The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Ever sat at your pc playing a game and suddenly realised you may as well be watching paint dry? I know I have, it’s that feeling of boredom when a game just begins to drag into a never-ending circle of repetitiveness. Shoot, kill, shoot, kill, find key, use key, and shoot a little more. Not particularly interesting is it. Now my example is obviously describing a first person shooter game, although it could easily be a third person game... but why am I telling you about how I feel when a game bores me? Because I like to share my thoughts? Because I just spent two hours trying to find a key on a game...? Well if you thought it was one of those you would be terribly wrong. Today I want to talk to you about games MODs!
What’s a mod I hear someone at the back scream. Well a mod is basically a short way of saying modification and a games mod is quite self-explanatory being a modification for a game.
"You mean like adding a laser beam to your cd?"
Erm not that kind of modification no, but I like how you think I'll note that down for later. Anyway back on track, a mod is basically a way of defining the task of modifying the game of your choice to incorporate features that you'd like to see, or you think would simply be a great addition to the game. Take for instance a game called Tactical Operations. It is a counter terrorist game that is team based (like Counter Strike) but the glaring difference is that it is on a totally different engine, CS being on the Half Life engine and TO being created for the Unreal tournament engine. TO started its life as a MOD for UT and has recently been released as a retail game.
"But how did they modify unreal tournament then?"
Well its certainly not straight forward and many people are disillusioned about just how people achieve the task of creating a game from another game. This is something I intend to explain with my guide to making a MOD.
The first stage would have to be getting a team.
Project Leader? Check
Head coder? Check
More coders? Check
Character (and weapons) modellers? Check
Skinners? Check
Sound guru? Check
Mappers? Check
All of these jobs need to be accounted for when someone sets out to create a MOD. Making a game from scratch is a vast task; some may look down on people who make MODs and see it as an easy way out but in no way is this true. All of these jobs take time and dedication and the team needs to be enthusiastic to reach their goal.
"Okay I understand so far but what do all of those jobs actually involve?"
This is a very good question. The following is a brief over view of what each job entails and some of the programs that are actually involved in them doing their job.
Project Leader
The project leader is a key person for a MOD team. Without this person a MOD just would be a long struggle to get going. They oversee the development of the MOD and often tend to do another job on the team such as coding.
Head Coder
This guy is the top dog in coding on the team; they do the main part of the coding for the team and tend to be the most experienced coder. Main language they will probably use whilst doing their job is C++ which is written and then compiled in a program such as Borland C++ compiler.
E.g. Head coder for an unreal tournament MOD would do all of their coding in Uscript which is a variation of C++ and script this in Unreal Editor, in which case no compiling is needed or in UCC and compile it once they have finished
More Coders
Below the head coder are the rest of the coders on the team. They will code different parts of the MOD and help code parts of the MOD that the head coder may not have time or the need to code.
Character and weapons modellers
Ever wondered who created that monster whose head you have just dismembered? Well it was probably these guys. Every character inside a game needs to be modelled, as do each of the weapons. Many MOD modellers use reference material such as a picture of a gun and then model it in 3d using a program such as 3d studio max (pretty much the standard in 3d games modelling nowadays) and Lightwave. Some low poly modelling may be done in a program such as Milkshape.
Skinners
That rocket launcher didn’t get so damn pretty by itself you know.
"It didn’t?"
Indeed it didn’t, this is the job of the skinners. Working mainly in Adobe Photoshop or another high-end paint package they will work on the skins for each character and weapon in the MOD, even the textures you see on the wall. Depending on how far the game is going to modified being a skinner can be a reasonably low key job maybe only skinning new weapons, but if its a full scale make over they could be working overtime creating loads of new textures and skins for characters and weapons.
Sound Guru
*BANG*
"Haha that explosion sounded great!"
You can thank the soundman on the team for that! Games just wouldn’t be games without sounds that draw you into your surroundings. There’s nothing better than being immersed into a game and really believing that the explosion did actually just happen or the piano playing in the corner is really being played by a musician and not just playing out of your speakers. Like the skinners this job can be a major or a small job. Some MOD teams may not even need someone to do the sounds as they can use the sound files already included in the game to create the sound and feel that they desire.
Mappers
Now I am sure no one enjoys boring maps, terrible maps can spoil a great game and a MOD is no different. On a MOD team the Mappers would probably be using a map editor that is specific to the game engine they are working on. For example Unreal Editor for Unreal Tournament MODs and World Craft for Half Life MODs.
Now that you know all of the members that you need for your team its time to actually get people to fit the spaces! The best way to do this is to go to fan sites for the game that you are intending to make a MOD on and give some information on your MOD and what your aims and ideas are. Enthusiasm gets peoples attention so make sure you sound really into what you are saying and don’t just give very little information on what you are doing. Doing that will never get you any team members.
Time to do something! Its time to create your MOD although don’t expect it to be an easy ride. If everyone knows what they are doing it should run reasonably smoothly and with a good team any problems can be solved quickly and with minimum fuss.
