2021 COUNTDOWN
Welcome to the Players Choice: Best Upcoming Mods of 2021 Results! The following mods have been selected by ModDB readers from the Top 100 nominees to determine which mods they are most anticipating for future release.
You are an ordinary Resistance member in wacky City-47. Under the command of daring Commander Ronald Rodgers with his powerful crew you start your bizarre rebel adventures, sneak into heavily secured places, recklessly waste hundreds of combines and find the truth about the raid of your homebase and the mysterious living technology behind everything - The Fremen.
Players take the role of The Anomaly, a superhuman being from another world stranded on a dying far future Earth in the dystopian metropolis of Bacillus City. The planet has been ravaged by mankind, but is now being reborn anew in the wake of the Deluge - a supernatural event of meat and magic bringing forth new life that finds him fit for consumption.
A Lovecraftian first person adventure set within a diary of a madman. Made using the original Doom engine, with every texture, sprite and letter hand-drawn on post-its. Free when released, He Came From Beyond is a DOOM mod unlike any other, where graphics inform gameplay in a deeply-ingrained way.
This project is the continuation of the Warband MOD "In the Name of Jerusalem". The new campaign map will expand to the Upper Danube, the Nile Delta, the Dinaric Alps, and Transcaucasia. The Bulgarian Empire and Grand Principality of Serbia will be added. Kingdom of Georgia, the Saltukids and the Artuqids are also planned for down the line. The timeline still starts from 1187, but they will also try to add more interesting historical events until 1204 - including the Fourth Crusade.
You have your weapons, they have your life. Halfquake Rebirth is an ambitious reimagination of a classic Half-Life mod on the Source Engine. Halfquake Rebirth puts the player back into the shoes of The Victim, who knows nothing but survival, day after day. Trapped in an underground complex, he must fight through the onslaught of monsters and traps all to please his sadistic masters.
Step into the boots of Master Templar, the fanatical and ruthless enforcer of the one true faith. Pick your way through the disease ridden, irradiated trench works of Cretu and wage apocalyptic holy war on the sinful enemies of the caliphate. Survive the evil unleashed by heresy and struggle with over 15 (and counting) new enemy types, from corrupted militia and cultists to demonic netherworld horrors. Utilise 14 holy instruments of war to excommunicate with extreme prejudice. Fall to your knees in awe of the holy miracle of new gameplay features and visual effects. Say your prayers and confess your sins! Take your rad meds and check between your toes for wormsign! Trench Foot Slouches onwards, waiting to be born!
True Stalker is a total conversion for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series developed by the team behind the modding website AP-PRO. Players will be offered a fresh story that takes into account events from the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy in addition to reimagined levels, gameplay improvements, revamped visuals, a custom voiceover, and an official translation into English.
Reborn on the RNA engine, the RA2 and YR story will be revived with real time 3d graphics. The ConRed team are aiming to recreate the gameplay of Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge on the Red Alert 3 engine, with a new Yuri Campaign. The setting of the mod will take place after the events of YR, with Yuri in the psionic prison. This allows them the create a whole new story continuation, with a lot of new content.
2ND PLACE
Half-Life: Extended is a project dedicated to improving the general Half-Life experience, achieving consistency with the expansions, adding a lot of new content and little details and to some extent reimagining the game, to the point of recreating some maps from scratch and adding new areas.
The first place winner for upcoming mods for 2021 is The Battle for Middle-Earth: Reforged! The team behind this project is introducing The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth franchise to a brand new game engine - Unreal Engine 4. Relive the magic that made this franchise stand out in the RTS genre in glorious high definition. With mechanics, gameplay, and atmosphere lovingly based upon the long-lasting RTS, Reforged will be a joy for all LOTR fans to experience, when complete.
Honorable Mentions
Before we present the winners, the following mods polled strongly and deserve our attention for either narrowly missing out, or they have previously placed in a best upcoming countdown and are ineligible to place again. These mods have significantly impressed us over 2021, and we are eagerly anticipating their future developments.
