Hi Philip,
Often times when this subject of modding games comes up I think what the
customers are really asking for is some quick and easy way to create new
games for themselves. Most of them don't know a thing about programming,
don't have the time/desire to learn programming, and perhaps are a bit
intimidated by the entire subject. As a result they do what comes
easiest to them which is modding an existing game.
Let's assume someone wanted to come up with a Megaman game. Well, in
theory they could take a game like Q9, and modify it until they came up
with something like Megaman. They could replace the rocks with lasers,
the club with a power fist, replace the shields with a forcefield,
replace the animals with various robots, etc. When they got done it
would no longer resemble your actual game, and the end user would be
vicariously be creating a new game by replacing all of your sounds and
music with his/her own. they may see it only as modding, but their
actual intent is to create a completely new game, based on their own
game ideas and sounds, rather than excepting your game as it is.
Fortunately both of us are working on such tools. However, I haven't yet
found a way that follows the keep it simple stupid principle. At some
point the game engine needs to be scripted, and we come right back to
the problem of the end user having to get his/her hands dirty with some
aspect of coding the game by hand. Grrrrrr...
Philip Bennefall wrote:
Hi folks,
To follow up on the suggestions for mods that I've seen here recently,
I'd like to add my thoughts to the discussion. Personally I am not a
big fan of mods, for the simple reason that a mod for me is the same
as destroying a complete picture that the audio, music and game engine
all form together. When I made my sounds I made them for one
particular purpose, and if they are taken out of context or replaced
by something else it'd break the complete picture in my opinion. This
is why I encrypt and package my sounds in the dat file.
I know that a lot of people have quite differing views on this, that a
mod is merely a creative outlet for imaginative gamers and in a sense
I agree with that, but as the game's audio designer it would make me
feel as though my work has been taken apart and twisted in a way.
However, my opinion is merely one of many and I'd love to continue
this discussion, as we may be able to come up with some sort of
compromise.
Kind regards,
Philip Bennefall
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