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I’ve been meaning to create a development blog, to keep track of my mod and game development efforts, for quite some time. Time is a scarce resource, however, and setting up a development blog has had to take a back seat to other endeavours. So in lieu of a dedicated blog, I figured I’d place my development scribbling on ModDB, a site I think I owe a great deal (where else would I have found an audience for my mods with so little effort on my part?).

I wrote a few years ago (link to the article) that I was quitting the Source modding scene, citing dwindling player numbers and the stress of managing such projects. When I wrote that article, I was convinced I never wanted to make a mod or game again. I was convinced the effort-to-reward ratio was completely skewed, and I’d be better spending my free time doing more productive things.

But I found it impossible to quit. And when the burnout from Lunar Descent’s hectic development process finally eased, I found myself again with mod project ideas I wanted to pursue.

2020 (and, so far, 2021) was, to say the least, interesting. I don’t think I can say anything new about the Coronavirus situation, but I will say that it gave me a great deal more time to think about what kind of mod project I would like to work on.

I have two medium-term mod goals.

The first is to release The Apocalypse of Eden.

Apocalypse is set in the Lunar Descent/Dissolution universe, but it’s a game quite unlike anything I’ve made before. The setting is the same kind of setting as my previous mods, but my previous games were relatively simple shooters. Apocalypse is more like a System Shock 2/Amnesia hybrid. It mixes enemy avoidance, item-based puzzle solving and environmental exploration.

This leads to some challenges, of course. Apocalypse is going to rely much more heavily on having an interesting story, because there’s going to be no shooting mechanics to make up for narrative deficiencies. It also runs the risk of becoming too much of a “walking simulator” if I fail to get the environmental puzzles / enemy balance right.

I’ll be talking more about Apocalypse, both here and on the mod’s profile, so if you’re interested, please do follow me or the Apocalypse profile.

My other goal is to release Lunar Descent v2.

Lunar Descent was … a troubled release, I think it’s fair to say. It took over four years to develop, it had severe narrative flaws and, for all the development time that went into it, it was incredibly short.

Version 2 will not be a remake of Lunar Descent. Rather, it will consist of sensible, surgical adjustments and additions to make a more cohesive and complete experience. What are some of the things I intend to change? Well, it’s early days yet, but some of the ideas on my mind include:

• Making the world more “alive”. At the start, have citizens idly walk around going about their business.
• Introduce a new “mega” weapon (think the BFG in Doom).
• Rebalance existing weapons.
• Extend the campaign by adding one or more new levels.
• Flesh out the storytelling by backporting in the note reading system from Apocalypse.

I’d be interested to hear from any players of the current version of Lunar Descent, to learn what you think might be worth changing or adding (or removing) in a version 2.