Comments on: Episode #30

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:10:49 +0000

Freeman’s mind is AMAZING!!

My favorite part was when he got attacked by headcrabs and started screaming “SIT DOWN!! CLASS IS IN SESSION!!”

You’ve GOT to get him on the Podcast! That would be the best episode ever!

Search Civil Protection on Google. He has a blog, as well as links to both of his video series (FM and Civil Protection).

Get him on the show! And bring Philip, too.

By: axphin

axphin — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:33:59 +0000

@Stratofarius: hey no prob… Not sure about the live chat, it is has been hard for me to get in on those being in my timezone, family stuff, etc.
@Surfa: Great now we’re going to see a mod about zombies in their underpants! How about zombies in pixellated trousers?

For all: Relating to the fact that ZMS had an unusual amount of programmers on a team, what do most mod teams lack? Programmers? Modelers? Sound Designers? Or in other words, what does the mod community need more of in terms of creative talent? I have a friend who wants to do sound design for games and wants to look into the mod community to maybe learn and help some teams out. Would interlopers still be a good place to check out?

Also has everyone seen the TF2 Sniper (aka Spy) update? Pretty funny stuff…

By: Stratofarius

Stratofarius — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:44:43 +0000

@Surfa and axphin: Thanks for debating on my question! I hope you guys join the live chat on Saturday morning and talk about that with the hosts < That would really help!

By: Surfa

Surfa — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:57:13 +0000

@axphin:Yes I agree with those points but the source sdk it-self is however not limiting at all it is just most mod teams lack a good programmer. Which is why alot of the mods are the same, they may not start of with the same ideas but a basic similar concept say zombies in underpants. The problem is the teams normally don’t have a programmer good enough to make the code changes needed to allow different and original game play/features and so the mods end up just being zombies in underpants with different maps and models. Although with the template creation in the beta sdk it seems valve understand this and are trying to allows mods to add original feature without alot of coding.

By: axphin

axphin — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:11:22 +0000

@ Surfa: Good points. So modders WANT to kill zombies and nazis and nazi zombies? I guess those are always good fodder for fps games. Why then do you think that zombies, ww2, and other recurring themes keep recurring? Do those themes just lend themselves to the gametype? Has it just snowballed and saturated people’s minds? I agree that modders and indie devs aren’t bound by the limitations of big devs, but it seems like there are lot of the same fps mods out there. Maybe that is because the toolset makes it easier for certain gametypes? For example in Hammer it probably takes less effort to make a zombie survival clone than a Sonic the Hedgehog clone. Also, if you’re a modder and you really like zombies or the concept and you’ve played a few other zombie mods but have been disappointed, aren’t you going to have some motivation to one up the competition and make a zombie mod the way YOU think it should be done? As far as portfolio pieces and school projects I totally agree that you are going to see some original stuff there (assuming they are doing something they enjoy and WANT to do and not something they HAVE to do… nod to Emanuel). But I think portfolio pieces and school projects are going to be smaller experiments with a very focused concentration on a goal, to show off a particular concept or ability.

I still think that the SDK and Hammer toolset need to be expanded upon to make it easier and more fun to experiment with new ideas and concepts. Hey maybe we could have DLC for the game editor (as long as it doesn’t turn into The Sims I guess… haha).

By: Surfa

Surfa — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:08:38 +0000

“@ Stratofarius: I think modders get stuck on trends and or they create what is popular hoping more people will play the trend. The most fun I have in Hammer is trying to think of DIFFERENT ideas or just experimenting with what else I could do.”

I believe that you aren’t quite right. From my experience modders tend to create what they want to play because they aren’t bound by limitations that affect professional game studios like turning a profit. Although it seems that most modders are avid fps fans and that is mostly why you have so many mods involving zombies, ww2 and Swat situations. Although if you look at mods create for portfolio pieces / school projects you can see that they try to be original and different in order to get some solid work for them to show off. I personally like to create mods that add to the story of the game I am modding.

By: axphin

axphin — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:23:56 +0000

Kitty Strike: Source, Team Feline 2, Half of 9 Lives 2, Kitty Mod: Source, Age of Sheba, The Orange Cat Box…

Something like that?

@ Stratofarius: I think modders get stuck on trends and or they create what is popular hoping more people will play the trend. The most fun I have in Hammer is trying to think of DIFFERENT ideas or just experimenting with what else I could do.

Has anyone tried the “worst_map.zip” from Da Fat Cat? I downloaded it but haven’t had a chance to play. Last night I finally got to try out survival mode and found out that my friends and I totally sucked… only got 4:01 on the lighthouse. Of course we were missing our 4th friend since he couldn’t make it and had just a bot… ugh.

By: Da Fat Cat

Da Fat Cat — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:11:55 +0000

Kitty Carnage: Source…

By: Penis

Penis — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:23:16 +0000

[riffly_audio]9428608040BF11DE916091A29338EE5B[/riffly_audio]
(needs moar cat)
Oh, and I forgot to get on Mogulus last week. D:

By: axphin

axphin — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:27:51 +0000

Great Episode. BTW, I just gave the show 5 stars on iTunes and wrote a review.

@ Da Fat Cat: Yeah very interesting interview… most verbal of all interviews so far I think… It was fun.