Comments - Mnkylord

To answer thunderraiden's comments:

1. The team ranges from ages 18 to 35.

2. Our business manager has already been in contact with the folks at Valve, determining what we can and cannot do with the material that we create, and the licensing issues. We have been told by a Valve rep that opting to sell the mod via steam instead of selling through an independent publisher would save us a significant amount of money AND 3rd party pressure, and would be far more beneficial to our setup than trying to actually license the engine (which would give us full access to documentation and technical support.... but since my wife would probably object to my selling the house to make a single payment on the engine, we're opting for the Steam angle.)

3. We have some very smart folks working on this team from around world: undergrad and grad students at various universities, including the Niles Bohr Institute of Physics... Several of us, including myself, are professional software developers for multinational corporations.

Personally, I would be particularly cautious about calling people of this caliber dumba$$es in such a public medium. But that's just me. ;)

We just don't know. Frankly, it's going to be a good long while before we feel the game is ready for any kind of retail.

There are a couple things we have to consider:

1. How much can we charge, and feel like we're being compensated for the hundreds of hours of work we've each contributed, and potentially make enough to establish our studio?

2. How much can we charge and NOT make the game overpriced, or out of reach of the common HL2 gamer? We don't want to be greedy, and at the same time, we don't want to sell ourselves short.

In the end, we're going to go to great lengths to be fair to ourselves, while at the same time not be jerks about it. :P

Just to clear up a few things:

Yes, we do intend to try and go retail with our mod someday.We will only do so when we think it is of retail quality... and we have a LONG way to go before we get there. Believe me, we'll have a lengthy and thorough open beta before then. :)

See, look at it this way: Valve is opening up the door for independent entrepreneurialship in a way that NO other game studio has dared do in the past. It allows small teams with limited finances and resources to actually "publish" games to an open community.

And really, in this particular case, "mod" probably isn't the best word for what we're trying to do with Badge of Blood. In essence, we're building an entirely new game with entirely new control paradigms, custom weapon classes, entities, and content from the ground up.

Think about this as an opportunity for small Indie studios to publish games via Valve's mass distribution system: Steam. We're essentially building a game that uses the Source engine without paying a couple hundred thousand dollars to license it, and get dedicated support from Valve for it.

Yes, you can get a lot of mods/games for free.

And yes, there will be a handful that you will have to pay for. But you always have a choice. Be an intelligent consumer, do your research, and find out whether that Mod/Total Conversion/Game is going to be worth your money. If not, then you certainly shouldn't pay.

But if you think it's worth it, and you want to support all of the hard work we've put into it, then do. We hope that in the end, you'll like the end result of what we've invested so much of ourselves in enough to pay a little bit to play it.

If not, then we certainly understand, and we'll just try even harder to earn your trust as we continue to develop the game further.

In any case, thank you for your honesty, and we hope we can change your minds when that day comes. :)

Well, the U.S. Army doesn't think so... and we're taking our cue from them. Modular weapon systems are the way of the future, we think. And though AB10 modules CAN use different calibers, logisitically, it is more efficient to have all variations use the same ammunition.

Globalsecurity.org

We appreciate the kudos! We're working very hard to get our concept art done so we can proceed with modeling, mapping, and texture work.

I'm hoping to have some actual screen shots from in-game within the month or two, so keep your eyes peeled! And tell your buddies to support us here at ModDB! The more exposure we get, the faster our community grows, and the more talent we can attract.

Well everybody, Badge of Blood is slowly emerging from the womb all wet and nasty-like. We're still in the very beginning stages of concept & design, but as everything starts to shape up, the more excited we get. :D We're hoping that by taking this kind of unique approach, the concurrent development of an FPS and a traditional pen & paper RPG, we will bring together a large and varied community of geeks and gamers of all flavors.

Our goal is to build the kind of game that we've always wanted to play... and in doing so, build a game that will have a strong, thriving community that is passionate about the story and setting.

Anyway, we hope you will be compelled to follow our progress, and come to love what we've invested so much of our time in writing and developing!