Developers Ever More Encouraging Of Modding 48
Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter for its column discussing game companies' continuing encouragement of 'modders' for content creation purposes. Valve's Doug Lombardi points out the obvious advantages his company received from modding: "In the typical scenario, even if a game is a mega-hit, within eight to 12 months on the store shelves, it's gone. But, in the case of 'Half-Life,' our revenue stream increased year after year for the first three years of the game's life. I attribute a lot of that to three mods -- 'Day Of Defeat,' 'Team Fortress,' and 'Counter-Strike.'" It's also mentioned that modding is starting even before a game hits the shelves, since Vivendi Universal has "even licensed an outside team that is building a mod, 'Starsiege 2845,' using the [as yet publically unreleased] 'Tribes Vengeance' engine."
Its also.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Secondly its free advertisement cause sometimes these mod packs get distributed on game mags/sites etc.
Thirdly it allows everyone to be happy when the game leaves out something that the fan wants. Don't like something? change it. miss something that was in the prequel? add it back! take for instance civ 3. When it first came out there were no engineer units but with a couple of changes to the config files and ripping the pic from civ 2 (or making your own), engineers were back. Microspose eventually put it back in in Gold edition but the ease of mdding the game meant fans didnt have to wait.
Keep the interest up? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Keep the interest up? (Score:1)
Oh yes they can. Both HalfLife and Battlefield 1942 sold many thousands of additional copies of the original game because people wanted to play the popular mods Counterstrike and Desert Combat.
It's only rarely that a game developer is lucky enough to have such a dominant mod released for his program.
Forget Natural Selection? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Forget Natural Selection? (Score:3, Informative)
DOD is free and an Excellent game as well.
Yea this Steam only implementation is complete bullshit.
Re:Forget Natural Selection? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Forget Natural Selection? (Score:4, Interesting)
Mainly, the more players there are in a game, the more advantage that the Marines have. As well, the Aliens take much more practice to play well, as it's something kind of different in a FPS.
The game is balanced for 6v6, but frankly, NS requires at least 24 players for a fun game, but at that point it's unbalanced.
And DoD is improving, there's another update coming out soon, and it may include morters, (which would be really good I think).
Mech Game (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh yeah, modding is great and all, but developers really need to make it easier to make a mod. I mean, most stuff is undocumented and development tools and resources are not available in any official central location. If you want people to mod your game, release a dev kit that is up to date and documented. What is needed most is an intuitive map making program. I remember trying to use Worldcraft to make a half-life map once and giving up within 15 minutes because the program was the worst piece of crap I had ever seen. I still can't understand how people make beautiful things like the natural selection maps with such shitty programs like that.
Also a note to mod makers. Make your mod and all necessary files available in a safe place on the internet that isn't file planet. If your mod can't be downloaded it can't be played.
Re:Mech Game (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason that people CAN make beautiful maps with this software is because the software does not restrict you to a few easy-to-use options. The existence of good fan-built maps should prove that the software is not at fault here.
Re:Mech Game (Score:4, Interesting)
If you can't be bothered to buck up and learn the tools, we probably don't want you loosing your half-cocked levels on us, anyway. People on my BBS were willing to put up with my shitty ass early efforts because I stuck at it... and eventually produced some decent levels. If I had merely given up after creating a couple of single-sector levels, they probably would have burned me at the stake.
Re:Mech Game (Score:4, Insightful)
This is another example of the tech-elitist approach to UI design, that you don't "deserve" to make something cool unless you first learn to navigate around our crappy interface and learn to do all these arbitrary things.
It's recognized that most of these programs are not the main selling point of the game they're made for, and that any time put towards sanding the rough edges off of the editor is time taken away from developing the actual game. But that still doesn't mean these editing tools are not lacking.
Re:Mech Game (Score:1)
Re:Mech Game (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd love to (and I agree Vileplanet is undesirable), but paying excessive bandwidth costs for people to download doesn't appeal to me (and yes, I do pay for my web hosting, but that's orders of magnitude cheaper).
I used to do Unreal Tournament mods: nothing big like ChaosUT, just some fixes and addons related to custom model support. I was also the official source for a couple of people's custom models,
Re:Mech Game (Score:2)
I thought Mechwarrior 1 was the ultimate, and Mechwarrior 2 was warmed-over crap. Mechwarrior 3 was OK but too easy to disable mechs in, and Mechwarrior 4 was good.
