Is there a ‘scene’ for this sort of thing? There are countless mods posted on ModDB every day, yet in the past year I can only think of three mods of this kind being released. Two of them were yours, and the other one is so horribly cynical that I was instantly turned off by it despite its creativity. The reason I namechecked Radiator and Esther , despite Post Script being fairly substantially different to both, was that they’re pretty much the only two notable examples that spring to mind. I wouldn’t say that’s evidence of a new scene within mods. Hell, I don’t think it’s a scene within games more generally, as only Tale of Tales – that I know of – are really doing anything like this commercially.

That said, I do suspect we will see an emergence of something resembling a ‘scene’ in the next couple of years. I think people are going to start experimenting with game engines used for new means, and vast deviations away from the usual challenge/reward structure of the medium.

Which, re-reading what you wrote, seems like we don’t really disagree. Heh. Either way, I can’t wait to see what any potential scene could reproduce.

(It’s also interesting how it seems to be being pressed forward by people who also write about games, either academically or journalistically. We’re like the Cahiers du Cinema of interactivity!)

As for mod scenes drying up, I’d say the Half Lives are the only games I can think of for which this isn’t true. People have been making mods consistently for HL2 since its release, and had been making HL1 mods consistently since 1998 before that. The quality might not be consistent, but the sheer amount of people at least *trying* to make a mod for Valve’s games remains impressive.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4Fzj7-0vNQ&feature=channel

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Just a theory. But then Dear Esther did of press, bringing the spotlight back a bit.

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Well, it’s partly about the concern with authenticity in the indie game scene, right — who’s a pretentious poser and who’s the real deal? It’s healthy debate. And I want to see it with HL2 mods again, like what makes my mod “less formal”? etc.

I just think it’s funny how there’s a bit of a burgeoning single player HL2 mod scene now, developed to the point that Mr. Denby takes care to situate himself among us, yet it was all pretty dead back when Dear Esther first rolled out.

Usually, the mod community tends to keep dying after its first “golden age” (I saw it with Starcraft and with HL1) but here there’s a weird sort of rebound. Or maybe it’s still too soon to say.

I think it’s all good, though. We’re all helping each other by tricking people into keeping their Ep2 installations around, making them more likely to play our stuff. (Meanwhile, you have a huge production like the Dark Mod getting a measly ~5000 downloads because they’re on an old engine no one cares to keep anymore, vs. Research & Development with 50,000 at least)

Who knows. Maybe some big fancy magazine will do a feature on all of us. Cough.

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S’fine though! Personally, I like ‘yotes.

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Nice to see you’re still at it Lewis, although your efforts do seem to improved since the old days! Kudos!

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Sounds good.

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