I wanted to make my own Total War game. Rome was one of my favourites, and Empire was my attempt to build something like it in C++ with DarkGDK.
It was still in very early development when I stopped. I was struggling with C++ linker errors, before I'd got far enough to have much of a strategy game. I also had some issues with losing code on a dying hard-drive, which makes a project hard to stomach reviving. This would be the point where I would have to learn about SVN and Git.
The world builder was a separate project. I was planning a 3D RPG and started by making a tool to build its world. That one stalled when I found out how much work world builders are. I was also spending time on GuildFreaks, another website project.
Empire was a game I wanted to play. The editor was a tool for a game I hadn't made yet. Neither got as far as I'd hoped.