A word of advice however. Spread the word of your MOD! Get people in the community of the game to know about it so they are awaiting its release with outstretched arms, you don’t want to let all of your hard work be put out like a used candle just because no one knows about it. To do this it may be a good idea to recruit one final member to your team and this would be a Webmaster. Get a site up with everything anyone could ever want to know about your MOD, the key word is INFORMATION INFORMATION INFORMATION. How can people get excited if they don’t know what it actually is?!
Finally have fun making it, don’t let it be a chore and try to enjoy what you are doing and be proud whatever the results and I hope that someone gains something from this :)
What’s a mod I hear someone at the back scream. Well a mod is basically a short way of saying modification and a games mod is quite self-explanatory being a modification for a game.
"You mean like adding a laser beam to your cd?"
Erm not that kind of modification no, but I like how you think I'll note that down for later. Anyway back on track, a mod is basically a way of defining the task of modifying the game of your choice to incorporate features that you'd like to see, or you think would simply be a great addition to the game. Take for instance a game called Tactical Operations. It is a counter terrorist game that is team based (like Counter Strike) but the glaring difference is that it is on a totally different engine, CS being on the Half Life engine and TO being created for the Unreal tournament engine. TO started its life as a MOD for UT and has recently been released as a retail game.
"But how did they modify unreal tournament then?"
Well its certainly not straight forward and many people are disillusioned about just how people achieve the task of creating a game from another game. This is something I intend to explain with my guide to making a MOD.
The first stage would have to be getting a team.
Project Leader? Check
Head coder? Check
More coders? Check
Character (and weapons) modellers? Check
Skinners? Check
Sound guru? Check
Mappers? Check
All of these jobs need to be accounted for when someone sets out to create a MOD. Making a game from scratch is a vast task; some may look down on people who make MODs and see it as an easy way out but in no way is this true. All of these jobs take time and dedication and the team needs to be enthusiastic to reach their goal.
"Okay I understand so far but what do all of those jobs actually involve?"
This is a very good question. The following is a brief over view of what each job entails and some of the programs that are actually involved in them doing their job.
Project Leader
The project leader is a key person for a MOD team. Without this person a MOD just would be a long struggle to get going. They oversee the development of the MOD and often tend to do another job on the team such as coding.
Head Coder
This guy is the top dog in coding on the team; they do the main part of the coding for the team and tend to be the most experienced coder. Main language they will probably use whilst doing their job is C++ which is written and then compiled in a program such as Borland C++ compiler.
E.g. Head coder for an unreal tournament MOD would do all of their coding in Uscript which is a variation of C++ and script this in Unreal Editor, in which case no compiling is needed or in UCC and compile it once they have finished
More Coders
Below the head coder are the rest of the coders on the team. They will code different parts of the MOD and help code parts of the MOD that the head coder may not have time or the need to code.
Character and weapons modellers
Ever wondered who created that monster whose head you have just dismembered? Well it was probably these guys. Every character inside a game needs to be modelled, as do each of the weapons. Many MOD modellers use reference material such as a picture of a gun and then model it in 3d using a program such as 3d studio max (pretty much the standard in 3d games modelling nowadays) and Lightwave. Some low poly modelling may be done in a program such as Milkshape.
Skinners
That rocket launcher didn’t get so damn pretty by itself you know.
"It didn’t?"
Indeed it didn’t, this is the job of the skinners. Working mainly in Adobe Photoshop or another high-end paint package they will work on the skins for each character and weapon in the MOD, even the textures you see on the wall. Depending on how far the game is going to modified being a skinner can be a reasonably low key job maybe only skinning new weapons, but if its a full scale make over they could be working overtime creating loads of new textures and skins for characters and weapons.
Sound Guru
*BANG*
"Haha that explosion sounded great!"
You can thank the soundman on the team for that! Games just wouldn’t be games without sounds that draw you into your surroundings. There’s nothing better than being immersed into a game and really believing that the explosion did actually just happen or the piano playing in the corner is really being played by a musician and not just playing out of your speakers. Like the skinners this job can be a major or a small job. Some MOD teams may not even need someone to do the sounds as they can use the sound files already included in the game to create the sound and feel that they desire.
Mappers
Now I am sure no one enjoys boring maps, terrible maps can spoil a great game and a MOD is no different. On a MOD team the Mappers would probably be using a map editor that is specific to the game engine they are working on. For example Unreal Editor for Unreal Tournament MODs and World Craft for Half Life MODs.
Now that you know all of the members that you need for your team its time to actually get people to fit the spaces! The best way to do this is to go to fan sites for the game that you are intending to make a MOD on and give some information on your MOD and what your aims and ideas are. Enthusiasm gets peoples attention so make sure you sound really into what you are saying and don’t just give very little information on what you are doing. Doing that will never get you any team members.
Time to do something! Its time to create your MOD although don’t expect it to be an easy ride. If everyone knows what they are doing it should run reasonably smoothly and with a good team any problems can be solved quickly and with minimum fuss.
