desert-combat posts

Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie.

For the game developer, nothing is more important than the longevity of a game. Will people be playing your opus a year after release? Ten years after release? The answer should be yes, but the ways to extend the life of a game are often overlooked. There are many different methods to add replayability, including multiple story paths, procedurally generated content, and non-linear gameplay. However, the best way, and the one that has ensured the survival of games like Unreal Tournament or Half-Life, is allowing players to fiddle with the content themselves. The more your players can tweak the game, the more they will play it, and that's a lesson all developers should take to heart.

Breaking into the video game industry isn't easy, but one great way to make an impression to create mods for existing games. Indeed there have been one or two occasions where a mod of a game has become more popular than the game it's based on. Valve has been a champion of these kinds of mods and games and has even bought a number of them into their fold to be released as commercial titles.

While technically their next game Left 4 Dead is an all original property the zombie co-op shooter has the spirit of a mod that was later made into a full game. In this feature we look back at both mods and mod teams that have move on to make some terrific first person shooter style titles including, yes, a number of Valve games.

Click on the image above to continue reading the feature article