The project has gone commercial! - www.moddb.com/games/the-ball The Ball is an indie singleplay action/puzzle game, running on Unreal Engine 3, for PC. The expected release date is spring 2010. The project started out as a mod and has since gone stand alone. Best Singleplay Mod of 2008 according to ModDB MOTY 2008. Five-time first place winner in the UT3 MakeSomethingUnreal Contest. Used by Epic Games' to promote their UDK release.

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Mod of the Year 2009 Editors Choice - Best Singleplayer Mod

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2009 the year of the singleplayer mod, so many great release and so many mods that should be in this list (if it where longer). To be nominated for an award in Best Singleplayer Mod projects need to have been updated significantly during 2009 and be Singleplayer only. Here are the Editors of ModDB's top selection of 2009.



The Nameless Mod
In Forum City, the Internet is serious business. As its name implies, the city is the physical embodiment of Internet forums and bulletin boards. It's more like The Matrix or Tron than Second Life, however, as the troubles of the city are no laughing matter. Embracing the style of Deus Ex, Forum City has as much crime and conspiracy as the world of JC Denton — but most citizens would have it no other way.


Cube Experimental
is a Mod for Fallout 3. Just started as a small test project to find out the possibilities of the Fallout-3-Engine and growth larger now. This project places a hidden entrance, of an forgotten cube complex, to the wasteland of Washington D.C.

Out of Hell
A singleplayer horror experience for UT2004! Make your way through a decimated town overrun by blood-thirsty zombies! Powerful firearms and brutal melee weapons are at your disposal as you cut and cleave through over 20 grimy and blood-soaked maps!

The Ball
As an archaeologist working on the slopes of a dormant volcano somewhere in Mexico, you get stuck in an underground Cavern. It doesn't take long before you realize this is more than just a cave. You reveal ancient ruins that have been hidden from outsiders for centuries and discover a mysterious artifact, a gold and metal shelled Ball.

Curse: Hell Awaits
is a Half-Life 2 single player total conversion : a mix of physics based combat, puzzles and exploration. In the first episode you can explore an egyptian necropolis and kill mummies, monsters with a morning star.

Post comment Comments  (0 - 50 of 65)
VagabondPraetor
VagabondPraetor - - 158 comments

Congratulations to all the nomines!

In particular, I'm looking at Out of Hell or Cube Experimental.

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Turj
Turj - - 39 comments

Go TNM.
Its gonna be hard, theres a lot of good stuff around here (excepted Curse that i found too easy for a puzzle-game)!

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BigPapaSmurf
BigPapaSmurf - - 43 comments

Hmm, a tough one to call, The Ball is innovative, The Nameless Mod is proof that hard work pays off, but I'm going to have to give it to Curse since it feels so different.

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Dremth
Dremth - - 1,400 comments

out of hell ftw

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staberas
staberas - - 36 comments

Curse ftw

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Wills
Wills - - 381 comments

But... but... Mr Whippy?

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Awesome_ninja
Awesome_ninja - - 809 comments

ya, sadly it's not in there =(...
R&D FTW!
PS: wait a minute, Mr.Whippy, or Mr.Whirly, forgot the name =S

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Dnst
Dnst - - 366 comments

This could be a second award for out of hell. Unfortunately the second episode of Curse is not yet released. If it was the mod would be my favourite.

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Unraveler
Unraveler - - 21 comments

The Nameless Mod
one of the best mods ever!!!

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PytoX
PytoX - - 742 comments

Wow difficult choice this is! They're all good :P

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Mularac
Mularac - - 2,910 comments

yes, but obvious one in the end. I think. Moddb hasn't stopped surprising me in those showcases, so, let's wait and see :)

Btw: Congrats to all nominees, they all seem to be great games.

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Varsity
Varsity - - 1,044 comments

It can only be The Nameless Mod. It's mod of the goddamn decade.

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Grammatolatry
Grammatolatry - - 3 comments

Naught but the truth.

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Mularac
Mularac - - 2,910 comments

Indeed it is. And that's why it's the winner. TNM, I salute you. Excellent freakin' work.

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Jonas
Jonas - - 285 comments

*Hugs the ModDB*

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JC_Fenix
JC_Fenix - - 85 comments

So does this mean Pebbles lives? Will the HR director still "get it" if you don't win player's choice? ;)

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Jonas
Jonas - - 285 comments

I would assume Pebbles will be off the hook now, but there's no accounting for Scara's whims.

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Turj
Turj - - 39 comments

Well done TNM and OTP!

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bandit55
bandit55 - - 44 comments

Yay TNM, with due respect to the other great nominees. Seriously excellent choice though.

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Foxfingers
Foxfingers - - 34 comments

these all look great, looking forward to trying them all.

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Phasmatis
Phasmatis - - 7 comments

Thank you very much ModDB, we had some tough competition from the other nominees.

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Trestkon
Trestkon - - 223 comments

Thank you, ModDB! And thanks to everyone who's supported TNM :-) Really excellent competition in this category, congratulations to all the other nominees are in order!

I'd also like to thank Fauntroy, poor little guy...*sniff*

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BigPapaSmurf
BigPapaSmurf - - 43 comments

You guys deserved to win.

P.S. I accidently gave you a minus karma... You should have one more.

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Dragonlord
Dragonlord - - 1,934 comments

Fauntroy just had been the icing on the cake. You nearly made me fumble the jumping laughing out loudly when that PM came around :P

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DuckSauce
DuckSauce - - 969 comments

Grats to all the nomimees, coulda seen TNM sweeping away this award, knowing most if not all of ModDB staff loved it.

Om nom nom nom rats!

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SureAI
SureAI - - 92 comments

Good decision ModDB! Well done Nameless Mod!

