Putting a project to bed after a lot of work, never to be made, is a strange kind of grief. Only your team will get it. For me, if I'd reached the point where it felt real, where my fingers were electrified and ready to type? It's so hard to move on to the Next Thing and forget it ever existed. 😞 - ThreadSky

davidgaider.bsky.social • 152 days ago

Putting a project to bed after a lot of work, never to be made, is a strange kind of grief. Only your team will get it. For me, if I'd reached the point where it felt real, where my fingers were electrified and ready to type? It's so hard to move on to the Next Thing and forget it ever existed. 😞

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knight1029.bsky.social•151 days ago

I can imagine so. Especially regarding game development where its not just your effort but a literal teams effort. Everyone put their heart and soul into it and not its just gone. Never to be seen or made.

(Side point is this regarding your studio?)

animboy90.bsky.social•151 days ago

I know this feeling. A weird mix of grief and relief. Something like a funeral but for someone who hasn't even died, or for an object that doesn't exist. Super weird.

ragnarok-in-a-box.bsky.social•147 days ago

Some fans get it too, David.

You created a legacy and it honestly hurts knowing that IPs and NDAs get in the way of ever being able carry over that story in the way that you and others envisioned it.

You care enough to mourn for it and that matters to people like me. Thank you for being you.

davidgaider.bsky.social•147 days ago

Err... no. I'm talking about cancelled projects that fans will never see or probably ever know even existed, let alone love. Aborted dreams. Only the team members involved will know what could-have-been, and it's not the kind of pain fans can share in.

ragnarok-in-a-box.bsky.social•147 days ago

Don't yourself out, though.

As a fan, if there is a game in development that David Gaider himself mourns its loss and talks about the creative energies he put it into it, that means the world is deprived of "what could have been". It's a lost legacy.

Sorry if I'm fluffing your ego, man. 🤣

ragnarok-in-a-box.bsky.social•147 days ago

If there's an existing legacy, I wouldn't count fans out. Some fans are out there mourning what Joplin would have been, for example.

Do you remember Warcraft Adventures Lord of the Clans or Starcraft Ghost? I do.

But projects that never saw the light of day, never to be announced? You're right.

acampwriting.com•151 days ago

It's the worst thing ever, every time, and it just keeps happening!!!

ramiismail.com•151 days ago

It sucks, yet I do carry those games with me, unforgotten. They occupy a weird space between what was real and what is not real, but I tend to re-find parts of them like old friends in my future.

davidgaider.bsky.social•151 days ago

Yeah. You end up cannibalizing bits and pieces for other projects, knowing that every bit you use from the corpse means the likelihood of it ever getting resurrected (small as that is) becomes that much less yet treasuring it nonetheless.

danvogt.bsky.social•151 days ago

Ouch, guys. 💖✨

ella-theirin.bsky.social•151 days ago

Have y’all (🤠) ever considered doing books or graphic novels instead or games with a project that was such a big part of your year?

davidgaider.bsky.social•151 days ago

Thought about it, yes, but that would probably mean never moving on from it, mentally, and I need my brain to embrace the Next Thing.

ella-theirin.bsky.social•151 days ago

Next Thing 💕™️

robogabo.bsky.social•151 days ago

It does suck to spend years on something the public will never see.
I find comfort in remembering the moments were we share initial pitches for features, narratives or visuals. Also, being in awe at the talent of game devs solving problems together and coming up with crazy left field results.

primamateri.bsky.social•151 days ago

My condolences. It’s like grieving the loss of a friendship. You spend so much time with something or someone your whole world revolves around than it’s… gone.

trickweekes.bsky.social•151 days ago

I felt that when Jade 2/Revolver shut down. Grief under NDA, so much stuff I spent time arguing about and outlining and writing test content for, and you can maybe steal some of it here and there later, but so much of it is just gone as if it never was.

davidgaider.bsky.social•151 days ago

"Grief under NDA" sums it up. Like some super spy you loved but, now that they're dead, you're not allowed to eulogize them or even discuss them in public. There's no funeral, no process of letting go... it just gets put on the shelf with a promise of "maybe we'll use that someday".

pentapod.bsky.social•151 days ago

I felt something like this once after being made to spend a year working and fighting for a multiplayer game that it turned out leadership were secretly fighting to undermine the whole time. Only it felt like more than just grief over a cancellation; also an isolated and oddly personal betrayal. 😡

devilkitten.bsky.social•151 days ago

It's a good thing we start talking about this type of grief, because I don't think companies really take our grief seriously and how badly it affects morale and the people on the project.

I'm saying this fully aware that I also think a lot of projects should be killed much earlier.

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