commercial mods?
My friend here gets alot of job offers featuring mods that have high expectations to become fully commercial games.
But how realistic is it ? i mean they use top AA game engines like unreal 3 cryengine2, assuming it will cost couple million bucks to start with.
Sounds like a wish come true, but how realistic is it ?
But how realistic is it ? i mean they use top AA game engines like unreal 3 cryengine2, assuming it will cost couple million bucks to start with.
Sounds like a wish come true, but how realistic is it ?
Replies
I totally believe you
But I think the chances of getting a mod out into the open, like what happened with CS, are microscopic. It's not something you can or should aim for. If you wanna make a mod, make a mod with the intent of practicing your skills and showing off what you can do, and leave it at that. Mods will be mods.
But if your mod isn't really doing something different, i.e. its another CS clone, looks sub par and could of been done over a weekend, then chances are you really will be setting your hopes far to high for retail.
But quite a few mod’s have go retail. The best examples are Counter Strike, Killing Floor, Red Orchestra and Team Fortress. With today’s online based systems, if you make a game for the Pc, you have every chance in the world of getting it sold online, thanks to something really, really awesome for modder’s... Steam. With steam, you can release a game online for a price as long as it meets a certain check list of things, and you can cut out 90% of the usually trouble you would get with going full retail.
So yeah, while the chance of most people getting to the stage they get a deal from a developer isn't huge, it’s still very, very possible, and all it takes is hard work and dedication.
So its all a moot point really... If a person, or a team, are skilled enough, they WILL get offers, simply because they have the skill set needed. But the key point to that is that the skill set needs to be there in the first place, so that people can see what you are good ar, more than anything.
Red Orchestra (Unreal Engine 2)
Damnation (Unreal Engine 2/3)
Counterstrike (Source)
Day of Defeat (Source)
There are probably more gone commercial but out of those few, hundreds of thousands have come and gone without hitting retail. Mods are great for working with others, learning new tech, getting some experience.
Best thing a mod will do should it go out to the masses is boost your portfolio
Just a note on that: Damnation was started for the MSU contest with the intent of winning the grand prize UE license to develop it into a commercial game. So it wasn't just a bunch of folks putting a mod together, it was actually funded and did have some people with professional experience working on it from the start. The full game was actually fairly well in development when it was shopped around to publishers and eventually picked up by codies.
KillingFloor went retail too. OH AND THE SHIP