Should Project Dragon be released?

Project Dragon was a mod project I worked on a few years ago. The idea was to make a total-conversion mod giving Marble Blast gameplay more akin to that of Super Mario 64 and other traditional 3D platformers, with a hub world, boss fights, and sidequests. The mod died a slow and painful death, which I've blamed on Uil in the past, but I've since realized that that would be akin to blaming the undertaker for the corpse. In reality, the project had more ambition than talent, which is why it petered out.

A lot of the code written for Project Dragon has been adapted into MBPU. You might recognize:

• Weather effects (Skilling's Curse)
• Shooting bullets to explode wooden board obstacles (Marble Corps)
• Games where you collect gems within a time limit, and "trick" systems (Marblepark)
• Levels that have abnormal topology and "wrap" in one or more directions (Toroidal Limbo)
• A tornado that chases you (Tornado Chase Sequence, Slendernado)
• Igloos that shoot snowballs, ice slicks, panes of ice (Icy Path)
• New jump abilities (Marblepark, Special Jumps)
• An underwater level (Getting Used to the Water)
• Other marbles (Buttons and Gates)

Also, some of the art resources from Project Dragon were used in MBPU, in particular the music: the music from Tornado Chase Sequence, the credits, Getting Used to the Water, and Marblepark came from Project Dragon.

Project Dragon never really received a release, complete or otherwise; instead, concepts were migrated into MBPU. Still, do you want to see Project Dragon as a public download in its current form?

Possible reasons why:

• Some of the code and assets from the game were never migrated, such as NPC conversations, the hub world, and several music tracks.
• There are some legitimately good levels in Project Dragon that people have never seen.
• A lot of mods never get released, and it's a shame to see all of their work go to waste.
• Fans of a game generally like to see unreleased content, being fascinated by "what could have been."

Possible reasons why not:

• The game is currently in a very unpolished and glitchy state. Some parts of it might not be possible to experience without knowing how to use code to access them.
• Although I have no plans to complete Project Dragon at this point, an incomplete release would make it more obvious and sad for everyone that this mod will never be finished.
• Most of the groundbreaking code from Project Dragon is already in MBPU at this point, and any other bits of it left could be released in expansions for MBPU.
• I might use some of the assets or ideas from the game in other projects; this would be "spoiled" for everyone if I released them.

So, I'm leaving it up to you. You can vote in the poll above or discuss the issue in this thread. Once I see what the consensus is, I'll follow it.

IMO you should release it for the simple reason that work were put into it and it would be a shame to let it go to waste. Even if it is unfinished and glitchy we might still have fun with what is there. And after seeing MBPU I'm sure even an unfinished mod by you would be pretty darn good anyway.

IMO, no. If you can, you should release them as expansions for MBPU. We might have to wait longer, but still, if you release this as not-finished, while it could also be added to a finished mod.. I'd go with the latter.

I'd vouch for release, as it has an interesting hub / boss mechanic that wouldn't be able to be properly ported to MBPU.

I vote for the release, I want to see a new mod and new types of gameplay.

I'd love to try out a new mod

Especially an open world hub.

I'm pretty undecided about this, and honestly it all depends on the probability that Project Dragon will ever be released in a finished state or at least expanded upon, which only whirligig knows.

If it has a decent possibility that it will ever be finished or incorporated into MBPU in a more stable state, then don't release it unfinished (as a finished state is obviously more preferable for the user).
If it doesn't (unlikely to be worked on at all in the future), then release it unfinished.

(Voted abstain - no real sway either way towards Yes/No option).

Agree with Jack and Regi. Would love to see it incorporated into MBPU or such, but I assume this is impossible because of HiGuy's post. If there is no more planned progress for Project Dragon, I would vote for the release.