Rob (They really need to make another mech game like MW1 with today's technology)
It just goes to show. (Score:5, Interesting)
Half-life is a wicked game. You get that and the engine when you buy it. Most of the rest of the expansions are free, and this is good because it allows Valve to get higher ROI in the engine. Because the same engine was used on Half-Life, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, Counterstrike, etc, they kept raking in money because people would buy Half-life to access these. Doom had a similar start -- since everyone could release content for it, wonderful wads were made for it, and allowed it to continue to have strong sales longer than most games. Best of all, towards the end, the true cream of the crop became bundled (Final Doom -- with TNT and Plutonia wads).
What does this mean? Half-Life 2 is all well and good, but if Valve is smart, they'll have contests for modders. Best mods get official distribution and licencing, which allows the modders to get money, Valve to get more return on their HL2 engine, and keep interest high in HL2 technology games. Win-win!
Doom for Columbine (Score:3, Insightful)
I speak from experience, being the creator of Doom for Columbine; I have been outcast from most modding communities, such as Gamespy and The Mod Database, because of the suspected outcome of DFC, that it could be tasteless or that it *was* tasteless.
T
Re:Doom for Columbine (Score:1)
So, out of the kindness of my own heart for this lonely troll, I'll give you this bite.
(Hint: You won't get bites for pathetic trolls in the games section. The gamer slashbots are the smartest, believe it or not.)
Mods vs Free Games (Score:5, Interesting)
There are many brilliant engines out there and teams which support development practically at the level of modding but allow the team more freedom and if successful can be distributed to the user base for free!
Why put in all that work to make someone else money?
Please teams before you start a mod look at the resources available to everyone for free! You can find something that might eventually have 100% Mac/Linux/Windows penetration for free!
Re:Mods vs Free Games (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Mods vs Free Games (Score:3, Interesting)
Heck if you and your friends have already bought the game for the game itself, everything else is just icing on the cake. The network effects are hard to beat.
If you ignore the game, and talk about the engines on a strictly technical basis, I daresay the free game engines just aren't as good as the Quake 3 engines and a few other commercial engines.
Re:Mods vs Free Games (Score:1)
Re:Mods vs Free Games (Score:2, Insightful)
Quit frankly that is a blatant lie. (Score:5, Interesting)
But ehm those new commercial engines are available for free. I can make my mod without paying anyone except of course the price of the game.
So why should I mess with an engine that is several years behind in technology (show me a FPS capable engine that compares to todays commercial games) that nobody uses, that has no installed base and no content. Far easier to add the map/weapon/vehicle I want to an existing game then to build an entire game from scratch.
Only rarely do mods become entire games. The fast majority just add or tweak a tiny portion of the content.
Re:Quit frankly that is a blatant lie. (Score:3, Interesting)
I think it is important to understand that most people do not know what a 'mod' is, or means.
A mod, by most accepted definition, is any user created content that modifies or adds to the original game. That encompasses 'Total Conversions' which are actually quite the commonplace, despite what SmallFurryCreature believes. Check ModDB.com [moddb.com] for instance.
There are actually a lot of single player 'Mo
Re:Quit frankly that is a blatant lie. (Score:2)
Sorry Creature, that was supposed to read, "...despite what Deliveranc3 believes." I looked up and saw your handle, my apologies.
Re:Quit frankly that is a blatant lie. (Score:1)
Second Gamebeavers.org is just one example. Seems to be down right now but believe me it works, I've played it... A.I. needs some work but they have a passable game and an increadible engine.
Gamebeavers.org (Score:1)
Re:Mods vs Free Games (Score:1)
First, it was made by an extremely friendly team. We got to talk to programmers, who even offered help. There was something very nice about appearing a couple times on the official site.
Then, there were people who really liked the concept, but wanted to fix something. The initial creatures were rather dumb, this was noticeably improved. They originally couldn't live underwater or fly, this was also done. There were made dozens of new
Re:Mods vs Free Games (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mods vs Free Games (Score:1)
Why would Epic be pissed? (Score:3, Insightful)
And no, Epic doesn't mind licensees encouraging modding too. The more people that get into the Unreal Engine, the bigger the fanbase for Epic and other potential licensees. Its a win-win-win-win-win-win (ad nauseum) situation for them.
