About half a year ago, I had what could easily be discribed as an overly ambitious project idea. A hybrid top down shooter and RTS.

I made a prototype to get feedback on, then released a full version. it had some encouraging comments and suggestions, but it had only a few hundred views and did not leave judgement on Kongregate for weeks.

I was disappointed that nobody saw it, but since the comments indicated that those who did see it liked it. so, I did a graphics makeover, added new features and tried my best at the time to polish it up.

that version is here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/600111

this time went a little better, but newgrounds went down for maintenance almost immediately after I posted it, and caused some sort of lagging glitch that hurt the initial reception.

after initial bug fixes and minor improvements I left it alone. 3 months of solid work ended up getting far fewer views than the simple games I could make in a few weeks.

I keep finding myself looking back at it, pondering how to improve it, and recently noticed that over the last half year it's score has crept up to 4/5.

it makes me wonder if I should pick it back up, polish it, improve it, and release a final version. but I also worry that it might turn out exactly the same way again.

so, I was wanting to ask; is this game worth trying again on, and what can I do to help give it the best chance of success if I do?

First off, congratulation on finishing a game, that happens not too often, believe me

so, I was wanting to ask; is this game worth trying again on, and what can I do to help give it the best chance of success if I do?

I played it, though I lost really quickly, but eventually the game seems ok. Improving and polishing it could result in not much more attention. So, why don't you try and test an other game design, you will get better from time to time, producing prettier art, etc. Once you have designed a few games, pick the most promising and build upon it.

It is seldom that people start small, most often they want to reproduce one of the current trendy games (e.g. MMORPG), only better. Therefor continue this way, produce many smaller games which will help you to evolve as game designer/coder !

I just gave it a try. It was a nice idea, but I died very quickly without even knowing why. One minute I was shooting a zombie who was far away from me, the next I had a game over screen. The grass tile needs to be darkened.

You should be happy you got any views at all. The internet is full extremely crowded with that type of stuff, and it's hard for anyone to get attention. The best way is to advertise it around popular gaming forums so people can be aware that it exists.

You should absolutely continue it. Keep polishing it until you get to point where you are happy with it and want to move on to something else, and then start a new game.

@daaark: you had me worried when you started that second paragraph saying I was lucky to have gotten any views. I was sure you were about to say my game was terrible quality rather than that the market is crowded. xD

What gaming forums is it ok to advertise on? I know the penny arcade forum implies they will break your legs for trying to post about your game.

@ashaman: yeah that's what I've been doing since then, mainly writing down my big ideas in a notepad and working on making a variety of small games.

Off the top of my head;

Open a Dev Log thread on TIGSource

Use #ScreenshotSaturday and #GameDev tags on twitter. Your game will be on ScreenshotSaturday.com, and the GameDev account retweets everything with that tag.

I would try to introduce the concepts in the game more slowly, one by one. Let people figure out how to shoot zombies before you even let them build buildings.

If you're not sure if you should continue to build on this game, then why not put it aside for awhile, knock out some of those simpler games you mentioned and then come back to this game with renewed enthusiasm.

Id like to trow this out first, i don't wanna down vote the game, but i would give it 2/5 or 3/5.

Also the grass makes me blind. And spamming my mouse left click to shoot was not nice. I don't want to wear out my gear.

But that being said i really love this genre and i would like it to be expanded, music is pretty cool.

The clicking to fire thing depends on the weapon; weapons like the pistol or shotgun are 'manual fire' and have to be clicked each time, but others have auto-fire and the mouse can be held down for. I was not thinking about the mouse wearing out from clicking; I don't think thats ever happened to me before.

Sorry about the grass, I didn't realize it was quite that bad. My art is my weakest skill unfortunately..

The clicking to fire thing depends on the weapon; weapons like the pistol or shotgun are 'manual fire' and have to be clicked each time, but others have auto-fire and the mouse can be held down for. I was not thinking about the mouse wearing out from clicking; I don't think thats ever happened to me before.

Sorry about the grass, I didn't realize it was quite that bad. My art is my weakest skill unfortunately..

Its not the art of grass. Its contrast used. "colorize different".

I did the hardest mode only, maybe because that i was clicking like mad. it took about 20-30 shots per one zombie.

Also events should get handled more often. if X amount of event are given in one frame the game will lag.

I did games where i have my click per second around 20-35 clicks per sec, lasts around 5min session, around 1h long. Trust me the mouse wears off. The buttons get less responsive (Most press harder to trigger click) etc...

BTW if i sounded too harsh its because i meant good.

About your question:

You will know what to do. If you feel like edition your existing game you should do it, but you can make a new better one with knowledge you gathered. Its a skill to know when to dump project and start new and when to go back to old to improve it.

Keep up the good work!