Slashdot Mirror


Speaking With the Devs Behind a 7-Year Game Mod Project

Gamasutra has an interview with members of Off Topic Productions, the team behind the recent completion of The Nameless Mod, a Deus Ex modification that was in development for seven years. They talk about how they stayed interested in such a lengthy, unpaid project, and also how their vision for the mod shifted over the years as a result of experience and feedback. "We estimate that we recreated everything we did during the first 2 or so years because we got better. The plot went through 4 revisions in the first year and was continually tweaked, expanded, and revised. Most of it also simply came about as we experimented with the game and the engine and grew familiar with what we could do — originally we were planning something even more open and free-form than we ended up with, but when we realized how fundamentally the game was built for a completely different type of structure, we reigned ourselves in and adjusted our design. ... Also, I don't know if you ever go back and read what you wrote 6-7 years ago, but in my experience that's a great way to embarrass yourself — I spent a lot of time rewriting old dialogue to be less embarrassing."

14 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Marathon Too by adavies42 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There have been a couple Marathon mods that took about that long--Eternal comes to mind.

    --
    Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
    -kfg
    1. Re:Marathon Too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      So it's not just a clever name?

  2. I've been working on a Duke Nukem Forever mod by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I plan to release it seven years after it's been released, which will be in... Oh damn, Slashdot comments aren't long enough to fit in the year, but it'll be a while.

    1. Re:I've been working on a Duke Nukem Forever mod by Terminal+Saint · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's what scientific notation is for.

      --
      It's sad when choosing an installation directory on your own qualifies you as an "advanced user."
    2. Re:I've been working on a Duke Nukem Forever mod by aldo.gs · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh boy, am I glad I didn't make that joke! :-P

  3. Maybe now that they're free... by sootman · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... they can move over to the DNF team. Though these guys might be a little fast-paced for that crew...

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  4. 7 years we've been on our own by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Moss grows fat on a rolling stone, but that's not how it used to be.

    Think about this. Demolition Man was released 16 years ago. As much as I liked the movie, and as much as it remains as topical and entertaining as ever, in the meantime so many other good movies were produced that to simply focus on one good movie over the years is to miss out on everything else.

    Bye bye, Miss American Pie.

  5. Ditto by thedrx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Also, I don't know if you ever go back and read what you wrote 6-7 years ago, but in my experience that's a great way to embarrass yourself â" I spent a lot of time rewriting old dialogue to be less embarrassing

    This is very true for me. Whenever I come back to very old code, writings, forum/newsgroup posts, emails or the like, I always can't help but feel bad. Sometimes I'll happen upon a piece of code, think to myself 'what was this idiot thinking' and then discovering it's my own code :P

    It's good I guess, means I'm changing over time (here's hoping it's change for the better).

    1. Re:Ditto by hedwards · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, but unless you're maintaining the code you really shouldn't be thinking about a current project that way. There are some projects where it's legitimate to still be coding on it after years, but if you have to rewrite the project from scratch more than once, you've botched something and really ought to sit down and plan it out.

      A project conceived and executed in that fashion is going to be a serious pain in the ass to maintain later on, assuming that it does get finished. And further assuming that anybody still cares about it at that point. There's something to be said for somewhat less than perfect featurewise but finished.

    2. Re:Ditto by Hurricane78 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      [B]ut if you have to rewrite the project from scratch more than once, you've botched something and really ought to sit down and plan it out.

      Not if it's by design. I found it to be the only way that makes sense, to work trough prototyping. Especially for games and other large projects. I define the things I want to clarify, and then build a throwaway-prototype to answer as many of them with as little work as possible. Then I repeat this process, until I am happy with it.
      Over a specific project size, top-down-modeling and bottom-up-coding alone do not do it anymore. And in creative processes it's sometimes even impossible.

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  6. Re:Rein, not reign! by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Funny

    And the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plane.

    I think you mean "plain ," unless you think Spain is covered in aircraft or woodworking tools. Hoisted by your own petard, eh?

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  7. Re:Rein, not reign! by Miseph · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, he just recognizes that Spain is part of a separate plane of existence from ours.

    --
    Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
  8. The three games I admire most by jonaskoelker · · Score: 4, Funny

    The vapor that I long for most
    The duke, the wolf*
    And the Starcraft: Ghost

    They saw their code build
    So they'd boast

    The day
    Their sche-----dule died.

    * http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/best-games-never-made1.htm - ""Werewolf: The Apocalypse" was going to be a PC game based on White Wolf's tabletop RPG [...]"

  9. Re:Rein, not reign! by Oori · · Score: 4, Informative

    Planely speaking, "el al" literally means "towards upwards". "El" means "to" and "Al" means "on" or "over". Combinatorial semantics apply here. As a person speaking Hebrew for more than 30y now, I think your friends got it wrong.