Re:Why would Epic be pissed? (Score:2)
Modding != "Mod chip" (Score:1)
I would think in that case, there would be an opposite reaction, as most developers don't want their games pirated.
show high quality OSS games are possible (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:show high quality OSS games are possible (Score:2)
(Of course, many modders, particularly those who do maps, models etc. alone rather than being part of a major mod/TC team, don't understand copyright and are happy to rele
My shareware plan (Score:3, Interesting)
I only came to accept this idea because of the language I chose when I started the project - Python. While it's possible to compile binaries in Python...it's only really *necessary* for Windows. Unix-based systems(and any other platforms that might run PyGame/SDL) are generally better equipped to run programs in script form, and binary packaging would introduce some ugly overhead. Additionally, I was planning to have "moddable" elements in the engine from the beginning, so, of course, why not make it totally open? It's growing into something that could handle any sort of 2d game using tiles and sprites(i.e. most of them - it's a bit on the slow side of course but I can still get 90+ fps), and I'm planning to reuse it myself.
In the worst case, nobody will care about the game or the engine. It would have made no difference whether it was closed or open then - a project to replace or extend the original content might form but it couldn't, out of necessity, end up being the exact same game, leaving the purchasing incentive intact.
But in the best case, I get free press, a stronger community, and a better game.
Creatures (Score:3, Interesting)
It's all built on top of an engine that runs their own language, so *everything* is customizable. The world, the interface, the creatures themselves... people even managed to do things that weren't originally planned like creatures that could fly or live under water.
The only closed part was the music, which had some cool format that allowed smooth transitions from one theme to another, but that seems to have been reverse-engineered.
Myself, I reverse-engineered a good part of the game's networking protocol
These days it's probably possible to turn it into something completely different, like a space shooter. Actually, the game had an easter egg where they had a space invaders game somewhere.
A game that needed to make its mod tools better (Score:2)
They hyped it to be better to mod for than the first but when it was rushed by those cock suckers Sierra the mod tools required Maya 3 and wouldnt work on anything but Maya 3. And that isnt available anymore.
End Reuslt = no mods worth speaking about as noone can make shit for it.
Good to see (Score:3, Interesting)
Content manifests itself in many ways. In terms of FPS games, it's usually through mods or maps. In sim/"sandbox" games, the game itself self-generates new content although it can be complemented by new buildings/add-ons. In MMORPGs, again the new content writes itself.
Look at almost any popular older game available today and you'll see they all have one thing in common - the constant influx of new content. Counterstrike runs on the positively ancient Half-Life engine (we're talking Quake1/2-era here), and it's still one of the most popular multiplayer games out there. People wouldn't still be playing Counterstrike unless there were new maps and experiences to have. And that all translates to increasing Valve's bottom line as people continue to buy Half-Life to this day.
Another example is the Red Faction series. The original Red Faction shipped with the RED level editor. To this day, there are still several multiplayer maps coming out for it each week. Nowhere near the level of Unreal maps, but fairly high given the community's size. And Red Faction has a commmunity, mind you. That's something that comes with editors/modability. When Red Faction II released, it had no editor and no multiplayer whatsoever. It just collects dust on the shelves of stores nationwide now and is chastised by the community that largely feels (and rightfully so) that Volition turned their backs on them. More damaging, Red Faction has no place on the PC now. It has no name and no reputation, other than being a game you'll beat in ten hours and then collect dust in the closet.
Surely, some corporate bigwig thinks with an economic mind that a bundled editor is pointless because the vast majority of users will ignore it. And that's true. However, what they have to understand is that the 1%-2% minority that actually learns it will produce amazing content for that majority, which is ultimately a win-win scenario for everyone.
Neverwinter Nights (Score:2)
Of course, you can't change the game's actual code, but you can change a lot using the supplied editing tools, and even more (including new classes, adding new models, etc) using hak packs.
I know that I had more fun with the Aurora toolset trying to piece modules together and scriptin
Not all companies support modding (Score:2)
For example, Command & Conquer Renegade.
The good:
A leveleditor that is a version of the levleditor that westwood used to make the game. Used to create levels as well as manipulate all the game data.
A GMAX plugin to create new 3D models.
A viewer for said 3D models.
Some nice info on the 3D format.
Some decent documentation on the 3D plugin and related items.
Very helpfull people from the dev team used to be on the official forums helping out.
T
Re:Not all companies support modding (Score:2)
The release of a nice amount of art assets in GMAX format (buildings, vechicles and some other stuff)
The release of some levels in the format the leveleditor can read.
And for the bad:
No documentation on any of the formats other than the 3D model format.
Not listening to the fans when they wanted the source code for the scripts.dll released (and also, not giving any reasons why it wasnt released)