. The player has a score and it goes up

2. The player can die, the 'num of lives left' decrements

3. The game ends, goes back to the start screen and the player can restart.

Everything else is extra!

So by that standard I've finished 3 games (java applets). I haven't started an Allegro project yet. I did a sidescroller (edit and a tetris thingy both w/Allegro) for a test a while back but thats all. I started game programming about 1.5 years ago so thats not too bad I guess.

I have 7 games here...all finished. I wont post a game unless its finished...it makes no sense to me to post an unfinished game.

Making your projects official is a good way to get feedback on them... some constructive criticism in the beginning of a project can save you a lot of work later

On the other hand, releasing a good, finished game all of a sudden can be a nice surprise for everyone