Making a Mod - Best Practices - Revision history

Darkfire: /* Online Presence */ minor

2021-12-08T12:50:21Z

Online Presence: minor

Darkfire: /* Compete With Gameplay and Story */ removed off-topic rambling and refactored the important data

2021-12-08T12:47:07Z

Compete With Gameplay and Story: removed off-topic rambling and refactored the important data

TiMan at 19:57, 27 August 2020

2020-08-27T19:57:59Z

TiMan at 19:57, 27 August 2020

2020-08-27T19:57:53Z

TiMan: /* See also */

2020-08-27T19:56:40Z

TiMan at 19:56, 27 August 2020

2020-08-27T19:56:19Z

Darkfire: /* Collaboration */ Moved to another article, left a blurb

2020-07-31T18:27:34Z

Collaboration: Moved to another article, left a blurb

Darkfire: /* Mod Design */ De-verbosing

2020-07-31T17:05:05Z

Mod Design: De-verbosing

Darkfire: /* Setting up a Scrum Board */ Gramatical fixes

2020-07-31T16:47:38Z

Setting up a Scrum Board: Gramatical fixes

Darkfire: /* Online Presence */ minor lang correction

2020-07-30T14:00:35Z

Online Presence: minor lang correction

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 You will most likely start sharing your creations before the mod is published. It is recommended to make sure you have something to show off before you create mod pages. Therefore, you should prepare a set of media to preview the mod, as well as coming up with an intriguing description to catch the eye. All of these should make you stay relevant for some amount of time at the very least.
-You will receive feedback and criticism from other users or from your own team about your work. It's important to accept and learn from them, instead of denying, attacking or ignoring such feedback. You grow all the time during development, and your online presence will be affected by how you react to feedback and criticism.
+You will receive feedback and criticism from other users or from your own team about your work. It's important to accept and learn from them, instead of denying, attacking or ignoring such feedback. You grow all the time during development, and your mod's success will be affected by how you react to feedback and criticism.
 ''Main article: [[Online_Presence|Online Presence]]''

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 <!--Switched the section order to flow more naturally-->
 ===Compete With Gameplay and Story===
-Do not just focus on recreating what was done in the base game, try to be creative. Your mod doesn't even have to be same genre as the base game! Make mods with interesting story and gameplay rather than making them long.
+Remember that most mods cannot compete on a complexity and scale level with commercial products. They were made by teams of artists and developers with years of experience. It can take years to make a mod that has 30% the amount of content that the base games have. Instead of making big mods with dozens of maps, try to come up with engaging gameplay and a story that will be shorter but effective.
 ==Managing development==

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← Older revision		Revision as of 19:57, 27 August 2020
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 Good luck!
 [[Category:Modding]]
 [[Category:English]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:56, 27 August 2020
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 ===Collaboration===
-That said, do not assume working in a team is always easier than working alone; there are upsides and downsides.
+You will need to decide if you are going to work in a team or not. This will influence the scope of the project, so it is be done when starting a mod. A team can of course be brought on after working alone for some time, but that comes with additional challenges.
-'''Upsides:'''
+Working on a mod alone is entirely possible, but working in a team will make it much more bearable. That said, do not assume working in a team is always easier than working alone; there are upsides and downsides. Having a team requires managing it and making sure work is actually getting done, which is a considerable challenge.
 {{Idea|If you are going to work in a team, '''make sure to create the mod idea together.''' An unfortunately popular phenomenon is people joining a team, getting a sneak-peek at the mod and losing interest. '''Creating the mod premise together can help keep the members invested.'''}}
-Your first instinct might be to invite anyone who wants to help - however, a good practice is to keep the team small. Adding more people to the team does not mean more work will get done. The more people you have, the more time gets spent managing them.
+'''Remember, even having someone to only give you feedback is very helpful.''' Furthermore, participating in public discussions about modding can help you and others learn. This can be done in the modding channels on [https://discord.com/invite/frictionalgames the Frictional Games Discord server]. Share your work and ask questions!
-'''Remember, if you can't get people to work on your mod, even having someone to only give you feedback is very helpful.''' Furthermore, participating in public discussions about modding can help you and others learn. This can be done in the modding channels on [https://discord.com/invite/frictionalgames the Frictional Games Discord server]. Share your work and ask questions!
+''Main article: [[Efficient_Teamwork | Efficient Teamwork]]''
 ==Mod Design==