Operation: Black Mesa
Half-Life : MMod
Entropy : Zero 2
Star Wars Battlefront III Legacy
Star Wars: Interregnum
Half-Life: Dark Matter
Kingdoms of Arda
Tiberian Sun Rising
Supported by mod.io
The 2021 awards are proudly supported by mod.io. Launch an official mod community for your game with powerful moderation, discovery, events, marketplace and metrics systems, using our cross-platform mod SDKs and plugins for Unity and Unreal Engine. Interested in adding mods to your game and finding out more? Reach out for a demonstration.
Congratulations to every winner in the Player's Choice: Best Upcoming Mods of 2021! Congratulations too to every mod who was nominated and participated in voting. With the Best Upcoming Mods announced, the final Mod of the Year results will go live on December 28.
Congratulation to Operation Black Mesa, Entropy Zero 2, Half-Life Dark Matter, Extended and another mods!
Happy Holidays everyone! Good mix of mods in here from some amazing creators. Can't wait to see them release in 2022 and beyond.
My main congratulations go to the amazing CnC: Condition, because it's one of my favorite Red Alert 3 Mods, and the True Stalker, since it's one of the best upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Mods. And also to the honorable mentions, where my favorites are Operation: Black Mesa, Half-Life: MMod and Half-Life: Dark Matter.
Congrats to all winners and keep up the great work!
Not gonna lie, never expected to get even further than Top 100. Thanks for voting Fremen’s Foes, and congratulations to all others!
Congratulations to all the competitors, and a big thank you to everyone who voted. :)
I find it odd that a *game* would win an event aimed at highlighting the best of best *mods*. Shouldn't BFME: Reforged be on IndieDB?
This.
Hi, the creators of the page have set it up as a mod and we believed it a grey area considering other entries on this list - DELUGE, Trench Foot, and He Came From Beyond, for example - are near enough standalone games utilising GZDOOM as an engine. However, because these projects (and BFME:R) are, at the moment, hobbyist with little to no budget, have their basis in modding communities/modding practices, and stretch the definition of but still match (in my opinion) the criteria for being broadly considered a "mod", we decided to give them the placement they deserved.
The community voted and chose their favourite, and you have to get a real hefty amount of votes to place first in any category of these awards. If the players didn't think twice and ultimately got some other very traditionally-styled mods in the list as well (HL Extended taking second was a pleasant surprise, for me), then that speaks loudly, ultimately, to the wishes of the community, which is what these ceremonies are all about.
I do acknowledge it's a grey area. We won't be touching the current line-up because that would be unfair to any entrants, but I will discuss with Intense some ideas for how to approach grey areas like this in the future. For now, I think it'd be unfair to snatch placements away just because they stretch the definition of a mod all the way to fan-game, potentially.
The mods you mentioned at least use base game engine , while Bfme Reforged doesn't even use original game as its base and uses Unreal Engine 4. Moreover , while Bfme Reforged is listed as Battle for Middle-earth 1 mod , creators claimed that they are recreating Battle for Middle-earth 2 game, which is yet another problem with this project. I have nothing against Bfme Reforged as a project but it's presence in this list of winners is far from being considered a grey area.
Except it is NOT a grey area mate! It is a pure black area! The devs themselves even admitted they're project is not a mod, and is in fact a fan game.
I.gyazo.com
While I still don't agree with standalone GZDoom games stealing accolades from mods either, at least with their case, GZDoom's ascension from a engine mod reliant on game's IWADs to an autonomous standalone support was a matter of circumstance.
With the case of The Battle for Middle-Earth: Reforged, apparently they build their fan-made game from SCRATCH, using a commercial propriety indie game engine like Unreal Engine 4.
The game is in the same circumstance as fan games like Renegade X (using UE3), or even my own fangame from back in the old days of DBolical (also used UE3). They are full-fledge indie games.
They would have been much better suited competing for the IndieDB Awards instead.
