Hello there, this is SellFace and I'm here to announce that I'm a total failure as a solo sourcemodder.
Fremen's Foes, or Hunt Down The Fremen in it's original name, was my first attempt at creating a HL2 modification back in 2019. After releasing the Original version I came to conclusion that my mapping sucks too much and I had to improve it. This is how the Redux version development started back in December 2020.
So I spent months working hard on turning basic and ugly levels from first 2 chapters into something decent. Of course I realised how hard and difficult level design actually is.
Day after day, for about 1.5 years, I had been living with this project in my soul. The more time I spent working on FFR, the worse my average productivity became. I was living in this constant cycle of motivational issues, when I was trying my best to force myself to Just. Keep. Going. Forward. But most of the time I just ended up procrastinating on mapping, avoiding it. Then, usually, after not doing anything for a long time my mind would just snap and I actually would spend about 0.5-2 hours in map editor doing god knows what. Of course the end result always was the disappointment leading to dreadful fear of trying again.
And I kept giving fake promises to myself like "I will work on it" or "I'll just wait for weekends". But when actual weekends came I was being empty on the inside, not knowing what to do, because everything was seeming pointless.
Long story short, I can't work on this project anymore. I'm releasing the latest Dev Build, which pretty much doesn't have anything interesting, unless you're gonna be digging and examining every file inside. It has few iterations of that city map I demonstrated in previous articles, but I think most of them are broken or incomplete. Besides, the archive also contains all source vmf files of all maps. So you're free to fiddle with them, do anything you want, incase if you include any assets in your works, make sure to credit me.
If you're here to download and play something, there's still the playable ~2 hour demo version. If you don't mind poor quality, you can also try the Hunt Down The Fremen 2020.
During my development journey many unpleasant things happened that made it more difficult for me to do mods. I carelessly did a cathartic project, then had beef with certain part of community, local friend drama. I graduated from school and got into some crappy university, lost contact with irl school friends. So I found myself being alone and hopeless in new student life and none of that helps my self-hate for being unproductive and lazy. I also got kicked from a community I like, for the above mentioned carelessly made cathartic project.
I want to apologise to everyone who had been anticipating and following this project. I gave lots of promises that I couldn't fulfill. And I swear, I tried everything to make this project be finished. But currently my motivation is so low, I'm both physically and mentally unable to do even the simplest mapping. On one hand I was desperate to finish it, I had hopes that the release day will eventually come. But on the other hand I was also desperate to just forget about it, to put an end to everything about it and just let go. I was basically having mood swings every damn week. The only thing that always kept me away from cancelling FFR, was the fact that I don't want the existing work to go down the drain.
But this day, when my motivation is so low to the point of questioning purpose of my life, I had to take the hardest decision I ever had to take in modding. I had to simply let it go, despite all.
I'm sorry for disappointing everyone who expected the better from me. I apologise to people who were willing to help me with the development.
Thanks to everyone who played FFR or paid attention to it's development.
Can you release all assets as well? so that your hard work could be used by others
They are in the devbuild.
Damn! It's a shame the Redux will never be completed, but I get it and I empathize with the **** you're going through. And at least we got Hunt down the Fremen, the Director's Cut, and an awesome demo for the Redux. Good luck with your future endeavors, Mr. Sellface!
dont worry brother! i didnt even have the courage to admit half the things you said! its better this way, the decision you made its for your own good. we surely understand, and you had no obligations to make for free a mod for us.
we will move on, and appreciate your sincerirty and your work till now.
stay safe!
Ouch man, it sounds like you gotta focus more on yourself then the mod. If a project is causing you this much pain then whats the point in enduring it?
This was a good decision if you ask me and while it probably filled you with dread writing out this announcement, perhaps it was also liberating in a way.
That being said, obviously we are our worst critics, but there was a MAJOR uptick in quality thanks to your intention on focusing on improving your mapping skills between releases.
Thank you for releasing the current dev build, and take all the time in the world getting yourself back on your feet :)
Thanks for comment, ̶M̶a̶x̶ ̶P̶a̶y̶n̶e̶ I mean kyrii. Indeed it was a good, but also the hardest decision I ever took in modding.
Perhaps I'll come back with something new in future, but for now I'm already occupied with life stuff I gotta get through first.
I appreciate your dedication to being an active moddb member for years. Regular commenters like you do help modders stay strong on their journeys.
That sad, but honestly thanks for this inspirative content you did. Maybe it was a too massive project for single person.
I hope, that its not end of your creative art. I hope, that sometimes source-dev-emotions will call you back to do any experimental project with unique game mechanics like "Modding Bleeds".