In the discussion about mods and sandbox games, Garry’s Mod stands as one of my favorite PC sandbox tools of all time, and a standard bearer for how a mod can become a force all its own in the gaming world. It proved a valuable asset for creating our old Leet World show, and was the primary reason that we felt we could make the series to begin with.
I’m thinking of all of this because Kotaku posted an interview with Garry Newman, the creator of Garry’s Mod, and it’s quite the read. It’s got some really fascinating thoughts, not only about the success of the mod itself (Garry has made quite a bit of money, considering it’s sold over 770,000 units and he gets a cut of each sale), but also about the nature of modding and where it’s going in the future. A brief snippet:
“What’s the difference between someone modding an engine and someone licensing an engine? There’s no difference at all, it’s just what you call it. A mod isn’t just a mod anymore, it’s a game.”
He even talks a little about his interview with Valve. Seriously, this piece is totally worth the read if you’re at all interested in the subject, especially considering where PC modding have come in the last year with its rousing success stories.
So, how many of you guys have played Garry’s Mod? What are some of your other favorites and where do you see PC modding going in the future?
Source – Kotaku
I love Garry’s Mod. I first discovered and bought it when it first came on sale on steam. I loved just messing around and creating a bunch of contraptions. It is the truly the sandbox with the most sand. I’ve used it for everything from making comics to making projects for school. It has evolved so much from when it first came on sale and it has only gotten better and better. I hope that Valve helps Garry out by upping some of the limitations for Garry’s Mod, such as map size and mass npc ai efficiency.
I pretty much see PC modding staying right where it is. Not enough developers release their source code *cough* far cry 2 *cough*. If more developers released their source code their games would have a much longer life span and ultimately make them more money.
Wasn’t this originally free? I remember having it on my old steam account but I would never have payed for this. I had a lot of fun with it, but didn’t really get it at the time. I love seeing what people can pump out with modding tools.
Who in the right mind would post their engine’s source code while it’s still relevant ? I mean, that way other devs can just copy all the useful stuff you have thought out and use it in their engine and there is no way you can stop them. If a project is not open source in the beginning, I don’t see a reason for it to become open source if the developers sell the license of it to other devs (valve, unigine).
Of course, I’d love it if devs would only ask money for the content they create, not the engine on which the content is run on.