Making this MOD has always been about a labour of love for me but regardless of how much I enjoy doing this, the reality is it cannot be sustained as a full time exercise.
My original idea for this project was to produce a high quality demo to spearhead a Kickstarter campaign to pay for my time to make more content. I am sure most people are going WTF this is a MOD, you can't sell this stuff!
MODs have traditionally been about free stuff, but I thought that people would love to see new content professional done for Quake and the idea of the Kickstarter campaign would be about paying for my time, not selling finished content. The plan was to let backers influence content like for example adding extra routes and secrets to the developing maps. The final release was going to be free, it was the process of creation that was going to benefit.
The Start Map - The Temple of Swords
I spent a long time creating the content for the demo to hopefully highlight to people what sort of quality level to expect in the future. I made sure the environments were rich in details, consistently textured and the AI was fun to play against. The maps were designed for both stealth and vanilla gameplay and were finely balanced to take advantage of a dynamic skill system. I had hoped that the quality of the demo would gain plenty of interest but sadly the Quake community is really small and mostly like an extended family rather than a serious fanbase anymore.
Lord Aramis the Destroyer
I thought that a MODdb page would hopefully spread the word about what I was trying to do and I spent over a month writing articles, listening to feedback and trying to gain interest, but it highlighted one major problem, very few people have the original game anymore. Probably the lowest point was emailing lots of internet news/magazine sites and getting absolutely no replies. I thought it was a quake thing (game over 15 years old and not looking like the latest GFX candy) but this is not the case, they do report quake news but not this MOD.
Bonus Map - Stealth Gate
Sadly the financial pressures of life insist I move on to other projects and this means that this MOD is finished, the released demo is the final release. I still have a couple more articles to write about the various features of the MOD and will add them over the coming weeks. I do plan to release the source materials for the MOD, but I need to sort through all the stuff I created first.
I hope everyone who downloaded the MOD had some fun with it and maybe this MOD will inspire everyone to give Quake and stealth games a try in the future!
Damn - If I knew I would have helped you out!
Try the Unreal Development Kit - You have the modeling skills to be a great artist and the UDK can help you become a industry Pro.
If you pick this up as a commercial project let me know.
Simonoc.com
Thanks
He actualy is a industry pro.
aw this is really sad. one of the best and most professional mods iv seen for quake since i had joined the community. but iv had this discussion a lot. mods are just dead... when i first got into the pc gaming community i was so overwhelmed by how many mods there were and how great they all looked. but no one develops for mods and not many (enough) are around to back them anymore. the new mod scene is indie development. you'd probably do better with udk,source,or unity.
The problem with the Quake MOD scene is most new players don't own the game anymore. At least with the indie route you can supply the whole package and not have to rely on any existing software requirements.
Hey Simon,
I still think that there is an audience for this kind of style which is even big enough to support you via kickstarter, but I dont really know how you can get their attention, unfortunately.
I think you just need to give people more time to get aware of your project.
When I saw your Mod for the first time I was like: "Wow, this got alot of character to it,
best Mod I saw for a long time."
I think this particular artstyle can celebrate a big comeback,
if it can live long enough to get noticed.
I would totally pay for the finished game,
and so it saddens me that you are forced to move on to other work.
Well, thank you for the Demo it is alot of fun. :)
This is the problem, trying to get this mod noticed is just a constant uphill struggle. Without a lucky break or an industry contact (journalist) this MOD is too far off the radar of most people. Making this MOD was a lot of fun for me, but it is time to cut my loses and move on to another project.
Heyo! I'm a game journalist working for GameFront, and I'm interested in talking to you about getting this mod some coverage. Hit me up at dragonmaw@gmail.com.
You can see my work by searching for James Murff at GameFront.
Do not worry about industry contacts or journalists - Post on some forums and say here is my game play it!
Tell me what you think! I have found that if it ain't the next company of heroes or Mojang game. People will not care. Which is sad. Indies should get more space. Currently we have IndieDB and ModdBD which ain't a whole lot if you think about it. But things will change for the better I hope.
I would pay for such a mod hell even a game like this would be awesome!
Simonoc - You have something awesome on your hands. Do not give it up! I know a few people that might be willing to contribute financially to a game like this! It wont be a whole lot. But it will be enough to give you a boost.
Thanks!
Why not just ditch the mod idea & make it standalone?
This, the mod is one the best games I've played in a long time, it was just so fantastic even for a demo. I've been bored with games for quite a while now but I enjoyed this from beginning to demo's end.
I'm sad to never be able to play the rest of the game and I hope you may turn this into a serious standalone project some day.
Yes you can use OpenQuartz content to make a standalone without the need to own original Quake data.
The MOD was designed to work within the Quake universe and to make this standalone would require a new set of art assets. Part of the reason I picked Quake was my love of the original art style, it would be a shame to let that go.
if this mod does started getting some notice do you think you'll consider working on it again? :C
An interesting question and something I have not considered. After weeks of marketing and lack of responses from large internet site I thought it would be better to let everyone know what was happening. It certainly would be ironic that when I decide to stop working on the mod it gets noticed!
Well, the mod isn't that old. First post about it in August just before/during Quakecon, first release in December. Making news during Quakecon could of gotten it shoved to the back as QC is normally the big news at the time. News on the front page of moddb can, at times, be up for an hour or so before it gets bumped off (depending on how much is qued up).
I'd say don't give up and I'd still stand with the idea of going standalone by replacing all the assets slowly. Then whatever you don't use don't bother including them.
The problem is I don't know what the press really thinks of the MOD, ultimately they are the gatekeepers to the larger audience. I would love to know why it is not popular so I can fix it, but that is often not possible.
or he could still use a regular quake engine, replace quake textures make own models and release just how he had planned. retro is very big at least in the indie scene right now. im also pretty positive this would do better as an indie project vs a mod. how ever i'm pretty sure for him to sell it he'd have to use a scratch QC base rather than prog1.6
I have gradually been replacing the art assets from Quake with newer versions and it amazing how many models there are just in an old game like Quake.
yeah, i agree. iv had thoughts to make a better version of open quartz and there is a ton of content to replace. about your work replacing the content. just because you replace the content doesnt mean you have to change the style. art style is that, a specific style of art, id love to see original art work in the same style of quakes.
I only need to replace some sounds for the knights and I can run this MOD with the shareware version of Quake, which is free to download. The engine has been released under GPL and I can add my own security check for this MOD, which will not interfere with the existing checks for registered assets. Maybe this might help with people wanting to play this MOD.
I loved the style and look and partly the gameplay. It seemed interesting, but your demo was lacking any story or bakcground elements to keep the viewer interested. It was a technical demo, which is sure what it was supposed to be. However, it might not have been enough to wow everyone.
I applaud you for the effort, I thought this was a great project, though Q4 isn't the best game to mod for, these days. I love the look, though.