Online Presence

You will most likely start sharing your creations before the mod is published. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Learn to Take Criticism

When sharing your work online and with your team, you will eventually receive feedback, positive or negative. If someone did not like what you made, or suggested how to make it better, there is no reason to get upset. Take constructive criticism to heart, and ignore malicious comments (i.e. don't reply back). How to tell them apart? Good feedback will usually give you hints on what you have to improve. Bad feedback will only say that something is bad.

Taking suggestions from other people doesn't make you less of a person, quite the opposite.

Remember - no matter how harsh, criticism has the purpose of improving your work and its reception further down the line. Think about it like this: You can fix something and improve it now and for the whole mod, or face the same criticism when the mod gets published and after you have already committed to the mistake, making it harder to improve.

Unfortunately, lashing out against criticism is a wide-spread phenomenon. Keep in mind it will affect how others perceive you, especially if it happens in your development team.

Mod Pages

Your mod page (Be it on Steam, ModDB or elsewhere) is the main place where people learn about your mod. A neat page shows that you care about your mod and how other see it. Messy or bare-bones pages will discourage playes from downloading your mod. The next sections will give you some hints about making a nice online page for a mod.

Idea: Create mod pages once you have a considerable part of your mod to show off and write about.

Logo

This is an image which will often be the first thing people see about your mod. Make it interesting and unique; try to search for a font that delivers the feeling of your mod. You should try and come up with a unique logo, don't automatically try to copy other logos or make a logo similar in style to the game logo.

Trailer

If you have video editing skills, making a trailer will catch people's attention. Here are some general tips:

• Show the most interesting environments from your mod, but not all of them. Keep some as a secret.
• Avoid popular royalty-free music, it is easily recognized and perceived as cliche.
• Avoid overly bombast slogans (i.e. things you see in AAA game trailers).
• You can take heavy inspiration from other trailers.
• If you have a logo, use it in your video.

Screenshots

Make sure to take screenshots with interesting elements and composition. Consider the Rule of Thirds when capturing screenshots, and be sure to correct them afterwards.

Mod Description

Your mod page should describe precisely what the mod is about and what is the story generally about. A brief description of the story is good, but avoid mentioning key events or anything else that might lead to a spoiler. Do not write long paragraphs that over-describe the features of your mod, it should be kept short as possible.

If you managed to catch someone's attention with your logo, title or catchphrase, the next thing they will do is either see the trailer and screenshots or read the description (depending on the website). Regardless of that order, the description helps to convey any information which couldn't be put in the rest of mentioned techniques. This usually includes the story and certain gameplay features (in HPL usually you can't show them without spoilers, so it's better to describe them instead).

Here are some guidelines to make your description more interesting and encourage people to read it:

• Avoid walls of text. Keep it short, brief, and easy on the eye.
• Put your catchphrase somewhere on the top of the description.
• The shorter the description, the better. Avoid verbose language. That being said, don't cut important and relevant information.
• Use formatting! Titles, bold text, align to center, and so on. Make the text easier to read.
• Use lists as well when describing the features of your mod. They also make the text much easier to read, and can greatly shorten the description.
• If it's possible, use custom CSS to make your page unique. Set a background image, change the font colour, and add any effect which can grab attention.

What's Next

Once you have your mod page set up, try to reach it out to as much people as possible. Share the page links on social media, along with your best screenshot, and publish updates to keep the attention of followers.