Blogs - monster_urby

So it’s been around seven and a half years since my last ModDB blog post. My previous post was a multi-paragraph gripe about the overabundance of shitpost mods popping up on this site. While a lot has changed since back then, a lot of things have not. The shitposts are still popping up, thick and fast. However, more recently I’ve taken to looking at these things from the other side; Thinking about the process from the creator’s perspective.

Way back when I first started messing with the Half-Life files and dipping my toes into the vast ocean that is mod development, I was around 12 years old. I remember the utter hilarity of my friends and I recording stupid, juvenile and offensive statements in Windows Sound Recorder. I remember firing up the game, heading straight to the nearest scientist and watching them deliver our recordings back to us, their facial expressions entirely neutral in spite of the vitriol pouring out of their flapping mouths. It was, in a word, hilarious.

However, the more I dug into modding the audio files and learning how to map for Half-Life, I eventually shifted away from editing existing dialogue and started to record my own. I would add new, more serious lines and create stories with characters. Basically, what started out as just messing around for quick laughs, I started developing it into a full time hobby. Now, as I said, I was around 12, coming on 13 when I first started getting into this, so even the new stuff I was creating from the audio files, the character skins and even the levels were basic, juvenile and in a nutshell, a bit shit. I would ask my much older brother in law and my dad to check them out and they would nod along and say things like, “Yeah, that’s alright” or “Yes yes, very funny.”

One thing to consider throughout all of this however, is that I never had access to the Internet. Our house still only had a dial-up 56k modem and whenever that was on it was usually because my dad was working. I had no access to the Internal at all on my PC, and wouldn’t until we set up a LAN.

The question I find myself asking is this: If I had access to the Internet when I first started really messing with Half-Life, making my silly little reskins with broken maps and obnoxious, foul mouthed audio, would I have uploaded them to the Internet for all to see? Honestly? Yes, I absolutely would have and I expect that I would have been met with the hostility that first time modders are subjected to.

So what point am I trying to make here? Well, I would say that shitpost and meme mods that are uploaded to ModDB that are rough around the edges are always going to be called out as being a worse version of Crack-Life. However, in some cases this is a person’s first attempt to create something and often it will be something that brought them a lot of joy when they first tested it out. It might be worth cutting them a little slack. Sure, it doesn’t hurt to steer them onto the correct path to improve what they do, but you’re definitely going to get some push back when you do.

TL;DR: Teenagers are edgy and do stupid shit. That just happens to include making Half-Life mods.

For those who care, this is why I tend to dismiss mash up, mess up and retexture mods for Half-Life.

My primary argument is that it's not a mod, it's not even an expansion. It's Half-Life with coat of paint. In some cases I can hold up my hands on honestly say that it is a particularly well done coat of paint.

My issue is, as much as I love Half-Life, I've been playing it for over 15 years. I've seen it all. I won't enjoy it any more by running through the same game with new sounds or models. I definitely won't enjoy playing through something that you think is hilarious (speaking specifically about mess up mods now).

That said, I started editing Half-Life skins and sounds back in the day, it's how I got started with making changes to the base game. I'm not saying stop, by all means stick with it, but you don't have to put it online. If you do, don't be surprised if you get backlash from a few people.

I have made thousands of tweaks to Half-Life through the years and you won't find any of them online. They were purely for MY amusement. A lot of it would make me cringe if I look back at it today.

So I already summarised the 3 main things that I see a little too much of (in my opinion) in my three images (Urby's tips 1, 2 and 3) and a couple of members have asked me for #4.

This is where things get a little bit deeper and an image wouldn't necessarily be enough to get my point across and be taken seriously.

Urby's Tips #4

"If you need a team, prove you are a capable leader."

There are so many mods out there where one guy or girl has posted 3 concept scribbles on scruffy notepad paper that any half-way decent artist could fart out in less than a minute. They then prattle on about their huge plans and how they "NEED A TEAM!" before any more progress can be made on their mod.

THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO THINGS!

The development of a mod is a time consuming thing, even if you happen to have all the tools and the know how. Rome wasn't built in a day, Black Mesa wasn't built in a month, The Core (self glorifying... sorry) wasn't built in a year.

Some of the following points may be very obvious to a lot of modders, but there is a lot of evidence out there that suggests some people just don't get it.

• If you're not an artist, don't release concept art.
• If you're not a modeller, don't post model renders.
• If you have no experience using a certain tool or engine, DO NOT USE YOUR FIRST, SECOND OR EVEN THIRD ATTEMPT AS MEDIA!
• If you don't have any media, you don't have a mod so don't make a God damned mod page!

Have you ever seen a mainstream game developer release unfinished media or just a plot summary when promoting an upcoming title? Of course not!
Use what strengths you DO have to promote your idea. If you only have a story, it can be the best story in the world, but people want to SEE what you're capable of. Learn at least one of the tools needed to bring the project to life. Practice until you are happy with what you can produce and ONLY THEN do you start showing that off on a mod page. If people like what they see, the team WILL COME TO YOU! If people don't like what they see, take that on board and improve on what you've learned to make your project stand out.

I am guilty of blindly joining a couple of teams that were both being managed by inexperienced kids. I'm not being condescending about their age here. I am 26 and there are a lot of kids out there who are far more intelligent and talented than I am. Their ability to drive the project was hindered by the fact that they had no experience with any of the tools needed to pull the project together, so they weren't able to designate jobs and everybody was doing their own thing. A couple of models would get finished and somebody would make a track or two within a week and call it done after the first draft and the whole thing would fall apart in less than a month.

Take a Leaf from my book
The Core was a simple project I started back in 2008. By then I had been working with GoldSource for 10 years. I was a pretty good mapper, I knew the very basic minimum regarding editing models and the media I released was polished and got the reaction I was hoping for. 5 years on and the primary team is now comprised of 3 people. A developer, a mapper who is confident with editing sound and video as well as producing textures, and myself, also a mapper, texture editor and model editor. While this is still fairly meager in terms of a "team" the three of us working together have taught one another more tips and tricks we can use when working on the mod and as such many older areas have been enhanced, improved or even rebuilt completely. In light of this, The Core is one of the most popular upcoming GoldSource mods on MODDB at present, with nearly 700 watchers and netting a spot in the top 100 for Mod of the Year 2012. That is the primary benefit of working with a talented team and that is exactly why you cannot rush the process of assembling one.

All the best,
Urby