Editor's Notes

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News is a big thing for gaming and so far we have only dabbled into the blogging news field, up until now that is. Welcome to the Editor's Notes, updated with news that relates to the modding and indie scene. Not only will we fill you in on the news but also offer our opinions, giving the community a chance to discuss topics relevant to there interests.

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Warm Gun

Phase 4 Finalists for the MSU Contest

Warm Gun 61 comments

Here are the Phase 4 finalists for the Best non-FPS Mod, Best FPS Mod, Best Machinima, Best Vehicle Set, Best Level Set, Educational,Best Use of Physics, Best Art and Best Graphics in Maps category's in the $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest. All finalists in this category are eligible to enter the Grand Finals. This competition rewards top mods created for Unreal Tournament 3 with cash and hardware prizes in four preliminary phases and a grand final. Visit Makesomethingunreal.com for full details.

Best FPS Mod Phase 4 Finalists:

Best FPS Mod Phase 4 Honorable Mentions:

Best non-FPS Mod Phase 4 Finalists:

Best non-FPS Mod Phase 4 Honorable Mentions:

Best Machinima Phase 4 Finalists:

Best Machinima Phase 4 Honorable Mentions:

  • DoubleKill Episode 1
  • DoubleKill Jess
  • FightSabers
  • The Crucible Trailer
  • UT3 News Take 1
  • The Last Stand
  • Dream
  • Silent Scream of Vengeance
  • Prometheus
  • HOLP 3 Teaser

Best Vehicle Set Phase 4 Finalists:

Best Vehicle Set Phase 4 Honorable Mentions:

  • XS Prototypes
  • Starbase Defense Vehicle
  • VCTF-Boilerplate

Best Level for a Mod Phase 4 Finalists:

Best Level for a Mod Phase 4 Honorable Mentions:

Phase 4 Educational Category Finalists:

  • Arizona State University (Becca's Tale, EXILE)
  • Art Institute of California, L.A. (UT2D Killing Time, vCTF-Boilerplate Team Art Mod, Millagun UT2D)
  • Art Institute of Vancouver (TikiWiki)
  • DePaul University (ToonDoom)
  • Högskolan i Skövde, Sweden (Sanctum)
  • IT University of Copenhagen (Steam Racers, The Witching Hour, Cubes of Serenity, Chalupa, Takeshi Gladiatiors)
  • North Carolina State University (Blackbeard's Escape)
  • Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (BailterRay)
  • Supinfo International University (Defend Unreal Territories)
  • Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia (Hazard: The Journey of Life, Steel Halo)
  • Starr's Mill High School (Project Swing)
  • University of Oulu, Finland (Robofonics)
  • Vancouver Film School (Curvature, Ascendancy)

Best Use of Physics Phase 4 Finalists:

Best Use of Physics Phase 4 Honorable Mentions:

  • XS Prototypes
  • MillagunUT2D
  • UnWheel 2
  • Snarf Vehicles
  • DM-NewHorizon
  • VCTF-Electro
  • UT2D Killing Time
  • Cubes of Serenity
  • TRE - Last Life
  • DM-RB-Labyrinth

Best Art in a Game Mod Phase 4 Finalists:

Best Art in a Game Mod Phase 4 Honorable Mentions:

Best Graphics in Map Phase 4 Finalists:

  • City_Domination
  • CTF-Strand
  • CTF-CBP3-Antediluvian
  • CDom-CBP3- Saip
  • DM_AfterInfection
  • DM_Nano_Beta
  • Planetstorm-Space_Ixion
  • TH_Temple
  • War_CBP3_midst
  • War_Haunting_The_Chapel

Best Graphics in Map Phase 4 Honorable Mentions:

  • CDom-CBP3-Yarith
  • vctf-electro
  • The Ball
  • Black Sierra
  • Deadman's tales
  • DM_Dust
  • DM_Gamme
  • DM_Necrosis
  • JB-pagoda
  • CDom-CBP3-Velocity
Unreal Tournament 3

UDK Video Tutorials

Unreal Tournament 3 13 comments

Since the release of UDK the modding community has taken a shine to the brand new engine release with a very large number of mods (especially the mods that are apart of the MSUC) porting over to the independent version of the engine, and EPIC sure have seen this trend. Since the release of Titan Pack, the biggest of all free addons, its a better time than ever to mod. The gents over at the Unreal Developer Network have complied a list of 160 video tutorials created by Jeremy Ernst who is a Technical Animator over at Epic Games and a compilation of 3D Buzz tutorials that will help you flesh out the core activities that you will need to know in order to create your dream FPS/RTS/MMO/RPG/DATING SIM etc.


You can find all the downloads and additional information over at the official UDN page which you can find here. Hopefully this will help everyone who still has the ambition but does not have the knowledge to build their ideal game.

Garry's Mod

Fretta Gamemode Coding Contest

Garry's Mod 12 comments

The guys over at Facepunch have a brand new comp for all the modders out there which simply put uses the popular Fretta framework that a whole lot of Garry's Mod modders use to help bring their game modes to life. With a whole stack of cash on offer and the opportunity to have your game mod release along side of the official GMOD updates, what prize could be better?

Fretta Fretta

You can find all the information you need over at the official page on the Facepunch site which you can find here, since all you need is the latest version of Garry's Mod and just a little bit of creativity (seriously if you own Garry's Mod you at least have to have some that goes without saying). So no excuses get modding!

