Revisiting Old Game Projects

Published on March 18, 2025 by M4rioLS

It's always a curious experience digging through old hard drives or code repositories. Recently, I stumbled upon a folder containing several game prototypes I'd worked on a few years back – projects ranging from simple platformers to overly ambitious RPG concepts that never saw the light of day.

Opening them up felt like a form of digital archaeology. First, there was the challenge of even getting them to run! Dependencies change, engines update, and sometimes the operating system itself has moved on. Thankfully, after a bit of tinkering (and remembering how I'd set things up back then), I managed to get a couple of them working.

Abstract image representing old code or game development — Navigating the labyrinth of past code.

What I Found (Besides Bugs)

Beyond the inevitable bugs and half-implemented features, it was fascinating to see how my approach to coding and design has evolved. Some things made me cringe – messy code, questionable logic – while others sparked a flicker of recognition for an idea that still felt promising.

Coding Style Evolution: My current self would definitely structure things differently now. More comments, better variable names, perhaps more object-oriented approaches where I previously used simpler scripts.
Forgotten Ideas: I found a mechanic in one platformer involving manipulating time locally around the player that I'd completely forgotten about. It was clunky, but the core concept felt interesting even now.
Scope Creep Evidence: Oh, the ambition! One project clearly suffered from trying to do too much. Seeing the scattered assets and unfinished systems was a stark reminder of the importance of managing scope.

Lessons Learned (Again)

This trip down memory lane wasn't just nostalgic; it reinforced a few key takeaways:

Version Control is Your Friend: Seriously. Even for small prototypes, having a history makes revisiting (and potentially salvaging) much easier.
Document Your Thoughts: A simple README or design notes can be invaluable years later when trying to understand *why* you made certain decisions.
Don't Be Afraid to Salvage: Just because a project wasn't completed doesn't mean every part of it is useless. Good ideas or useful code snippets can often be repurposed.

Overall, it was a worthwhile exercise. It's humbling to see past work, but also encouraging to recognize progress. Maybe some of those forgotten ideas will find their way into future projects in a more refined form. Have you ever revisited your old projects? What did you discover?

// Example of some hypothetical 'old' pseudo-code
if (global.game_over) {
	if (!game_over) {
		game_over = true;
		// no emit
		audio_play_sound(snd_sfx_game_over,10,false);
		alarm[0] = 120;	// return to room alarm

	}
}