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Garry's Mod Goes Commercial
Gothic_Walrus writes "A recent entry in The Steam Review brings the news that Garry's Mod, the popular mod for Half-Life 2 that allows players freedom to play with the game's physics engine in what is effectively a sandbox mode, is going to be sold through Steam at a $10 price point. It's worth noting, however, that the current version of the mod will remain as a demo."
To be totally honest, if I had developed Garry's Mod, I would sit down one day and say "I'd be insane not to sell this." It's fully featured, well done, and allows you to explore the exact mechanisms of the fantastic Source physics engine. If i were still into it hardcore, I'd probably throw down the $10 for the extra features in the pay version.
This is the beauty of Steam and how independent publishing works - the same way everything else does. Have a good product that people like and enjoy using? Sell.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
You know, paying for garys mod is like paying for a tech demo. All this thing is used for is to play around with a graphics engine you already paid for in HL2. I really don't understand why anyone would want to pay for this. Just another tiny expansion to milk money out of peoples pockets, like selling CS for HL1 in stores when it was free online.
I should have seen it coming, anything that good would eventually be commercial. I guess it won't be so bad, $10 isn't too much. It sounds like the deal will be good for Garry, too. If it keeps the updates coming, recognizing new games and adding its gfc like it says, it'll be worth it.
As much as I hate to say it, I'd have to say I'd buy it.
Demented But Determined.
I know, 10$ isn't a big deal, but how is www.hlcomic.com going to handle this? :P
My UID is prime... is yours?
So is it going to be standalone now, or will it still require HL2?
I'd buy it in a heartbeat for $10, but I'm not the least bit interested in HL2.
Garry is optimistic on the matter. "PetitionOnline will probably explode," he admits, "but eventually I think everyone will see that this is a great move".
Indeed, this will be a great move for his bank account
With the increasing complexity of the toys, addons, and other hacks a good game inspires, it's always good to see an independent modder make good on his or her work, especially when it's something a bit more inspired than a simple "put Barney the dinosaur into Doom" or "put a beard on Mario" hack.
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is going to be sold through Steam at a $10 price point.
What is with this "price point" stupidity? Why can't people simply say that it will be sold "for $10", without adding a completely meaningless appendage?
It makes me wonder if this will become more and more common. Will more game engines allow you to sell your mod online? Right now it seems on Steam has that capability but who knows if future games will keep this in mind. I think there will always be a few free mods/skins/maps and so on, but the number may go down. The downside of course is that people that play your mod will be less and the people on servers running it will be lower as well.
I just hope it doesnt get too out of hand, thankfully there is still Enemy Territory Fortress - a free mod for a free game.
It's like buying a $10 yo-yo.
I'm a member of Garry's team, or the "Garry's Mod Illuminati", and there are a few things all of you should know.
For one, I read somewhere that 9.0.4 was not worth $10 because of the amount of bugs in it. That's precisely the point: this new version is a complete rework of the entire mod. Most of the bugs (text corruption, Lua's instability, etc.) are gone, and anything that pops up will be squashed along the way. Not to mention Garry will be releasing updates every week or so.
The mod team is not made up of robots. Most of us didn't know that we're going to get paid. As a matter of fact, I didn't know until I read that article. The point being that we're all working on this because it's a hobby. I've been following Garry's Mod since v2 and now it's more than thrilling to be able to contribute to it and have thousands of people play with what I've created. We do this because it's fun, and, like you, we don't like it when our contraption falls to pieces or when we can't read the menus because they've turned to gibberish. Garry spends a lot of time trying to decide what is best for the mod and the community, and he's worked hard on keeping it that way.
The new additions are not minor, and more things will be added along the way. One of the most awesome features is the reimplementation of Lua. Lots of people complain that this takes away from the building aspect of the game, and that's not entirely true. The new toolmodes and post processing effects have been coded using Lua, providing us (and you) with the ability to create any toolmode or PP effect we want. Garry is also focusing on creating build and physics game modes, to emphasize the true roots of the mod.
$10 is not a lot of money, and it's well worth it considering that without it there wouldn't even be any more updates. Garry hasn't sold out, he just found some more motivation. Besides, if you don't want to spend the money, keep playing 9.0.4, no one is stopping you.
But not everyone feels that mods should involve money.