With all due respect, this awards ceremony is becoming very nepotistic and honestly feels rigged. Which is disappointing.
There is nothing nepotistic or rigged about an awards ceremony where players decide the winners. We as the site staff have absolutely zero influence on the outcome of the voting. As I stated above, at the time these awards were conducted, there were too many potentialities to consider removing them as a fair course of action, and now that they have won, it would be especially unfair to snatch away the accolade (which, again, players and site users voted for, even if you do not agree with that result).
Again, we will consider how to approach grey areas like this (which I still consider one, given the information we had to work with at the time of defining eligibility) in the future, but there is zero "rigging" going on, and it is pretty poor sportsmanship to accuse the awards of being rigged because you don't agree with the placements and player's choice. These awards have been run for twenty years and have *always* been a reflection of what the site's community thinks deserves appreciation, with no impact on the end result by site staff.
I hear the concern at any rate and we will be approaching this potentiality differently in the future, but we won't be modifying the current lineup as that's unfair to those who have already placed.
I am happy to hear that you'll discuss it. I thinks it's fine that Reforged is on ModDB as most of the remaining BFME community probably hangs on this site rather than on IndiDB but this does set a dangerous precedent.
Intense and I will discuss rulings for future events where game-like mods/fangames listed as mods will potentially make honourable mention instead of formal placement on the list. We will consider some nuance and the cut-off point further before reaching a conclusion, but whilst this is a grey area, I hear the concerns that these awards should generally not be grey areas. We had no intention and have no wish for conventional mods to be playing second-fiddle, so no precedent is being set. It is worth noting that very conventional mods also placed well on this list, so no spirit of the ceremony is being lost here.
Will you be making a public blog post about the result of this discussion?
To be clear, I NEVER even accused the awards of being rigged. I stated it FEELS rigged and it still does. There is a difference.
Far as nepotism, well yes, honestly I do believe this is blatant nepotistic. It is also not the first time nepotism in a DBolical Awards ceremony has happened.
2015 IOTY Awards saw Rocket League placed 5th in the Indie of the Year accolade. A professionally-developed and published AAA game made by a subsidiary of Epic Games, a Fortune 1000 company responsible for making arguably the 'best' game engine franchise on the planet, the Unreal Engines.
Indiedb.com
The Awards policy even forbids such projects from participating:
Indiedb.com
Here is the one from 2015:
Indiedb.com
I was skeptical of the awards then for that reason, but at least it seemed to be a one-off occurrence.
Now here we are again, only this time, 2 confirmed indie games on this list. Trench Foot devs even promote their project as an indie game, usually via the #indiedev hash tag on Twitter.
I.gyazo.com
I.gyazo.com
While its possible the other two GZDoom projects may also be indies, there is no confirmation that they are in fact standalone indie projects, GZDoom still can be used for modding id Tech 1 games so for now, we can only assume they are mods until a change proving otherwise occurs.
The greatest folly is a fangame that does not even use a game base to begin with.
I'm not asking nor demanding you to adjust your listings. If you don't want to, that is fine and within your right. However regardless, the results of this year's awards, combined with other decisions (like for instance, the fact that staff and creators of projects can no longer be downvoted, a change that apparently happened silently under our noses, or at least I never knew about this change until this year.) has left a very grim and depressing concern for the future of DBolical.
As a veteran member of this community of nearly 14 years, I am honestly depressed to see this once-fantastic site changing arguably for the worst, even before my very eyes.
Also, it appears my comment on YouTube has been nixed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mXn9RVoR3w
Invisible to the public. Only to visible to myself. This usually happens when either YouTube marks me as spam for some reason, or I am blocked from the channel.
https://i.gyazo.com/f640dadadd83e664b091b9bf2de0760d.png
https://i.gyazo.com/47de2f20e7654c14a6c6c8c95b69db9e.png
Mind explaining why is that?
No comment was deleted nor is a comment held for review, so it appears it was removed automatically for spam. I have left seemingly innocuous comments on videos before only to see them removed by the system so this wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
I will not be addressing the rest of your comment at this time. Refer to my response above for the relevant points.
