Posts by zaphod

  • go-kart model

    nothing to show, but I just wanted to let everyone know we had our first playtest tonight, which consisted of 3 people driving around champion circuit bashing into each other (as there is no real gameplay yet). But the networking is coming along very nicely!

  • game devs you really hate!

    Quote from Zete

    I too was also excited about the prospect of 'steam works' untill i found out it was just something that was becoming part of the license when you buy into the engine.

    what is your source for this? It seemed like it was going to be much more open and free than that?

  • game devs you really hate!

    Quote from Hourences

    I can say similar things, and it is of course wonderful that we got those opportunities that really helped us forth, but, that was years ago, and it all feels like it is declining right now (not just Valve). The modders from today dont have the chances anymore that we once had, you may have your job and career going now, but that doesnt really help the new generation of modders. They just need a good community, good tools, support, and so on.

    I agree, the excitement and number of mod releases has not seemed able to keep pace with the growing complexity of the average game. It used to be that people were just happy to slap some things together and put it out for the community to play with (remember playing the early CS betas? ). Now it seems like people give all the attention ( and maybe this is the norm now ) to mod teams that put together 20 man, professionally recruited dream teams that won't release anything for 2 years because it's not as pretty as a AAA title yet.

    I'm not sure what the answer is, maybe scaling back the size and visions of mod teams? Is the FPS genre even still valid for modders looking to create something efficiently that people will want to play? Maybe all the FPS modders should just give it up and start making indie games! just kidding!

  • game devs you really hate!

    Quote from robert.briscoe

    Oh and...

    Giving someone tools doesnt make them an artist or give them a free pass into the gaming industry. I dont even know where to begin with this statement and to be honest I feel some might be a little insulted by the insinuation that Valve got themt o where they are today...

    Again, I dont hate Valve, Epic, Id etc, I am just dissapointed by there declining interest in the modding community.

    what? why would you feel insulted. I never said that Valve awarded them talent they didn't have.

    I'm asserting that the tools Valve provided directly inspired a lot of people here to get into game development, and also that projects done with Valve provided tools directly led to a lot of people around here getting hired professionally.

  • game devs you really hate!

    Quote from robert.briscoe

    You've completely missed the point Zaphod, go back and read the other posts made by people here before drawing such bold conclusions based on one comment. Valve's amazing support and tools are what prompted this thread in the first place.

    Myself and many others here are not just from the modding community but are also working within the industry itself. In fact I believe people who can look from both sides of the 'bubble' as you describe it, should have a much more educated and less biased point of view. Simply because you are a developer does not mean you can turn around and tell people "you're not a dev, you dont know what you're talking about!" (maybe a wrong assumption of your post, but that's how I percieved it).

    You should never shrug off the opinions of the community, especially ones that helped to build a business upon like Valve and Epic. After all, the consumers are the ones that put money into gamedev's paycheques.

    My post was not meant to belittle anybody or treat anyone here like they are not developers. I assume everyone here is a developer, since there wouldn't be much point in being here if you were not. I would never shrug off the opinions of the people you mention, mostly becuase I AM one of those people you describe. I am just voicing my own opinion, on a subject I am very passionate about. My "bubble" comments were just meant to make the point that the mod world IS a very passionate and close-knit community, ( which I know first hand ) and it's easy to get caught up in details that might seem trivial when you step back and look at the entire state of things.

    I know I am repeating things that have already been said, I just mostly wanted to profess my take on things becuase I thought the idea that Valve does nothing but buy up mod teams to make things for them absolutely laughable.

  • game devs you really hate!

    Quote from Bl1tz

    I exempted Portal in my condemnation of Orange Box. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great they give the modding community a chance to get noticed on a higher level, but considering the amount of talent at Valve right now, it's disappointing that there hasn't been that "big new game" to show off that talent. It manifests itself in incremental updates which is ok I guess because they're consistently polished but Valve could do something greater.

    thats a pretty lofty assumption.

    "Ok guys, I know that you are the best in the industry in a lot of areas - your work is critically acclaimed and shapes the face of games . . . but c'mon . . . lets pick up the pace guys . . . you guys aren't cutting it!"

    I wish more companies put out more smaller polished focused projects. There are enough "huge" and "great" games out there.

  • game devs you really hate!

    does it matter at all that Valve is still the only company out there that seems to care at all about supporting the mod and user content community? What other company out there is supporting much of anything besides the ability to make a few deathmatch maps if that? ( maybe microsoft counts now w/ XNA & creators club? )

    The assertion that Valve "buys up" mod teams and community talent becuase they are lazy just makes my jaw drop. How many opportunities have been provided for becuase of Valve's embracing modding? How many people on these forums right now are only working in the industry becuase of resources and opportunities that were provided by Valve? I know that I am one, and I could name you quite a few others right off the top of my head. Buying up talent? Valve is one of the only companies out there that makes it a policy to embrace and lift up the self-motivated modders and developers and give them a chance to do it for a living if they choose. How is that bad for ANYBODY? Fucking bastards found some talented students and gave them the chance to make a great game called portal, boy we can see how THAT turned out. It would have been much better if they had all gotten hired by random studios and put on work detail churning out the same rehashed shit that has been flowing like oil from the ground instead of being given the chance to construct their own personal vision of a game.

    I think that sometimes modders have a hard time seeing outside the mod developer bubble. Inside the bubble, things like the state of the tools, drama between developers, and the policies Valve choose are big issues. But if you stand outside the bubble and roam around on the larger game development plain, you start to see that it is still the largest and highest bubble if it's type floating around out there, and you start to notice that it's pretty unique.

    Valve is still putting that chance out there to amateur developers. You can argue about how they are managing and offering that chance, but the fact remains that they are the only major player out there offering that chance, or that even thinks that it's a valuable thing to do.

    If you think Valve's tools are bad, you should probably go try some others or try out some "from scratch" game engines. I think there would be a lot of stuff you run into that you had taken for granted with the source engine, buggy and annoying as it may be.

  • game devs you really hate!

    Quote from JohnC

    I dislike Valve for one basic reason: they don't do very much.In the meantime before their next Half-Life, they simply buy the next popular mod, maybe tweak it a bit, and release the next version with a price tag. They bought Team Fortress, they bought Counter-Strike, they bought Day of Defeat, they hired college kids to make Portal, and Left 4 Dead is little more than a cash-in on the recent Zombie mod trend.

    I started typing up a spirited reply but after reading your post a few more times I couldn't make myself believe that you were being serious.