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 ==Mod Design==
-One of the most useful questions you can ask yourself is "Why should someone play my mod?" It's a hard question, but if you can answer it well, you're on the right track. Think about what other mods are out there, and what they offer. Does your mod offer something new to the players? Is what you offer enough to interest players who are busy playing other mods? Even if you cannot answer these questions, just thinking about it will probably help you come up with ideas.
+Ask yourself "Why should someone play my mod?". It's a hard question, but if you can answer it well, your mod design has good potential. Think about what other mods are out there, and what they offer. Does your mod offer something new to the players? Is what you offer enough to interest players? Even if you cannot answer these questions, just thinking about it will probably help you come up with ideas.
 ===Understand the Engine===
-You really should read the documentation of the game you want to mod.
+You should really read the documentation of the game you want to mod.
 By doing that,  you will learn two important things:<br>
-What things you can do with the engine and how to do them so they work well. There will be multiple ways to achieve what you want to create, but sometimes only one way will be a good way to do it (without code problems, affecting the performance too much, and other risky stuff). Reading the documentation will also ensure you are not recreating something that is already in the engine and is much easier to use.
+What things you can do with the engine and how to do them so they work well. There will be multiple ways to achieve what you want, but sometimes only one will work without code problems, affecting the performance too much, and other risky stuff. Reading the documentation will also ensure you are not recreating something that is already in the engine and is much easier to use.
 <!--Switched the section order to flow more naturally-->
 ===Compete With Gameplay and Story===
-Do not just focus on recreating what was done in the base game, try to be creative and make mods with interesting story and gameplay. Your mod doesn't even have to be same genre as the base game!
+Do not just focus on recreating what was done in the base game, try to be creative. Your mod doesn't even have to be same genre as the base game! Make mods with interesting story and gameplay rather than making them long.
-This is especially important when talking about horror games; the issue with them is that horror won't work when being repeated. It is hard to make something truly scary using the assets and techniques which the players got accustomed to in the main game.  This is why horror games usually introduce new enemies and settings after a few hours of playing.
+Creativity is especially important when talking about horror games; the issue with them is that repetition ruins horror. It is hard to make something truly scary when reusing the assets and techniques which the players got accustomed to in the main game. This is why horror games usually introduce new enemies and settings after a few hours of playing.
-That being said, it is perfectly okay to recreate what the base game did, and your first project will probably need to do that before you learn what you can do with the engine. However, you can still craft a unique story, and as you learn the engine, try to think of new things you can do with it and incorporate them into the mod. This especially applies to level design; You quite likely will be mostly using the assets which come with the game, so try and use them in a creative way.
+That being said, it is perfectly okay to recreate what the base game did, and your first project will probably need to do that before you learn the engine. However, you can still craft a unique story, and as you learn, try to think of new things you can do with the engine and incorporate them into the mod. This especially applies to level design; Quite likely you will be mostly using the assets which come with the game, so try and use them in a creative way.
 <!--Remember that most mods cannot compete on a content level (maps, models, sounds, etc) with commercial products. They've got teams of artists with years of experience behind them.-->
 <!-- The above is kinda redundant after the previous paragraph so remade it into the following:-->
-Remember that most mods cannot compete on a complexity and scale level with commercial products. They've got teams of writers and artists with years of experience behind them. It will be very hard to tell a story with lots of characters and developing them when making a mod. Instead, try to come up with a story that will be shorter but effective.
+Remember that most mods cannot compete on a complexity and scale level with commercial products. They were made by teams of writers and developers with years of experience. It will be very hard to tell a story with lots of characters and developing them when making a mod. Instead, try to come up with a story that will be shorter but effective.
 ==Managing development==

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 ===Setting up a Scrum Board===
-In short, a scrum board is a board used for keeping track the team's development progress. It is used for:
+In short, a scrum board is a group of lists used for keeping track of the team's development progress. It is used for:
 *Creating tasks