Hey all - David from DBolical here. I'm going to start doing these sort of weekly blog posts regarding a few highlights and important bits of work from my last week of working on the site. These aren't going to be too long or too refined, but they'll be an opportunity for you to see what I'm up to, what's coming next, and give feedback on the previous week's work.
Busy Week
First off, I wasn't on duty all five days last week - Monday was a bank holiday and Thursday I was graduating (would you believe they got my degree wrong in the yearbook? I didn't until I saw it). I did a little bit of catching up on the weekend, but for the most part I scheduled many many headlines throughout the week to make sure I wasn't behind. The new The Old Realms (formerly The Old World) update was really nice to see, and I also wanted to congratulate HedonDev on a new release, Bloodrite, for their mod-turned-standalone-game, Hedon. Both were notable standouts last week, though as ever, if something gets headlined, it's because it stood out to me in some way! I did five for IndieDB and five for ModDB in one day last week - 10 in total for Tuesday to account for the rest of the week's absences.
Editorials, Editorials, Editorials?
Part of what I'm trying to get going in the new role is regular editorials - covering industry news relevant to ModDB or IndieDB, whilst taking the opportunity to plug a few nice bits of community content on the sites. Last week, I whipped up an editorial about CDPR's modder recruitment.
I've played a fair bit of Witcher 3, though I like the idea of the game more than the game itself, funnily enough. Something about a game being that large makes it hard to pick up and play, given how little time I have for playing games these days. I like short, snappy experiences generally - but every so often I progress just a little bit further in Witcher 3, when I feel like losing an hour or two to its vast open world. I haven't played Cyberpunk 2077 and will reserve my thoughts on that, but it's always a good move for companies to pick up modders. They're reliable sources of workers already familiar with an engine's workflow, and it's oftentimes pretty good for the modders, too.
YouTube - Then and Next
Last week, we rebranded the YouTube to take into account the wider DBolical brand. It wouldn't surprise me if people didn't know DBolical was the overarching company in charge of both ModDB and IndieDB, and the rebranding is a bit of an effort to turn that around. In addition, it gives us a good excuse to post IndieDB content like trailers, too - speaking of, don't forget you can submit your own trailers, though it's not just the ModDB YouTube after all. Special thanks goes to Thibault Testart over at Mod.io, who helped advise me on banners and then whipped up this fun little call-back to the mascots of DBolical's past:
Next on my plate is another video, though the last few weeks have been hectic enough that it's not likely to come out this Friday on schedule. Expect it the following Friday instead - it'll be focused around mods that are good fun with friends (so mostly multiplayer mods, with an emphasis on co-op play, too). One of the mods I'm featuring is The Clone Wars: Revised, which I'm looking really forward to covering.
The mod's got a lovely style overhaul and considering how important The Clone Wars was to my childhood, it's really satisfying to see all these assets in-game.
Modding, Always Modding
Of course, I'm a modder too - and worked on all my various projects over the last week and the weekend, too. Whilst I spent a lot of time working on content for my Half-Life mods (content I'd prefer to keep under wraps for the time being), I did also pursue a little tangent in learning how to mod Warblade.
I'll go into full depth when I ship the mod, but in short, it'll be using content intended for the sequel that was never finished due to the unfortunate death of the creator, Edgar Vigdal. I've obtained the blessing of Edgar's colleague at the time of his death, Simon Quincey, to create the mod, and it is almost complete. It might well feature in the next blog post as a result.
Wrapping Up
That about sums up the important stuff over the last week. As per usual, every day was also full of dealing with support tickets, sorting out the headlines, and the usual suspects. Next week, expect some news about editorials, progress on the video, and how this Warblade mode shaped up after all.