I also agree with rest people here. The fact that Battle for Middle-Earh Reforged is registered on moddb as mod for bfme 1 game is mistake on moddb moderators side. This project should not be able to enter the contest in the first place , no matter what people think about it. Hopefully this situation will be corrected.
I am agreeing with the other critics here. Please change at least now the status of those projects, away from being in the mod category to the indie games, so that we won't have that problem in the next years. Even a honourable mentioning is not correct, they are not mods.
Fangames based on so-called 'AAA' IPs do not and should not belong on IndieDB either. Most big enough companies in recent years jumped on the indie bandwagon just because it is in vogue, so even the 'indie' label itself lost most of its meaning anyway.
Triple A IP or no (is BFME that still nowadays?), the Reforged team is very much an independent team.
imo the best place for them would be as an actual game category on ModDB - once it's actually been released or indicates a playable release-window.
@Feilyne I find that questionable. Last I checked, fangames had no problem co-existing on IndieDB in the 2010s, considering plenty of them beyond just Renegade X have existed and the staff and editor had no qualms with them so long as the IP owner did not contacted your company (at the time was known as DesuraNET, If I'm not mistaken) about copyright infringement of that fan-project, in which case it would have to be taken down.
Far as my memory, The original editor and one of the founders of this site, Henley has told me this on Steam or Skype (I forgot which by now) when discussing concerns on whether my fangame can exist on the site and why I was struggling with user traffic.
The only penalty my game had was that it was ineligible for Desura platform and of course I am strictly forbidden to make commerce of any kind (for obvious copyright reasons). All of which were totally fine for me so long as I was able to pursue my passion and fandom.
If I may jump in, in case of He Came From Beyond, you need to have Doom 2 as the base game - it's a mod. Back in the day it used to be called a total conversion, which is a sub-type of mod. I think that's a good metric to judge if anything is a mod or not - is it standalone or not.
Nacho, this topic of discussion is valid and merits looking into, David is doing that, they will be adapting next year. It's fine. Nobody is censoring you, nobody is rigging an online popularity competition for fan created content, that doesn't even have that much at stake, like some big money prize or something like that, and no mods are being entirely overlooked, because all of the other contenders are in the top 100 anyways.
I understand the passion, but stop overreacting, it's fine. You've done something here, now save the fervor for the bigger issues in the games industry, and the world at large, because this situation has been dealt with.
"Nobody is censoring you". Except, something WAS censoring me.
My old comment still has not been greenlit from the spam filter (I reckon it was probably filtered for spam):
I.gyazo.com
So I had to repost it.
___
No one here is overreacting either. Stop making rash assumptions about me. Fact here is two indie games (fan-made or not), have won on the Top 10 listings of the awards in category solely-designed for mods, worse-off a full-fledged game that apparently was never a mod to begin with (as proven by the creator whom now retracted his comment to cover-up). Calling out the behavior is not an overreaction, it is a matter of duty and diligence to expose anomalies like this in such an important event. Given the nature of the other comments and the Discord server, seems many others are on the same or similar stance. They are unhappy with what has come of the MOTY Awards this year.
And please spare me the old' "there's bigger issues in the games industry, and the world at large!" excuse. I honestly no longer care about that ugly new manifestation you call a "gaming" industry. I stopped respecting it since the previous decade. Neither do I care about the outside world and all its cancerously depressing elements. That's why this gaming world existed in the first place; an escape from such nightmares and a place to heal, relax, and enjoy games/mods. Or at least that is what it used to be...
Neither has ANYTHING to do with the conflict of interest that occurred in this year's awards (and 2015's as well).
As I said earlier. If your staff do not wish to change the results, fine. I personally care not (though several others beyond me do). It still does not change or discredit my criticisms on this awards ceremony, nor will it restore my faith in this website.
