Hey all!

I'm planning to get more involved with the Godot Engine in the future, specifically networking and integration since I'm a network engineer/programmer (DevOps). I have two really exciting projects I wanted to introduce and see if there's anybody from Godot Engine willing to help out with since they will be open-source on GitHub and also benefit Godot Engine itself (at the very least feature-wise). At the moment, we cannot offer pay to developers, but once we get off the ground and start generating revenue, we will be paying partners (who may be developers or modders) and donating to the gaming/modding community in general since I want this community/business to be as selfless as possible and open-source. I'm hoping once these projects get off the ground, we can advertise and donate to/support Godot Engine as well (a partnership would be amazing, but I know things need to get off the ground first before that is even considered)!

The two project's names are The Modding Community and Speedrun: The Game. For a full overview of these projects, you may check out this presentation which also explains why I really believe these projects will succeed.

The Modding Community
Before continuing, I wanted to briefly talk about modding itself in relation to gaming. Modding support allows for the community to create custom content for games. These mods may be single-player or multiplayer (networking). Mods that run on game servers offer a lot of flexibility because it allows the community to interact with each other. For example, I used to host a popular modded Zombie Escape server for one of my old gaming communities in the game Counter-Strike: Source. The game mode, maps, models, and so on are made by the community due to modding support.

This is just one example out of so many on games/servers with modding, but unfortunately these type of games and amount of modding support is rare. With that said, on a technical level, most games are essentially mods because they mod/alter/use a game engine such as Godot Engine as their base.

In regards to our community, we shine spotlight and support onto modding. We have a website and forum already setup (we're looking for any feedback!), but we're also developing a unique mod marketplace and proper/modern mod and server browser. We are also using and hoping to collaborate with open-source game engines to create games that have full mod and cross-play support, especially for community/modded servers that can be hosted by any individual, community, or maintainer. For example, this is what we're doing with Speedrun: The Game which I will go into more detail about below.

Our goal is to create flexible APIs and tools for mod or game maintainers to use and build with. This includes proper tools such as forums for topics or blog-like posts, a server browser that supports a tree/tagging system, and custom categories/pages. Anything to meet the needs of a mod's development and community. We'd like to encourage mods/games to implement full support for web browsers, mobile devices, consoles, and computer operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and MacOS. Imagine a user clicking a community or modded server through our mod/server browser, downloading all base and custom server files automatically, and then playing through there with the server's community. I really would like to implement support for TCP and UDP on games so that people can play using different protocols (TCP generally adds overhead, but I don't believe web browsers natively support UDP yet). Personally, I hope web browsers support loading a full intense 3D game inside of the web browser with no performance disadvantage compared to full applications from websites (as long as the user accepts a security popup).

We want to give the community full control on the direction of games and the best thing for that is to implement full modding support. Modding is what has kept many old games alive, even to this day.

Speedrun: The Game
In addition to the above, The Modding Community is also developing an open-source game called Speedrun: The Game and we're planning to use the Godot Engine!

This game will be geared towards the speed running community and since we're tying this into The Modding Community, we will be providing open-source mod tools that we hope to be implemented into Godot Engine and our website, which will allow the community to create custom game modes/flavors, maps, models, mods, and more for speed running along with being able to run global community and modded servers. We also want to create a timer/record library that supports external game's speed running general/world records and more so we're bringing the entire speed running community together!

The starting game modes I'd like to introduce are Bunny Hop, Surf, and Climb. These are also from Counter-Strike and I'll post some videos below.

Bunny Hop

Surf Timer

Now imagine what type of speed running game modes and flavors we'll see when aiming towards the full speed running community and offering modding support!

I understand these are big projects and we are still in the early stages, but any feedback or help would be appreciated and I believe this would benefit you (since it'll be open-source), Godot Engine, and many others! I do understand any skepticism regarding these projects as well, though. Honestly, I just really want to at least try making gaming as fun as it used to be when modding was more popular, at least for community/modded servers (not just single-player) along with making a generally positive change to technology and gaming since modding does introduce many people to programming, modeling, and many other careers. I already have a lot of talented developers in the community and will be telling them about Godot Engine. With that said, there are already some large content creators involved in the community (combining for over 20 million subscribers on YouTube).

