Unreal Mods In The Lime Light At GDC!

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2004 12:59 am

Epic Games and hardware titan Nvidia demonstrated three user-made mods that where entered in the $1 million dollar Make Something Unreal Contest at this years Game Developer's Conference(GDC). The contest began last summer and is set to end 4Q this year. The first mod on display was Troopers: Dawn of Destiny, a total conversion mod centered on the classic StarWars trilogy. The mod lets Jedi junkies fondle their beloved blaster rifles as they roam many of the well-known and recognizable battlefields from the original Star Wars trilogy. Troopers is becoming ever more impressive with each new update, and offers experiences that are truly unique unto it’s self. Developers where able to fight through an Imperial hangar filled with gigantic four-legged AT-AT walkers while shooting stormtroopers as they went.

The second mod that developers got to play with was, Air Buccaneers a very creative mod that sits you in the clouds with hot air balloons, cannons, airmines and various other pseudo ancient gadgets, letting you perform combinations of graceful air ballets as fierce pirate-like characters manoeuvring through the sky trying not to be shot down. If you enjoy balloons and guns and don’t like cake than this is definitely some thing to play with; very fun stuff!

The third and last user-made mod displayed was Red Orchestra, which was previously featured in an article done by the N.Y. Times on the growing trend of developers like Epic who are giving their tools to the community to create original expansions of their games. This trend is specifically aimed to take game development to the next level, and to bring more minds into the occupation of digital creation. Red Orchestra is a World War II-based combat mod that is very reminiscent of Call of Duty. The Red Orchestra team is going for the most realistic gameplay experience achievable. Making the player use iron sights on all the War II-era weapons, much like a real soldier would. The Red Orchestra team plans to upgrade the mod to include drivable vehicles, as well as bigger maps to accommodate them in the near future. So be ready to have a few mettle helmets imbedded in your hood!

Congratulations to all the aspiring moders who where able to submit any thing into the Nvidia Make Something Unreal Contest!