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Xular
Xular - - 31 comments

ahaha rats... :D

I dont have deus ex but I enjoyed reading the TNM manual a while ago.. someone had great fun writing it - so its great fun reading it too ;)

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pone
pone - - 23 comments

A nameless mod won it :D

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justgoaway
justgoaway - - 8,208 comments

Nice choice

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Wiweeyum
Wiweeyum - - 347 comments

A SMASHING good mod!

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InStars
InStars - - 670 comments

I liked the ball!

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Tatsur0
Tatsur0 - - 1,068 comments

Mmmm Rat boiled in it's own urine.

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medve
medve - - 1,475 comments

good choice this time

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Mularac
Mularac - - 2,910 comments

I was going to say "they were all good choices" but I think it would be best if we just leave it there...

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ebol4
ebol4 - - 161 comments

If any of you are not voting for TNM, you haven't played it. If you haven't played it, don't even vote. TNM is the best mod I have ever played in my life. It's better than pretty much every commercial game I've ever played in my life.

The Nameless Mod is incredible, if it doesn't win... Then there's something wrong with people, and people will die.

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KILLER89(FIN)
KILLER89(FIN) - - 2,311 comments

We will die anyway..

*tick* *tock* *tick* *tock*...

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KorJax
KorJax - - 56 comments

I'm really really shocked that Research and Development, one of the most polished and well made HL2 mod's I've ever played, didn't even get nominated. I'd almost say it's better than the legendary MINERVA.

Not saying I don't disagree with the winner since apparently TNM is really good, but some of these nominees shouldn't even be on here compared to R&D. The Ball? REALLY? Even though it's not a mod anymore and was already released a year ago for UT3? Seriously? Having it be re-released as the same thing except under the UDK and not UT3 doesn't count in my eyes as a "new mod".

I found R&D to be much more engaging and enjoyable of an experience than the ball ever was anyways :\ R&D was something I remembered and fondly enjoyed while playing it, the ball I stopped playing after two hours and forgot about it. It's so much lesser of an experience.

I don't want to say it's bad or anything, but I don't see why the moddb staff worships it.

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Henley Author
Henley - - 1,973 comments

They have been releasing the mod in episodes ever since it first released. The ball is a fantastic and in my eyes much better then Research and Development, it sounds like you have not played it maybe you should give it a go.

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DuckSauce
DuckSauce - - 969 comments

@KorJax: How much did you play R&D anyway? The ball has released alot more stuff and while I have only played the UDK "Demo" it was just as much a high quality mod as R&D, both were great in my opinion and so are probably all the others nominated, but as said in the description:

Quote:
"so many great release and so many mods that should be in this list (if it where longer)."

They can only nominate 5 mods, also just being a good mod isn't the only requirement here, I've seen the ModDB staff awarding mods and indies these past days that use ModDB as it should be used, to promote their work and in a well done way, R&D was great, but I recall it just being released with little pimping done by the developer, plenty of people were writing reviews but it was pimped very little here on ModDB, while I've seen a variety of TNM and The Ball newsposts popping up on the frontpage.

There's alot more to be considered here then just the mod being fun and good to play, not to mention what you consider fun, may not be what the editors consider fun, it's their decision and this is what they came up with, they're not doing this to please the majority, they're doing this to pimp the mod "They" think deserve it, the Players choice will be next and that will be what "Us"(the players) think deserve to be mod/indie of the year.

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MrTambourineMan
MrTambourineMan - - 717 comments

I pretty much agree with you except for the Ball thing, I was however pretty surprised to see Curse among the nominees (visuals left aside it was a huge disappointment (at least for me) I'm afraid)... Well deserved win for TNM though...

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Hourences Creator
Hourences - - 73 comments

Korjax:
-It was last released as UT3 mod in November, just two months ago.
-The UDK build is nothing but a small level demo, it is far far smaller than the mod version, which is about ten times larger than the UDK build.
-The mod version released in 2008 was just three levels large. The one released in November 2009 is many times larger than the 2008 build. The 2009 build had over 5 hours of singleplay gameplay. The 2008 one had 1 hour...

It helps looking into things before commenting.

Congrats to TNM!

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arlooo
arlooo - - 20 comments

damn! i meant to give you plus karma ><

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KZM95
KZM95 - - 745 comments

Hmmm...I could sure eat some rats! :D

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thatmangleybloke
thatmangleybloke - - 110 comments

I'm very surprised that Research and Development wasn't nominated. It's definitely the most polished singleplayer Source mod of 2009. But I understand that Curse has a lot of great artwork and PR, it's too bad that Curse didn't quite live up to it.

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aerozol
aerozol - - 179 comments

Out of all of these I've only played The Cube, which I thought was absolutely stunning. It was like a free Expansion, and slotted into the existing world seamlessly.

But I'm sure the Nameless Mod deserves it, and now I'm definitely going to try it out!

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azultain1999
azultain1999 - - 1,445 comments

I have buy ut2k4 only for out of hell {ooh}, and i am happy, i have take a good choice.

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JohnnyMaverik
JohnnyMaverik - - 469 comments

They're all great but the nameless mod was a diserving winner.

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m82sniper
m82sniper - - 1,490 comments

It's true, rats do make great cat toys. :D

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Dragonlord
Dragonlord - - 1,934 comments

Great choice of the winning video sequence. Beeblequix rules :D . Contrats to all nomenees. Seeing that TNM had been nominated I had been quite certain who is going to win. The other projects are though great as well. There should be allowed multiple winners as all of the top projects win in their own category.

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Rakym
Rakym - - 159 comments

It just HAD to be TNM. Let's be serious, if it wouldn't have won, it'd have been a scandal. I didn't play it, but I already enjoyed reading their articles and watching the videos. Just epic in all terms.

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