I hope the above was worth the read and thank you for your time 😃

christian changed the title to Using The Godot Engine - The Modding Community & Speedrun: The Game .

Why is modding a bad thing.

  1. Developers make the game. If they take it seriously, everything in the game is interconnected and balanced. In shooters for example, there is fine-tuning weapons and character characteristics. And then there is a mod that ruins the whole balance.

  2. Make a perfect game is rarely possible (for various reasons). Come out updates. And immediately there is a question about compatibility with mods.

Modding is often confused with the extensibility of games. For example, Neverwinter Nights has a module builder (Aurora Toolset). Is that a mod? Nope. There are mods, but that's a separate story.

    Tomcat For example, Neverwinter Nights has a module builder (Aurora Toolset). Is that a mod? Nope.

    I would say yes rather than nope, but add that it's important to recognize there are different kinds of mods. The term mod itself is very(perhaps too) generic.

        Megalomaniak The term mod itself is very(perhaps too) generic.

        Well, then we need to define what a "mod". First of all, — it is a third-party [mod]ification. The toolkit from the developer is not a mod. This is a standard extension of the game.

        The fundamental difference is that all available changes are planned and tested by the developers themselves. Among other things, compatibility is tested and software updates are distributed to the toolkit.

            Tomcat then we need to define what a "mod".

            Yes that's what I was saying. Expansion packs and dlc's could be considered mods as well. And while rarer there have been expansion packs developed and released by third party developers before.

                Megalomaniak And while rarer there have been expansion packs developed and released by third party developers before.

                Since this question is relevant to my project, I have carefully considered it and, at least in relation to my paradigm, have come to the following conclusions:

                1. Game extensions (dlc, add-ons) — is something that is created by the developer of the original game and tested for compatibility. You could probably call it a "mod from the developer," but in my opinion it is deeply wrong.
                2. Mods (modifications) — work from the outside. You can specify — "third-party modifications" (oxymoron).

                The difference is very significant: I (the team) is not responsible for the compatibility of mods and the main game. If a mod is in demand — it will be included in the game as part of it, but first it will be refined and checked for compatibility, preservation of balance, compliance with the concept etc. In general, this option can be called the "official mod".

                What is done inbuilt tools (supplied with the game), must meet the requirements of the game (technical and artistic) — the capabilities of the toolkit simply will not allow to break the program. And mods go much deeper than that.

                As far as I understood, you're proposing to consider as a mod any change to the original game, I only what has not passed the "approval" of the developers. Borderline exceptional situations, of course, can be.

                    Tomcat As far as I understood, you're proposing to consider as a mod any change to the original game

                    Well yes and no, I was only saying that without clarification anything could be considered a mod. But I think the last post is very clear and concise.

                      @Tomcat @Megalomaniak

                      You both make great points in my opinion and thank you for pointing them out 😃 I used the word "mods" in replacement to games because of the community's branding, but I'm going to make that more clear in future posts I create. Mods should be considered third-party changes to a game. I want to support games that encourage modding.

                      It's perfectly fine for a game not to support modding or give it restrictive access. Though, I and many others believe enabling modding on games benefits the user experience and these are the games we want to promote and support within The Modding Community. One category that has been highly underutilized is modded game servers. Singleplayer mods are a lot more popular than multiplayer mods. However, multiplayer offer a completely different experience to users because it allows them to play with others.

                      Games that support modded and community servers have a unique set of gaming communities running servers like the the YouTube videos I linked in the original post. When a player connects to a community or modded server, they download all required files before loading into the server.

                      I want to work with Godot Engine to create open-source moddable games and also working to implement functionality for modded servers into Godot Engine itself such as the above which I don't believe is implemented yet (I looked at the code but didn't see anything). All of this revolves around Godot Engine in my opinion because it's the most popular open-source game engine, but there are some things I could see being very beneficial.