A word of advice however. Spread the word of your MOD! Get people in the community of the game to know about it so they are awaiting its release with outstretched arms, you don’t want to let all of your hard work be put out like a used candle just because no one knows about it. To do this it may be a good idea to recruit one final member to your team and this would be a Webmaster. Get a site up with everything anyone could ever want to know about your MOD, the key word is INFORMATION INFORMATION INFORMATION. How can people get excited if they don’t know what it actually is?!
Finally have fun making it, don’t let it be a chore and try to enjoy what you are doing and be proud whatever the results and I hope that someone gains something from this :)
Page:
Kyz22 wrote:
I dont know if it was a MOD or what but, is it the same kind of thing?
That is a map editor I guess, if you're talking about World Craft that is. MODs for half life include Counter Strike, Firearms and Day of Defeat to name but a few.
I dont know if it was a MOD or what but, is it the same kind of thing?
That is a map editor I guess, if you're talking about World Craft that is. MODs for half life include Counter Strike, Firearms and Day of Defeat to name but a few.
You may be thinking of World Craft which I mentioned in the topic. To mod you dont really need a high end PC it just depends on what you are going to be doing. Making a level for ut2k3 is obviously going to need a powerful PC as if the map has a high poly count you'll need to be able to view it at maximum detail to ensure that it can actually be played, all depends on the game engine really. Modelling can be done on a wide range of PCs I am sure, but high end packages such as Maya may not run amazingly well on them again due to a high poly count in models. Coding can be done on practically any PC really just as long as it can handle a compiler and the game you intend to modify which is basically any PC for sale at present.
There was a level editor that came free with half life - some time ago, which never would work. I dont know if it was a MOD or what but, is it the same kind of thing? and do you need a high spec PC to create MOD's ?
Have you seen the star wars mod that is coming out for UT2k3? It looks AMAZING. Seriously, hats off to the makers, it has a dedicated website, but i cant for the life of me remember what it is.
RM18 wrote:
> Interesting post, I never play PC games, in particular FPSs, so I
> wouldn't know, but the idea of MODS is an intriguing one - extend it
> to console games, and I might be interested...
Since MODs are mostly created by gamers and not the developers, I'd say seeing them on consoles is next to impossible. Sure they might be able to the programs and tools to help console gamers MOD, but I can't really see that many console gamers sitting down for hours a day programming scripts and texturing levels. It's a very time consuming job, and it's one of the things that keeps me away from Modding. Apart being useless with a level editor that is.
> Interesting post, I never play PC games, in particular FPSs, so I
> wouldn't know, but the idea of MODS is an intriguing one - extend it
> to console games, and I might be interested...
Since MODs are mostly created by gamers and not the developers, I'd say seeing them on consoles is next to impossible. Sure they might be able to the programs and tools to help console gamers MOD, but I can't really see that many console gamers sitting down for hours a day programming scripts and texturing levels. It's a very time consuming job, and it's one of the things that keeps me away from Modding. Apart being useless with a level editor that is.
Erm I'm not sure to be perfectly honest. DarkBASIC is BASIC but it can use direct X or something. Coding is not one of my strong fields of knowledge really although I want it to be. I am currently learning Uscript and I am gaining a good knowledge of Unreal Editor thats basically what gave me the idea for the topic.
About the account, it wouldnt be active if I couldnt remember the email I signed up with lol. Was my first ever email after I got online.
About the account, it wouldnt be active if I couldnt remember the email I signed up with lol. Was my first ever email after I got online.
Nice post MJ, nice to see your account's still active :-)
Just wondering, do you know if BASIC is used for many PC games? Or is it just used for DarkBASIC? Or something else?
:-D
Just wondering, do you know if BASIC is used for many PC games? Or is it just used for DarkBASIC? Or something else?
:-D
I think MODs on consoles would definately be intriguing but I just dont see how it would work or succeed at present. Consoles do not run utilities such as 3d modelling programs, if they did they'd basically be PCs right? Due to this a MOD with any kind of detail would be a bit hard to come across, map editors being the only thing I can actually think of. The only way I could think of a MOD for a console game being achieved would be if Cd's were released containing programs, specific to the game, that if you run it whilst the game you are running is loaded it would add a level editor, compiler, weapons editor etc. Now obviously that would be a very unlikely situation especially at this point where a map editor is a major thing for a console game to have :/
Coding on a console isnt going to be particularily nice either unless you have a keyboard I suppose, but even then I doubt it would kick off. I mean the ps2 has YABASIC but I bet most people dont even realise.
Coding on a console isnt going to be particularily nice either unless you have a keyboard I suppose, but even then I doubt it would kick off. I mean the ps2 has YABASIC but I bet most people dont even realise.
Interesting post, I never play PC games, in particular FPSs, so I wouldn't know, but the idea of MODS is an intriguing one - extend it to console games, and I might be interested...
Deary me Prime is bustling with posts nowadays :/ Either that or no one can be bothered to read it/isnt interested :P
Page: