I've been on a hunt to find how far and wide my project has gone using Google search engines after posting my mod Salvage Storm on Steam Greenlight back in August 2015.
Firstly the community outside moddb and on Greenlight think my mod is crap or garbage and it wasn't close on getting Greenlit. Here are the comments:
... and some constructive comments:
Interestingly enough, as much as I feel punished reading those comments, I think those comments do benefit me and it does help me put their criticism to improve future projects related to Salvage Storm. I thought these comments were 'boring' but then I have to think about why the comments were 'boring', over a mod for a game which people may have grown out of or find 'boring', then maybe I have discovered something.
Those comments are the same kind of comments for games made in the late 90s. That's excatly how users back in the late 90s complained about over a bad video game when they saw one. It's taken me a while to realize that and it has prompted me to move on and make something better! Doesn't mean I'll leave mods alone for Unreal Gold. Just make more and try and beat what I just made and make a better mod.
There's nothing like having a scene in 2015 where gamers are complaining like late 90s gamers therefore I do think I achieved some level of what I wanted from what I've made and released last year.
My thoughts are that it doesn't mean my mod is a failure. It just means that people have been clicking and looking around and they have SOME interest. Now I have to take that feedback and try and find what people simply like about the idea of a mod for Unreal Gold and use that to get out what people want and even everything out and etc. That's me polishing ideas and putting them into the project. That's what I want to know.
On the subject of Steam Greenlight, it turns out there a sub-genre of users who are using that as a place to gather and make their own material and publishing it and they've taken Salvage Storm to present it as a start.
Here's a tweet from someone posting a screenshot of my project.
Then here's the comments!
I actually enjoyed these comments. Someone laughed 'how this Unreal Engine was worth while then Unreal Engine 4', even if it was a little sarcastic. I enjoy watching the outside banter sometimes because it's more awarding seeing people banter when I spark a situation like that. The feedback on how people didn't notice it was a mod for Unreal Gold was much more interesting and got me off caught. That feedback is mine to feed on! *sarcasm*
Someone else video vlogged the same material I've created and uploaded to critique it and uploaded it onto Youtube and tried to pass it off like he played the game himself with the game commentary crowd that's making loads of money out there on Google.
How original is this? They even taglined their series 'Steam Greenlight' to try to make it their own. I mean I could file a copyright claim against him but then that's always a win situation for him, if claim against him. So it doesn't hurt if I just type this part up and post it here for another level of the attention on my own project when I post it here on moddb.com. Welcome to the competitive world of internet based publishing.
Then there's groups on Steam Greenlight which people like to class and etc and there's an infamous group which gathers the worst ideas and Greenlight submissions and puts them on that list. Titled Greenshight. My mod went onto that collection.
As much as doing research helps before releasing a mod, I ran into this situation because I stuck to the plan of making the mod I wanted to make and then the idea of going onto Greenlight came up towards the end of what I wanted to make, so I went to hop into that. Maybe I should of thought carefully about this.
There's those comments that I seem to admire from Steam and then there's this group. Another challenge to find a way to avoid getting onto that group. I don't like it. When it comes to collections, I always present good collections and keep the bad stuff out but people will have that. It is clear that this group was made as a solution to the problem to keep away bad Greenlight submissions that spam Steam Greenlight and to think I've entered that collection really hits me to do something about it.
That's clearly another sign to show how far video games and other mods have got in terms of quality. Modding as been around from the 90s and like video games, expectations are raised on both modding and video games, which I find interesting and have something in common. It's just reaching that level of expectation now.
The good news is that there something that is made so now I can define and add more to the Unreal modding scene which I have planned. It's worth pointing out that I do think Salvage Storm was more of an project of an art form then something that I can put onto Greenlight, which I want to try to even out on this mod or future mods. I will submit them onto Steam Greenlight again when I have something. Stay tuned!!!
