CISC 105: Intro to Game Modding

Our Goals for the Semester• Develop skills in game design and production• Appreciate development practices used in the game industry• Understand the effects and management of graphics and

sound in multimedia games• Evaluate the user experience• Use and apply modding techniques to design game level• Understand and apply the concepts of project management,

including the documentation of the process

Units• Introduction

o The History of Game Modding

• Planningo Pre-Planningo The Processo Concept Developmento Tools of the Tradeo Storycraftingo Level Design

• Productiono Implementation

• Post-Productiono Testing

• Reflection

Introduction

What is a game mod?

Introduction

The History of Game Modding• Steve Russell’s 1962 Spacewar! = first digital game• DEC PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) at

MIT as a demonstration of the new computer’s capabilities

• In the game two players controlled armed spaceships with limited missiles and fuel. Each player had to maneuver their spaceship around the screen avoiding the gravitational pulls of a large star and missiles fired by their adversary. Player could also jump into “hyperspace”, as a last ditch effort, to be transported to a random location on the screen.

• rapidly spread to other research centers where programmers began modifying the original code with the addition of cloaking devices, space mines and additional modes of play - thus creating the earliest examples of digital game modding.

Modern? ModdingGame Mod

Ms. Pacman Although not a user-generated mod as will be covered in class, Ms. Pacman is one the first successful mods of an existing title (Pacman > Crazy Otto > Ms. Pacman)

Castle Wolfenstein One of the first user-generated mods was a complete reskinning of Castle Wolfenstein (not Wolfenstein 3D) to ‘Castle Smurfenstein’ which was done by a single programmer with an interest in game design and hatred of little blue men.

Doom Fist Full of Doom – Complete revamp of popular PC first person shooter (FPS). New maps, sprites, enemies were just some of the additions; however the weapons remained the same.

Half Life Portal Challenge – came out prior to the ‘portal’ game and allowed user to experience what portal might be like (portal gun, opening/closing portals etc.)

Grand Theft Auto Allowed users to add on new maps, weapons, challenges – essentially creating a completely new experience for users.

Civilization 5 Using Civ 5, a modder developed a Game of Thrones mod. Players take on the role of Robb Stark, the King in the North to conquer Westeros.

What have you played?

• Go back to Moodle and locate the ‘Game Mods’ forum in week 1.

• Add a new discussion topic using your name as the Subject.• In the message area list the games you’ve played that are

themselves a mod or games which have been modded.

Assignment 1If you have not done so, install and play the first few hours (10) of Skyrim. Create and upload a MS Word document with the following information:

• Your experience with the game Skyrimo What level is your charactero Include a screenshoto What do you enjoy about the gameo What don't you enjoy about this gameo What is your favorite game genre

• Review the detailed assignment description on Moodle for more information and submission requirements.