PC- DLC maps vs SDK

(jazevec) #21

SDK and modders just offer higher quality stuff. Can you imagine game developers releasing something like the initial Counterstrike, Natural Selection, Team Fortress for free ? No chance in hell. If they knew the stuff was going to be popular, they would try to sell it as another game. Classic example was Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. It was meant to be commercial and only was released for free because it was canceled. The best they (paid developers) are going to offer you are beautifully modeled, animated, and skinned weapons/characters… that are bland and don’t make the game more interesting.

All the wildly popular modifications and additions to games are creations of modders, not paid developers. Show me a counterexample.

(Will) #22

A lot are but it also leads to getting hired and becoming a developer. id hired modders, Dice hired modders, Valve hired modders, hell the majority of Valve’s most popular games were originally mods. In some cases mods are better than the game that’s being modded, changed the way the game was played or added a whole new element (ie Project Reality, CPMA, freeze tag, race maps.) For an example you can see Quake Live has CPM elements, that’s because id picked up arQon, one of the lead programmers for CPMA. Mods also enable the community to breathe new life into a game.

Hell Karachi was a CS map before it was a MW2 map if I remember right.

(Ragoo) #23

The truth is that if they release the SDK in the very near future this game will probably be a success and live quite long and have very good competition.

If they don’t release the SDK tho, competition will be pretty much dead after one year and the game won’t last long.

(MonoXideAtWork) #24

Based on the rabid crying going on in Brink - General Discussion, SDK release may be the only way to appease the “customer is always right” crowd, otherwise, SD may spend the next 6 months making CTF or capture point maps for DLC.

IMO: It would be better handled to release the SDK and tell the users that aren’t happy with the maps that they should stop QQing and make their own maps.

(cptincognito) #25

Community maps and mods don’t compete with official DLC. The level of polish you get just isn’t the same, and many people who buy official DLC just don’t have the patience to deal with installing community stuff.

Not to say that mods and community maps are bad- they’re just different. Modders can afford to try new things and experiment, and usually there’s a few gems in a sea of half finished projects.

(mukmuk) #26

man. this thread makes me miss the Quake 2 days so much, CTF, Freeze Tag, Superheroes, etc… so many great mods with large communities around each one.

I don’t really see BRINK being a game that people use as a base to create mods, especially since it is basically a HUGE mod in the first place. What I do see is a great mapping community coming together and creating some excellent maps, just like with W:ET. If custom maps are implemented in a nice manner which allows easy downloading and sharing I think that maps could increase the re-playability of BRINK in the long run.

(SphereCow) #27

I want sdk more than maps, but I think SD needs to do something that’ll retain players more imho.

(lordbutta) #28

this soon to be dead game is going to just die faster without an SDK.

(fprovost) #29

I don’t get this. How is this even a debate.

The PC gaming industry have the luxury of being able to provide their clients (us) with a pen and a paper (SDK) and we will draw (mod) what we want. Then all they have to do is look as what’s getting the best reviews/downloads to realise what people want and needs. VERY few markets has this kind of luxury.

Screw focus groups, screw meetings and research. WE will tell you what we want in our games and how we want it. We will even make it ourselves. We will promote and advertise the game we make stuff on, we will follow you on facebook, tell you what to say to make us want to throw our money at you. ALL THIS FOR FREE.

This isn’t a message to SD… It’s a message to the entire PC market.
Not releasing an SDK is madness. Not communicating well with your community is madness.

(mortis) #30

Unreal Tournament also bundled user made maps as well, IIRC. UT was my first real FPS game, and they did so many things right (including a map editor that was so easy that even I could use it!). I got a whole lot of game for UT99 and UT2k3, and I created a bunch of content for those games as well. In W:ET, I confined my efforts to scripting and debugging, and ETQW I was further relegated to just bug and exploit reporting. I’ll gladly accept any content produced post release by SD and/or third party developers, as it is simply more value for my money. I also see merit in SDK, having dabbled in such things over the years. For a game to be successful in the long term, it needs to have community support; competitive gamers, map makers and debuggers/antiexploiters keep games alive long term. I still play W:ET and UT99 on occasion to this very day…

(cptincognito) #31

SD did right by ETQW’s mod tools, there was great docs and they’re super helpful. I’m sure they’d like to do the same, it’s a matter of time and resources. Right now I’m sure they’re 100% focused on getting bugs and such worked out, and if they plan on having DLC ready by June I’m sure they’re going to be focusing on that.

I’d say it’s asking a lot to put in the work for SDK right away, but it would be cool if they were able to prep modders with some info and documentation that lets them start planning and building in the meantime.

(Esso) #32

What DLC maps