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The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:52 pm
by Jonas
GameCareerGuide has finally published
my post-mortem of The Nameless Mod, which they call "one of the most interesting total conversions out there". I structured it in the traditional form of post-mortems in Game Developer magazine, and it starts like this:
I wrote:If we'd known what we were getting ourselves into, we'd have run away screaming. The Nameless Mod for Deus Ex stands out for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a single-player total conversion, which isn't the easiest or most popular category of modification on the internet. Secondly, it's enormous: The Nameless Mod features over 14 hours of voice-over, the average length of a playthrough is 15 hours, and that's just playing one of two significantly different, mutually exclusive plotlines. Third, and arguably most notably, The Nameless Mod has been finished and released to very favorable reviews.
The project was in development for seven years, two months, and 11 days by an international team of hobbyists who never met each other. It placed enormous demands on communication, leadership, and quality assurance, and to top it all off, it started as that most reviled of genres: forum fan fiction.
And then I go on to talk about the development process and describe 5 things that went right and 5 things that went wrong, in the usual fashion. It's as honest as I could make it, and I hope you can find the time to read it, even though it's quite long.
The post-mortem may be found here.
I'd love to hear what you think about it
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:23 pm
by Skilgannon
Very good article, nicely done Jonas.
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:45 am
by Jaedar
Heretic! Heretic! Heretic! (halo reference)
Jonas, TNM isn't dead yet, it is rather impolite to do a post-mortem on something still alive.
Pretty awesome article Jonas, despite the heresy of it.
Although I think you missed one point: was it worth it?
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:29 am
by Jonas
Of course it was
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:51 am
by Skilgannon
Aye, you guys deserve an award for this, you've basically created a whole new game (ableit built precariously on the Unreal Engine
). Mod of the Year Award beckons I think.......
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:17 pm
by Jaedar
If TNM had been released like a game, it would be a serious candidate for GOTY (Thus far, but really none of the impending releases this year look too good, although you can never know). It really does have as much quality as many AAA games.
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:37 pm
by Jonas
Eh that's unfair, we've built on the best game in history, so of course the result would be good, all we had to do was not to fuck up what we already had
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 5:00 pm
by Hassat Hunter
Little late; but a very nice article! A little harsh on yourself with the polish, I can easily get as many or even more bugs to report with AAA titles nowadays, and they are not nearly as non-linear or expansive as TNM (KOTOR2 excluded perhaps, but that's got tons and tons of issues).
And I second it's most likely the GOTY!
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:00 pm
by Skilgannon
The Nameless Mod: Game of the Year Edition! Now with a new Multiplayer version that will be imbalanced and will have to be modded to make it balanced, will be unstable and prone to crashes, and that will have a server lister that sucks balls and needs to be modded again. Oh wait, wrong game, sorry.
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:41 pm
by Xesum
Why do I keep reading GOTY as Goatse?
But yeah, Game of The Year indeed.
Prehaps this?
- Deusex.PNG (102.38 KiB) Viewed 29157 times
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:58 pm
by Skilgannon
Everytime I see that pic, I keep thinking it's a low wall with two awesome huge mass driver cannons sat on top. Then I realise it's FC with some weird blue crap above it. Cool.
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 9:35 pm
by Jonas
Nanites or something. I dunno, you'll have to ask Ricemanu
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:09 pm
by Skilgannon
Um, that might be difficult.......I sorta kinda......erm.....didn't get to him in time.........
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:18 pm
by Epifols
Great article, even though I saw it 8 months after publication.
The entire process you guys went through looks amazing. Intrinsic motivation beats doing something just to get paid for it.
Re: The Nameless Mod Post-Mortem on GameCareerGuide
Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2023 4:36 pm
by Schneider
Nowadays there are many different options for how to spend your free time and have a good rest. But I understand what you are saying.