Recruitment

I'm Bobbie, and I guess I'll start a blog on the recent plan to start a mod.

I guess I'm the most experienced (Generally) I'm learning Modeling software like Maya, I've got experience with Sound synthesizers and editing, I'm a writer (go good for story i guess) and I've gotten really good at programing using the archaic QBasic, completely different use, but I've got the language bit down. Probably why I've started this is because the program TMDM (for creating video games) at the GNWC nearby was canceled just before I handed in my application.

It really started as "Wouldn't it be cool if we made a video game?". I've got Steam and games for it, and so do many friends. The thing about Steam is they offer the same software that they use to make their own games to you for free, to keep the games alive of course. Some other software is given for free on the internet (and not pirated or junk i might add) for modeling (characters with animations and props) and programming with C++.

What I mean by a mod is modifying a game's base to create a game of your own creation. We'll be using the updated (Orange Box version) of the Half-Life 2 engine, the base is commonly known as Source.

So anyways, how do you start a mod? You need a team, so I asked around and just about everyone I asked agreed. Thing is when i asked them to learn some stuff, most of them dropped it. Today, I gave out some official looking invites to about 10 people in person at school. Each invite decribed the four basic jobs and showed how to start learning... I gave links, I didn't write it of course. Unfortunately, I just learned that the links on them were wrong and the website doesn't use "www." for an unknown reason.

The four basic jobs are:

- Programming (aka: Coding): Scripting the game itself and each individual part (not as hard as it seems, thanks to Valve, we are modifying their engine known as Source. The hard stuff is done.)

- Modeling: The creation of props, characters and their animation.

- Mapping: Creating a stable and enjoyable map for game-play.

- Sound: Applying sound to the game, along with creating these sounds.

Each team should have 3-5 people according to Valve, and they're really successful in modding, also surprisingly, creating hits often. These teams should have those four basic jobs and with 10 people that seem actually up for the job, and I've actually seen most of their work and I'm real happy with it. So I've given a period up to mid-January for these guys to get a bunch of training done. I'm not sure how well this is going to work, I really expect half these guys to drop or procrastinate it all.

I grabbed 3 other friends to help with Concept art, Concept and Sound. I was thinking on not developing the concept until we had our team and leaving it democracy what we'll work on, but the few guys that asked what we were making, didn't mind what we were working on, so I've got a friend that's got a really cool one right now, and we'll be clarifying it really soon... anyways, I've got homework ... D: