If something goes up in smoke, it is destroyed, lost, or fails suddenly, leaving nothing to show. It often refers to plans, money, or hopes that vanish because of error, disaster, or bad luck.
When ya done ransackin' his room, Grabbin' any-damn-thing that shines, Throw the scraps down on the street, Like all his books and his notes. All his books and his notes and all the junk that he wrote, The whole fucken lot goes right up in smoke. Nick Cave
Looking back, video game design seems a natural fit, although there was no such thing when I was growing up. I built a Tic-Tac-Toe playing machine in my teens which went up in smoke on the night it was scheduled to go to a science fair. David Crane