Mods Better Than the Real Thing!

January 5, 2013

Happy New Year Gamer Geeks!!

Have you ever heard of mods? Mods are add on game content to an existing game that fans of said game have made using the same game engine. For instance, Skyrim has an amazing Creation Kit which reminds me much of the Unreal (UDK) game engine and you can use the real assets, or content, from the original game to create your own experience. Meaning, you can take their props, buildings, characters, textures, everything and go nuts!! Then, you can submit this mod and other gamers can actually PLAY it!! I’m actually in the process of learning the Skyrim Creation Kit to do just that but its moments like these where everyone can become a game designer. Actually, when Little Big Planet came out and offered level design creation to the gamers, some levels were so amazing that the designer was offered a job…or at least an interview!

Now here’s a mod that I think blows any Jurassic Park game out of the jungle! Check it out and see what I mean. These guys really did an outstanding job and I’d actually really love to play this. I had an opportunity to speak with Robert Oleander, Lead Developer and one of the Project Leaders, this is what he had to say about the project. “Modding is surely opening up [our] creative senses and allows us to realize what imagination renders. I’d say though that we reached a limit with the default content [that] so much of our development time has been learning to produce [our] own content. The mod has existed since 2005 but much [of that] time – half of it I’d say – has been put on learning the engine, animation, modeling, mapping, [and]coding. We always were short on people and had to learn on our own”

I must say, bravo for all that they have accomplished and I look forward to seeing more from Jurassic Life. The game is stunning and there are still some kinks to work out, like the combat look and feel, but Kudos guys!