The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Easily moddable games?
Visti
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi fellow gamers!
I'm here to admit to you that I have an urge.. An urge for creation! Recently I have been lusting after creating some small stories for a game, to toy with numbers or sliders and watch stuff react - in essence, to modify an existing base to accomodate my tinkering and creative needs.
But in what direction should I go from here? I have no idea, so I'm going to ask you! The stuff I already have thought of is using AGS to make a classic Lucasarts-style adventure game - I've done this before, but it's a lot more work and less tinkering, because you have to make all your own art and so on. I remembered that Max Payne had a bunch of editors for creating your own stuff, so if I can find my old box, that would be an option. I've also heard good things about Neverwinter Nights? But is that multiplayer only?
But because I'm a little behind when it comes to newer newer games, I'm going to have to ask what your favorite, easily moddable game is? I'd like some sort of dedicated level editor and an option to have an actual story play out, maybe through subtitling? I can't say I mind what genre the game is in much, as you can probably tell from my suggestions, so anything would be most appreciated!
Help me scratch my creative itch, fellas!
- Visti
I'm here to admit to you that I have an urge.. An urge for creation! Recently I have been lusting after creating some small stories for a game, to toy with numbers or sliders and watch stuff react - in essence, to modify an existing base to accomodate my tinkering and creative needs.
But in what direction should I go from here? I have no idea, so I'm going to ask you! The stuff I already have thought of is using AGS to make a classic Lucasarts-style adventure game - I've done this before, but it's a lot more work and less tinkering, because you have to make all your own art and so on. I remembered that Max Payne had a bunch of editors for creating your own stuff, so if I can find my old box, that would be an option. I've also heard good things about Neverwinter Nights? But is that multiplayer only?
But because I'm a little behind when it comes to newer newer games, I'm going to have to ask what your favorite, easily moddable game is? I'd like some sort of dedicated level editor and an option to have an actual story play out, maybe through subtitling? I can't say I mind what genre the game is in much, as you can probably tell from my suggestions, so anything would be most appreciated!
Help me scratch my creative itch, fellas!
- Visti
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Visti on
0
Posts
And the forums have a signature function, no need to do that -name crap.
If you don't want to make graphics, have you considered just making a text-based game? There are a bunch of good free editors floating around, though I can't remember what any of them are called off the top of my head.
Warcraft 3's editor is pretty nifty, though you're stuck with the basic mechanics of having units that move around on a 2d plane with little ability to directly interact with most of their environment, which may not be what you're looking for. You can do a suprising amount of things with triggers, though, and having a basic RPG with a plotline is well within the engine's capabilities.
NWN's toolset has a pretty steady learning curve.. There are a lot of little parts that take a bit of time to master, and then there's its scripting language which I never quite got into, but there are so many script libraries online that it's not that big of a deal.
Well, I used to code my own stuff like that in Python and even BASH, but I'd like to do a little something with graphics..
It's a big asset for me that there's a scripting language - that just spells unlimited possibilities!
But would you guys recommend NWN over NWN 2? And to just throw another one into the consideration, HL2 is supposed to be easy to script and stuff for, but I rarely see singleplayer mods of any kind for it - Anybody know a particular reason for this?
For modding? NWN1, I think. It's been out a while, so there's a huge number of tutorials, and large libraries of mods you can look at and play with to see things working first-hand. NWN2 is a bit newer, and last I looked around (granted this was a few months ago), there wasn't the volume of information for modders that you can find on the original.
Unreal Tournament 3 comes with its own editor as well, and if you get the special edition package it comes with literally over 20 hours of video tutorials that walk you through every aspect of making your own levels, right from the first first principles (including things like cinematics and other scripting). They've got a visual scripting system going there too, which cuts down on coding.
It's really amazing the kind of effort they put into that tutorial, it's essentially a beginners course in level design.
I have no talent whatsoever in terms of creating content, and even I can bang out a playable module for NwN using the toolset. Using the Community Expansion Pack (CEP 2.0) you can add a ton of custom stuff already created for you, from weapons to armor, and since most people who are into downloading modules have CEP installed already, that's one less resource you have to put out for people to download.
Not to mention that NwN is still fun. I just finished up the Aielund Saga modules recently, and it was the most epic NwN campaign I've played to date. Loved every minute of it!
The NwN2 toolkit, by comparison, is much more difficult. The learning curve for that is very steep, nowhere near as accessible to average users like myself.
So does Crysis but Im going to assume farcry will be a better entry point.
It comes with several pre-made tilesets and NPCs, but you can also create your own if you want. Also, all of the dialogue/cutscene scripts are in LUA. I don't know anything about programming beyond BASIC, but the example scripts taught me everything I needed to know to start making semi-complicated cutscenes.
When it's publicly released, it will probably be announced here.
Screenshots of a few mods:
The Story - One of the example mods made by a beta tester. I was surprised to hear that the creator of this one is 12 years old.
Mega Malco Madness, a Cave Story ripoff/Parody:
The public release will have at least one mini-mod for each "official" tester.