Also a side notice regarding censorship: It is indeed happening already on their Discord server. Kralich has deleted the comments of fellow veteran modder (of 13 years) Mathijs, also an award winner of the previous MOTY Awards, simply for disagreeing with the placements and how the Lead Editor of DBolical is just not giving a **** about it, and playing plausible deniability all the way through. I've watched that entire ordeal unfold before my eyes.
I.gyazo.com
I.gyazo.com
Or, maybe, they were deleted because this small issue, that does merit criticism, has been transformed into something completely out of proportion, as if it was a child slavery scandal or something of the sort. The issue that the moderators may have with what you're saying is probably not the criticism itself, but how silly this whole thing has turned out, it could have been said once, in a few short words, instead you've taken a personal issue with anything that is said in response, and for what?
Like, for real, if you're so tired of dealing with the offline stuff, then why are you putting yourself in this position? They heard you, you got it, you reached someone, you've made your case, the day is won and things will change. If this keeps up, after they've already said "yeah, you're right", at some point it actually turns into harassment. Like... move on.
What was truly won? What victory?!? Yeah Kralich merely stated he and his team will get their act together and ensure a fiasco like this won't happen again. Yet, not actually fix the current one that already happened (and I am certain there is still time to correct it). All we have to rely on from Kralich is his mere word that frankly can't be trusted.
This act of nepotism has already happened twice in ModDB history now. Neither cases have been corrected on the time it happened. Who is to say, it won't probably happen again next year, 2 years, or 5 years from now, (perhaps a full decade if lucky) with no corrections to error?
Matthijs' response was warranted. This situation is already a serious matter. How very disingenuous of you to try to compare this to a sex slavery scandal. Why must caring and deeply valuing traditions and integrity of a website and community you loved, contributed, and supported for over a decade have to match the seriousness of an Epstein or Fogel-style scandal just to be justified?
Look mate. its clear now this site has lost all integrity and credibility. These awards mean nothing to me now. They're honestly a joke now. Aside from perhaps archiving works here (if no other better alternative), I think I'm about done with this site. Yes mate, I'm moving on.
Enjoy your new DBolical. When they're ready to truly care for it's people again, you can find me in GameJolt, Itch, or Discord.
I told them earlier, guess they didn't bother updating it and let it win best upcoming "mod".
I thank the community for 4th place. :)
Good job guys, happy holidays to everyone.
Surprised Entropy Zero 2 is merely an honourable mention, both their take on HL lore and chances to gameplay were very cool in original, and this sequel looks even moreso promising.
Honourable mention is given to mods that either already placed in a previous year and wouldn't have placed higher than a previous placement this year, or for mods that didn't receive enough votes to place but still received a substantial support. In the case of EZ2 they placed in last year's awards at 3rd and so would've had to have placed 2nd or 1st this year to be featured on the list again. It is a great mod, though, and I'm sure they'll do pretty well in the Released category when the time comes!
Congrats to everyone!
Why is "The Battle for Middle-Earth: Reforged" qualified to be voted for this? That is not a mod, it's an indie game made on a different engine.
Why has reforged won best upcoming mod, when it isn't a mod at all?
Congratulations to all of the mods here! I am so happy to see Command & Conquer and Bannerlord represented in the top mods. =D
I am really sorry that a non-mod has been entered here when it should have entered somewhere else.
BFME:Reforged winning best upcoming mod makes as little sense as 'Starcraft2: Mass-Recall' being called a SC:Broodwars mod. Reforged is being made from scratch in U4, not in bfme's SAGE, it's a painful stretch to call it a "modification".
This ought to be revaluated. No disrespect for Reforge Devs, but I don't think their indi game belongs in the "mod" category.
I second this, one can call it’s game whatever it likes but definition of what mod is, is very well defined.
You can call your phone a banana but it will not stop being a phone…
Hi - we have read and considered all of the concerns above. We will evaluate rulings for next year's awards and consider a different approach to how placements are awarded. However, for this year's awards, we will not be adjusting the positioning of the winners. Congratulations to all winners of both Best Upcoming and Best Released, and thank you to everyone who participated in the voting this year. We hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to 2022!
