Playing Shakespeare news - SturmMod Mod for Far Cry

"Let me not, since I have my dukedom got
 And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
 In this bare island by your spell,
 But release me from my bands
 With the help of your good hands.
 Gentle breath of yours my sails
 Must fill or else my project fails,
 Which was to please. Now I want
 Spirits to enforce, art to enchant..."
 Prospero, Act V of Shakespeare`s "The Tempest", Epilogue

Act I - Rehearsal

After three months of learning how to map in the Far Cry Sandbox Editor and how to mod the Cryengine 1 we were finally ready to visit Prospero`s virtual island in our live performances last summer in Hildesheim as a part of our research on the possibilities of a creative exchange between digital media and the live medium theatre.

Act II - Exposition

On the 12th of July 2008 the first version of the SturmMOD finally was released to the public on ModDB, followed one week later by a guide to give players hints on which spots to visit on the island. The feedback ranged from a "mod of the month" review in the September issue of the German video game culture magazine GEE over a feature in the December issue and on the DVD of the Total PC Gaming Magazine (UK) to comments of players who demanded more content, more gameplay and a better introduction to the background story of the "Tempest".

Act III - Progress

Looking forward to using the SturmMOD again for our performances at the diskursfestival (festival of young performing arts) in Gießen, we decided to develop a new version of the mod. The goal was to offer playful approaches to the situations and characters of the "Tempest" while still giving the players the freedom to find their own way over the island collecting informations about the play, our performances and our research. As some features we wanted to have in the version 1.1 were difficult to program and implement the development took longer than planned. But finally, on the 18th of May 2009, an enhanced version of the SturmMOD was uploaded to ModDB, not only in a DELUXE package with additional videos, but also in a SMALL edition for users with a low bandwith.

Act IV - Twist

In 2009 projektariel took the experiment one step further by not only giving lectures on the topic "creative exchange between theatre and video games" but also by using custom versions of the SturmMOD during the lectures as an walkable virtual archive of our research and as an alternative to Powerpoint. The first lecture was held at the conference "Culture and Computer Science VII - Serious Games" in Berlin on the 15th of May 2009. It spawned not only the release of the version of the mod used in the lecture but also of the whole text of the lecture [PDF - GERMAN] to enable players to replay the lecture themselves. One week after our visit in Berlin we were invited by the Austrian video game culture club SUBOTRON. The lecture as well was captured in different media: the SturmMOD Vienna Lecture and the recording of our lecture [MP3 - GERMAN].

Act V - The End?

So what`s in store for the SturmMOD more than one year after the first release?
At the moment we are working on a video trailer using footage from our lecture in Berlin to show how we used the SturmMOD.
Another video project is in the works but we won`t tell you more as it is a surprise :)...

And what`s in store for projektariel?
As our team members have to pay tribute to real life at the moment including an internship at a game developer as well as preparing to write a diploma thesis on the topic "modding" we won`t develop the SturmMOD any further. Thus we want to thank everyone who downloaded and played the mod and especially everyone who gave us feedback and support in the development of the SturmMOD! :)

BUT...

chances are good we will be back soon with a brand new project... no Shakespeare this time but most definately another artistic and experimental approach on modding an FPS. So be surprised and STAY TUNED... ;)