DeLorean in Crysis

News 28 comments

Now I'm a guy who has seen a whole lot of mods, and every once in a blue moon a mod will come along and fly kick me in the teeth. I can honestly say the mod I am about to show you has fly kicked me in the teeth, and it feels good man.


I know what your thinking, big deal right people have made that model in games since the dawn of time, yes that might be true but do those other models allow you to bend the fabric of time and space and get friendly with the giggawatts?


Don't worry ModDB has you covered you can grab the download here and get in game! Sure it might only be a model with some awesome extras right now, but I am almost certain that a modder will be able to make something special with this!

Half-Life

7 Years of Natural Selection

Natural Selection 19 comments

Today 7 faithful years ago a few gentlemen gathered together to release a mod that simply took the gaming and modding community by storm, that mod is Natural Selection for good old Half-Life. At that point it was something fresh and exciting that captivated gamers to extremes of thousands of people becoming dedicated to the game, spending a large chunk of their gaming quota on a mod is almost unheard of especially in gaming today.

Its really crazy to look at the stats of Natural Selection on its ModDB profile alone Natural Selection has been downloaded over 18,654 times from 2007 and since its release in October of 2002, has had over 2 million downloads world wide, and had been played for 2 billion player-minutes. That is a lot of people enjoying something a few guys cooked up on their home PC's with little to no experience in professional game development.


To celebrate this event I was able to get in touch with Natural Selection 1 and 2's game director Charlie Cleveland to ask him about how he feels looking back on 7 years of blood, sweat and aliens.

ModDB: What was the toughest part of development in the past 7 years?
Charlie: There was a bleak period before we got any investment, where I was funding the company off my credit cards. I was heavily in debt and a small team and I had been working without much to show for it. I had made a casual game to try to bring in more revenue and that didn't do nearly as well as I was hoping. I remember going to the Game Developer's Conference and everyone was asking me what was wrong - they could see how frustrated I was. I was feeling like a failure and didn't see a way out.

The last day of the show I was giving a talk and frankly told the audience (that turned out to be about 50% NS players!) forget investors and forget publishers and that the best way to get your dream game made was to make a much smaller game quickly, make a little money off of it, grow a little, make another game, etc. until you finally have the money and resources to make the game you wanted to in the first place. The process is known as "bootstrapping" and works great, but can be long and tiring, especially when the fire in your belly burns for another game. In the audience was a local investor who heard my (desperate, I can only imagine) story and for some reason came to speak with me after. 1 year later, he and a few friends of his ended up investing in Unknown Worlds.

ModDB: What were your aims at the beginning of development on Natural Selection?
Charlie: I was endlessly excited about a game that both first-person shooter and strategy fans could play together. My co-workers wanted to play FPS games and I wanted to play Starcraft. In real battle, there is tons of planning and strategy. R&D and technology plays a huge (if not dominant) component. I didn't know why game didn't bring these two together.

I saw the top-down mode in Tribes but it wasn't fleshed out. Battlezone was a huge push in this direction but was designed such that one player had to play both FPS and RTS simultaneously. When I saw Counter-strike I realized that mods have come of age and were a completely viable way to get a game out to the masses. In summer of 2001, I started coding up ideas in the Half-life engine. My goal was simply to bring this game concept to as many people as possible. I knew it was hard to make a popular game and make money right out of the gate, so I thought it best just to try to make a popular game and figure out the business stuff later. I'm a developer, so that's the part that excited me anyways.


ModDB: What time in the development of the original NS did you decide to focus on making a sequel?
Charlie: After continuing work on NS for so long and putting out over 20 versions, I could finally catch my breath. At first it was about fixing the big issues, then it was about reworking the game to flow better. I was trying to grow it and make it as large as possible. NS v1.0 was kind of like an alpha and it still needed a lot of work. After a couple years of that (and living hand-to-mouth off player donations), I realized my personal life needed a lot of help. I had been in my room for a few years and needed to move and rediscover myself. I also wanted to bring NS to the next level so I started thinking about how I could get NS2 funded. I didn't have a high opinion of publishers and I wanted to keep the NS intellectual property so I thought about investors. All of those things led to me moving from Boston to California and trying to get NS2 funded.

ModDB: Did you ever expect to have come this far on one idea alone?
Charlie: Sometimes I wonder how far we HAVE come! We've made some significant progress, but come on, it's been 7 years! I wish it went a lot faster. Sometimes feel like other people are starting companies, launching games, etc. and we're still just plodding along, trying to get NS2 built and released. There were a few years there where it was a bit depressing and I just didn't know how to make any progress. That all changed when Max (co-founder and lead programmer) joined. The company took another big leap when got our first angel investment and another leap when Cory (the lead artist from NS) joined us full-time. I had been trying to get him to quit his job and work with me for YEARS! We never had the money to pay him.

So it's been a whole lot of small steps and today we're just a bit closer to our goals. It hasn't been easy and at times it's been downright unpleasant but I can't imagine doing anything else.


The story of Natural Selection and the Unknown Worlds team will long be remembered, unlike the other successful mods out there to date like Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, DOTA, Natural Selection is only where it is today because the extreme dedication and love poured into it by Charlie and his team. So from the staff here on ModDB and modders world wide here is to another 7 years of Natural Selection!