Mod Startup! I. Evaluating your Ideas
Your mod will fail, well the statistics dictate this anyway. 84% of Mods registered at Moddb.com for Half-Life 2 haven’t released yet. You can’t exactly say that the game is new on the market and that the best times are still to come. If you’re however a dedicated Modder and have really thought this over, then all is not lost. Actually you have a good chance of being successful given you make the right steps and cover all your bases. In this first segment of my series entitled “Mod Startup!”, I’ll take you through some of the research you need to conduct before taking that big step. If you’ve ever put together a business plan or evaluated the profitability of one, you’ll understand what I mean here. Do you have your idea written down? You know the one where you always say “ If this kind of mod only existed, then…”, well get it ready because we’re about to evaluate it!
Crysis: The Lowdown.
Is Crysis going to be the next big engine to mod? There are many ways to answer that question, but one thing is certain and can be seen on the chart below. Whilst the release hype faded in December, the modding curiosity is on the upmarch. Experienced Far Cry modders, amateurs from other engines and mod-”newbies” all gather up to see what Crytek has in store for the creative ones among us.
Getting the Best Out of Your Team
So you’ve recruited a couple of people online, have a design plan and set up a forum, now what? You want to put them to work right? After all, you may be creating this content-heavy mod which will require years of production. Playing Napoleon may work with highly-paid employees, but with the fellow recruits you’ve managed to get to tag along the way, you’ll need to be a whole lot more flexible, especially if you don’t have the years of experience and achievements to back it up. Here are some ways I’ve jotted down for you to ponder on how to achieve the mods goals whilst keeping the majority happy:
Read the rest of this entry »
5 Ways to Dominate Recruitment!
Do you have a great idea but no team? Do you envision this great idea yet fail to find the manpower to translate into a game? When starting out a Mod, it is often very difficult to get a production team together for every process involved, especially if you’re planning anything remotely close to a total conversion. Project Reality started in 2004 and quickly grew in numbers, one factor which was key in its early development stages was recruitment, because without a team you’re nothing. At the beginning, you’ll find modelers & you’ll find level designers relatively easily, however once you start hitting texture artists as well as animators, you do not want to get stuck. Such artists are fewer in numbers and are usually picked up by well established teams. They are especially vital to first person shooters (FPS) and other styles that try to immerse your gaming experience through a high level of graphical detail & a feel of realism no matter the setting. So the question becomes, how do we as a mod recruit if we’re so young as a team?