That's a big mistake on your part. This unwillingness to recognize what started out as a simple oversight and do the obvious right thing is very disappointing and it has cheapened this whole competition, not just for me, but for lots of other modders that have been watching this unfold.
You cannot hold a modding competition and then proclaim something that is not a mod to be the winner and expect the competition to be taken seriously. It's a disgrace, quite frankly.
I see you've deleted my comments on the Discord after I left. They were not inflammatory, they were not insulting - they stated my opinion and summed up the facts of this situation. You're just making this worse and further ruining your website's reputation by behaving this way.
I've been a contributing member to this website since 2009, my team has actually won Mod of the Year, and I've always tried to be helpful and constructive during my interactions with this place and its staff.
This is honestly saddening. I'm not going to say anything further - I'm starting to fear for my own mods' profiles if I don't start shutting up soon.
Okay, here's the full picture - after my final comment regarding not changing the line-up, you left some messages in the Discord (just before leaving the Discord itself), and because you didn't remain to discuss, I removed them; however, I acknowledge that this was an expression of concern whether I agreed with how it was expressed or not, and should not have removed it. After the sheer amount of work it has taken to get these awards off the ground - for my first time running them rather than simply taking part with my own mods - I've been very on edge because of the response, and it hasn't necessarily led to me making the right calls along the way. I apologise if you don't feel listened to - I've headlined Age of the Ring many times for its quality, and I don't begrudge anyone an opportunity to express opinions.
We don't want to modify the current line-up because, ultimately, it is democratic, even if the options for that democracy were in error this year. I also feel it would be unfair to snatch away an award from a victor. We will be incorporating changes into the ruling for next year and I will personally be much more vigilant in trying to capture edge cases before they hit the line-up.
I have nothing but love for this site. My own mods have placed in MOTY for years and I have been modding for most of my life, which is why I've been working so hard to give this community the support it deserves over the seven months I've been working here so far. I will continue to work my hardest to give creators what they deserve, and will make sure next year's MOTY reflects the dedication present at every level of the modding community.
I appreciate everyone's expression of concerns - this really is my last take on the subject for now. Please feel free to continue the discussion as I will still be tracking responses for some suggestions on how to progress into next year. Happy new year, everyone.
It's not democracy if the playing field is so extremely uneven.
And it *is* uneven, because Reforged has always advertised itself as an UE4 remake of a beloved franchise - never, ever a BFME mod - and as a result has received the sort of media attention that (most) mods can only distantly dream of. I can list the articles, the massive Youtube channels advertising their project, all centered around them **not** being a mod, but they're a quick Google search away.
I understand that it sucks that the results of the competition are faulty. It's not fun to have to deal with this stuff, it's a bother for everyone involved - staff and competitors alike. But beyond that, nothing stopped you or others at ModDB from *clearly* acknowledging the basic facts of the situation and making the necessary adjustments to return to fairness for the rest of the competitors. I'm pretty sure that the community would have been far more understanding of a post-hoc correction than just letting it stand. That would've been the correct course of action, and it's glaringly obvious.
This whole situation is kinda disappointing, because it proves that the winning mods don’t get that much recognition from it as one might think. I know Player’s choice only depends on people’s voting, but the fact that no one bothered to figure out an obvious thing about the nominee kinda lowers the value of victory from my point of view. It all started to seem fake, if you know what I mean. It’s not like I’m upset about the “Fremen” pronunciation, but I started to believe that Top 100 and Editors’ choice are much better to get featured in. My 2 cents
I really don't understand this, they're not a mod. They should not have won the best upcoming mod award when there are ACTUAL mods that deserved that spot. Like, you guys ****** up and you can't admit that you did except by some vapid corporate ******** response. They themselves have even said that they are not a mod. I don't get it.
Embarrassing
A bit surprised to see a 'non-mod' win 'Best Upcoming mod'